The first season of Beast Games, a reality competition show created by Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson was first released on Amazon Prime Video on December 19, 2024 and concluded on February 13, 2025.
Jeffrey Randall Allen won the season, defeating Twana Barnett. Allen won a total grand prize of $10,000,000.
Production Filming Filming began with the first round, which was shot through July 18–22, 2024, inside of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, with a total of 2,000 contestants attending. This round is released on YouTube. The Beast City part of the competition that was featured in the first four, sixth, eighth and ninth episode of the TV series as well as a second YouTube video promoting the series featuring 20 eliminated contestants competing for $500,000, was filmed with the remaining 1,000 contestants at Downsview Park Studios in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in August of that year. The "Beast Island" part of the competition featured in the fourth to sixth episodes, along with the tenth episode of the show was filmed at the uninhabited La Vivienda Island, which is located in the Pearl Islands, Panama.
The filming broke 44 Guinness World Records, including the largest physical cash prize on set ($5,000,000), the most prize money turned down on a competitive reality TV show ($1,000,000), the largest prize fund awarded for a competitive reality TV show ($10,000,000), and the most money won in a single episode of a competitive reality TV show ($2,020,000), and a page in the 2026 Guinness Book of World Records was focused on the show.
Episodes
Contestants
Captains:
+ List of Beast Games contestantsNumberNameDescriptionPrize MoneyFinishRef.201 Robert K. — 283 Konstantin P. — 284 Jackson Gutierrez — 367 Julian G. — 462 Jennifer Cheung — — Braedon Sheppard — Phalisia BootheSquid Game: The Challenge contestant64 Sifu Alsup Survivor 45 contestant 94 Cece J. — 95 Imani M. — 96 Waziri L. — 97 Nancy T. — Austin Sprinz — Briana Sprinz — T-Lee McLaughlin — 254 Amelia Mackey — 277 Sharbel I. — 278 Jason D. — 279 Aranxza C. — 280 Johnathan Y. — 281 Brandon S. — 282 Alonzo D. — 285 Daniel O. — 286 Michael A. — 287 Aliyah E. — Kevin Eloy — 197 Noah Martin — 202 Cary G. — 203 Jas Edo — 436 Noah Sellers — 840 Mya Iannuzzi — — 170 Alejandro — 196 Walter B. — 232 Elee Botani — 364 Kaily Rockshead — — 448 Danielle C. — 644 Andrew Penn YouTube Creator 646 Kevin D. — 726 Erika Coleman Worst Cooks in America contestant 814 Lori — — Davinci Crooks — 342 Andrew Former wide receiver — 985 Kaden Ward — 719 Katie Grandmother 370 Benjamin G. — 374 Cooper Fullmer — 405 Samson Fullmer — Daniel Betts Stand-up comedian 657 Emilee Stay at home mom 660 Chad Father of 2 741 Johnathan — 635 Matthew Q. — Nick Gray — Cindi Wu School volunteer 878Darrion NguyenScience communicator 371 Makayla C. — 451 Bryson P. — 454 Molly S. — 225 Madison "Maddie" Lane New mom Harrison Schoen Navy veteran Connor Dante Drag queen 455 Princess K. Small business owner Devin Youngblood Podcaster 561 Marissa Single mom 573 Canyon Accordion player 740 Dylan Andrews Behavior Technician Trang Vo Actress 951 Cassia Lyn "More creeped out by Jeremy" Kelly Mazzola Real estate broker 672 Timothy Broaddus Gamer dad Jamal Waked Food delivery driver Laric Tolleson Firefighter, Awake: The Million Dollar Game contestant 413 Misha Antonov Drama student Esteban Zepeda Former Division 1 athlete 441 Harrison Watkins Content producer — Brennan Moore Content creator 250 Ziad Ali — 784 Dayna Flores — — Nate Norell Film director 245 Grayson Lewis College student Janine Ayana Watkins — 361 Justin McKendry — Karim Arafa Photographer 409 Ellie Joseph — 435 Austin "Auzi" Films Podcaster 494 Matthew Dallin Animator Jordan Egbert Travel content creator 517 Kendra Fuller — Hazim Arafa Cyber warfare specialist Annie Rutman — 545 Rebecca — 554 Arnold — 559 Ava Redding — 616 Natalia Abonza — 631 Ke'Noah "Keno" — 696 Julie Anaya Dog rescue owner 703 Jenicia Rios Sandoval — 723 Christian Davis — 736 Piper O'Donnell — 744 Cornelia Barnwell — Ivy Odom — — Matthew "Matt" Knowlton Nature enthusiast 852 Madison Yates Corporate finance worker 858 David Giorgi — 886 Montse Lewin Meija — Daffne Cruz "Yelled during timer game" Jeremy Grant Polar bear guard Monece Starling Pie shop owner 626 Rikeyah "Stitch" Piano student — Mia Speight Former personal trainer, island winner Johnel "Nelly" Crux Missionary — 907 Jesica Simon Postal delivery driver Eric Montanez Web designer, TikTok creator Colton Cortese Biopharma worker Akira Andrews Adventure park employee 865 Bethany Dawson Mother of 2 — Dean "Deano" Viana Retired fire captain Jazmine Robinson Avid fisherwoman Michael Robert House Anděl Award winner JC Gallego Iori LGBTQ+ fertility advocate, Awake: The Million Dollar Game contestant Brittney "Queen" Thornton Airline customer service agent 930 Patrick Carroll Jr. Sales broker — Courtney Ferris Freelance photographer 6th Emma Nelson Receptionist 5th Yesenia Hernandez Jaime Medical assistant $0.50 4th Gage Gallagher Emergency medical technician 3rd Twana Barnett Wrestler 2nd Jeffrey Randall Allen Devoted dad 1st
Reception Season 1 of Beast Games was released on Amazon Prime Video between December 2024 and February 2025 as ten episodes, released weekly. It became Prime Video's most watched unscripted series ever and its second largest series debut of 2025, though it was received poorly by critics. Several contestants alleged they were mistreated during production, resulting in a lawsuit against Donaldson's company and several others.
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 20% based on 10 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave it a score of 38 out of 100 based on five critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Several reviewers critiqued Donaldson's performance as loud and shallow and the show's lack of focus on its contestants. Naomi Fry of The New Yorker wrote that the use of contestants' numbers instead of their names made it difficult to empathize with them, unlike other reality shows. IGN, The Guardian, Vox, and PC Gamer criticized the show for closely following the premise of Squid Game while stripping away its dystopian tone.
The financial aspects of the show have also come under scrutiny. Katie Notopoulos of Business Insider enjoyed the show, but she worried that it could communicate to children the lack of value in money. Lauren Saunders of the National Consumer Law Center and Andrew Kushner of the Center for Responsible Lending criticized sponsor MoneyLion, a financial tech and cash advance company, for advertising to a young audience, which Kushner said were more susceptible to "the slick marketing" of the finance industry. Jeff Yang similarly argued that the sponsorship would allow MoneyLion's owner, Gen Digital, to target groups in MrBeast's audience facing "dire economic precarity".
Some critics have analyzed the political implications of the show. According to Yang, while Squid Game was creating contextual critiques of oligarchs and exploiting disadvantaged people, Beast Games is unwittingly glorifying these concepts. Patrick Freyne of The Irish Times compared the giving away of islands to contestants in the fifth episode to colonialism.
In response to IGNs negative review, Donaldson wrote "Yeah, sad one person who doesn't like me can just label something a thousand people poured their lives into a 2 out of 10 when it's clearly not." Donaldson similarly questioned the gap between audience and critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
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