- A tweet falsely claiming MrBeast died went viral, inspiring many concerned posts.
- A day later, MrBeast replied to the tweet, confirming he wasn't dead and joking it got too many likes.
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as the YouTuber MrBeast, is very much still alive.
Donaldson was forced to respond to a tweet on Thursday claiming he had died, confirming that he's very much alive. The false claim has garnered over 160,000 likes and inspired an onslaught of concerned posts from fans.
"I cant believe mrbeast died...gone too soon man.. you'll never be forgotten you legend," the Twitter user @ExtremeBlitz__ wrote in the tweet on Wednesday with a heart emoji.
—duck (@ExtremeBlitz__) March 15, 2023
The Twitter user has over 233,000 followers and regularly shares memes and troll posts, but many MrBeast's fans didn't seem to realize it was a joke. No other outlet had reported the news and the user did not offer a source.
"WHAT?!!!!! HE DIED?!!!!!" one person commented.
Several other users began sharing the false information with concern. "Is it true mrbeast died? damn RIP a legend," a user tweeted. "I can't believe MrBeast died," someone else wrote. "You'll never be forgotten, man. Gone too soon, you legend."
But Donaldson wasn't dead. The tweet went so viral that he was forced to address it. "Why does this have 100,000 likes? Lol," Donaldson replied a day later. (By then, Twitter had included a disclaimer to the tweet that read,"No commonly trusted sources inform that Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast, has passed away.")
—MrBeast (@MrBeast) March 16, 2023
Insider has reached out to Donaldson and his team for comment.
Soon after, @ExtremeBlitz__ replied to Donaldson's comment and jokingly offered to delete the tweet if the influencer, who's known for giving away large amounts of money, gave the Twitter user $10,000.
"Bro came back to life just to reply to my tweet," @ExtremeBlitz__ wrote.
Donaldson is the most popular YouTuber in the world, with over 137 million subscribers, and constantly making headlines. Earlier this year, he drew attention and criticism after he paid for 1,000 people to get eye surgery and later, for 20,000 South African school kids to get shoes. Detractors have accused him and his content of "charity porn" or profiting off of his charitable acts, although he has pushed back on this notion repeatedly.