10,000 People Swarmed a New Mall Restaurant. The Owner? YouTuber MrBeast

The YouTube megastar’s first real restaurant is a burger joint in New Jersey’s American Dream Mall.
MrBeast restaurant opening at American Dream Mall
Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images

The latest buzzy restaurant turnout wasn’t for a big-name chef or a trending mash-up pastry like the cronut. It was for the viral YouTuber MrBeast, who opened his first physical burger restaurant this weekend. On Sunday, about 10,000 superfans swarmed a mall in New Jersey for a taste, despite recent Twitter images of MrBeast’s incinerated-looking burgers appearing less-than-stellar. Live coverage of the event depicted what looked more like a concert than a burger joint opening. Thousands of people packed into the shopping complex over multiple floors. They chanted. They waved handmade signs announcing that they’d driven 15 hours just to be there. They draped themselves over balconies like wet laundry to catch a glimpse of their icon.

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Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson’s extreme stunt videos have amassed more than 100 million cult subscribers over the past decade. Like a young Johnny Knoxville, the 24-year-old star is known for his costly experiments: a real-life Squid Game reenactment (minus the killing) and a troubling simulation titled “I Survived A Plane Crash.”

Capitalizing on his online fame, the YouTuber opened MrBeast Burger in December 2020. The delivery-only restaurant chain, which operates out of partner kitchens—like a random Atomic Wings in Queens, New York, and a Dirty Bones burger joint in London—has thousands of locations worldwide. After reportedly raking in $100 million in just seven months, this weekend’s opening marks his first brick-and-mortar location at the American Dream Mall in Jersey—a fitting location for a guy who’s really pulled himself up by the digital bootstraps.

The restaurant opened at around 11 a.m. on Sunday, but some customers had been waiting all night. “I stopped by the mall tonight to visit my old coworkers and there are people ALREADY LINING UP TO SEE MR. BEAST AT THE MR. BEAST BURGER,” one user tweeted on Saturday. Shop owners working the Labor Day weekend lamented the crowds. “Respectfully if this man does not give me a tesla i am going to be feral bc im actually going to die working tmrw,” one employee tweeted. Fans, on the other hand, were feeling pretty relaxed. Someone led an impromptu stretch class at 4:30 a.m. and another person made some art.

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On the day of, Donaldson tried to set expectations for the crowd. Ten minutes before opening the restaurant, he estimated that more than 10,000 people were already queuing. “I feel pretty good about serving all you but anyone else coming idk maybe come tomorrow/later tonight haha,” he wrote on Twitter. By closing, his tune had changed. MrBeast claimed that his grand opening broke the world record for most burgers sold in a day by a single restaurant. That hasn’t been confirmed yet, and the Guinness World Records is demanding proof: “Send us the numbers, Jimmy,” the account posted on Twitter. One thing that’s undeniably true: Even the most hyped-up, celebrity-frequented restaurants or buzzy pastry drops don’t see crowds like this, despite MrBeast’s very average-looking food offerings.

While the YouTube star to restaurateur pipeline may not seem like an obvious path, burgers aren’t Donaldson’s first foray into food. In January, he launched Feastables, which sounds like a brand of cat food but is actually a chocolate company featuring MrBeast bars. And, Donaldson, known for giving away huge sums of money, launched Beast Philanthropy in October 2020. The charitable organization currently operates a food pantry and distribution network in North Carolina “to address the food insecurity needs of remote and under-served food deserts,” according to its website.

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MrBeast is not the first viral online star to launch a food empire in real life. TikTok Pink Sauce creator Chef Pii partnered with Dave’s Gourmet Sauces in August to mass produce her controversial psychedelic goop. And from ghost kitchens like MrBeast’s, celebrities like Steve Aoki hawks pizza and DJ Khaled sells chicken wings. The food, it seems, is not typically any good. But that’s not the point. Chains like this aren’t for people who love food. They’re for fans. And lucky for MrBeast, he’s rolling in them.