MrBeast's Secrets to Viral Content

 👋 Hey everyone, it’s Samer!

Welcome to the 133 new who joined this week!

ICYMI: Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the biggest YouTuber in the world, with over 317 million subscribers to his channel.

So when it comes to viral content, he knows a thing or two. Not just YouTube—content in general.

A 36-page document titled "How To Succeed In MrBeast Production" has just leaked and appears to be written by Jimmy himself. It seems to be an onboarding guide for new employees at his company.

The document, written in first person with many typos, offers deep insights into creating truly amazing content.

If you're going to read one guide on making content, make sure it's this one (link at the bottom).

I’ve read the entire document and pulled out key points you should adopt in your content creation.

How MrBeast trains his team to make the best viral content in the world

The document starts with a focus on creating content that works specifically for YouTube.

MrBeast emphasizes that the goal is not to make high-budget movies or polished TV shows.

He actually says that 99% of Hollywood movies and TV series would fail on YouTube.

The number one goal?

Get people to click and stay engaged. Forget traditional media rules—you need to learn what works for YouTube.

Focusing on 3 metrics

There are three main metrics MrBeast wants his team to focus on for every video:

1. CTR (Click-Through Rate): This is the percentage of people who see your video thumbnail and title and then decide to click. Your title and thumbnail must create curiosity (and extremely so).

2. AVD (Average View Duration): This tracks how long people stick around to watch. The longer, the better.

3. AVP (Average View Percentage): This is how much of your video they watch. Aim to keep them hooked from start to finish.

The 1^st minute is the most important

The first minute of any video is make-or-break.

You need to grab the viewer’s attention immediately.

Whether it’s exciting visuals or a compelling story, make sure to front-load your best content to stop viewers from clicking away.

Keep the content flowing

After that initial hook, keep things moving.

A good strategy is to transition quickly from the introduction into the core of your story.

You don’t want your viewers to get bored or lose interest.

He often uses what’s called a “re-engagement” moment around the 3-minute mark—something unexpected or exciting to keep them watching.

He even shares what “good” and “bad” retention looks like. I found the chart below quite genius

Immerse yourself in YouTube culture

Or any platform you want to succeed on.

Want to go viral on TikTok? immerse yourself in the platform

To make great content, you need to understand what’s already out there.

Watch YouTube videos, study what’s trending, and see how other creators are innovating.

The more you consume, the more you’ll learn about what works and what doesn’t.

Obsess over details

This comes up a lot in the document!

Seems like MrBeast’s secret sauce is obsession. He mentions it every chance he gets.

Every second of a video matters. The more time you spend fine-tuning the pacing, story, and editing, the better your chances of success.

The videos that perform the best are the ones where every detail has been carefully planned and executed.

Create repeatable formats with viral potential

I like to call this…serialization.

Notice how TikTok creators keep you hooked with part 1, part 2, etc.?

Remember the 55-part series that Reesa Deesa published earlier this year?

One way to boost retention on a video is to have a good format for the video to follow.

MrBeast uses his popular “last to leave” series as an example.

These videos have many reasons why they do well but one in particular is the payoff at the end.

Once you start watching a “last to leave,” you get invested in the progress and the challenge.

You really want to see who leaves the circle last and wins the $100,000.

Takeaway?

If you’re serializing content, it has to be because that format produces real results.