Published: February 9, 2026
Spoilers ahead
Amazon Prime’s “Beast Games” is back with its second season, with more flames, more insane challenges, and more backstabs and betrayals. “Beast Games” is a season-long extension of the stunts and challenges done on James “Jimmy” Donaldson’s YouTube channel, “MrBeast.” The bare-bones concept of “Beast Games” is not unlike other experimental reality television shows like “Survivor” or “Big Brother.” What makes it stand out is the number of contestants and the total number of grand prizes. Both seasons one and two of “Beast Games” started with 1000 contestants all fighting to win $5 million, the largest single sum in reality television history. Throughout the competition in both seasons, contestants live in a large artificial city dubbed “Beast City.”
“Beast Games” is not Donaldson’s first time giving away money to contestants, or even just random people. In 2018, he gave out a total of $1 million through his online presence, only a year after his first viral video in 2017— an almost 24-hour-long video in which Donaldson counted to 100,000. Who is “MrBeast”? He started posting on YouTube in his youth in 2012 and dropped out of college in 2016, obsessively seeking to understand and analyze how to make viral videos using YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. Donaldson has been organizing and filming real-life game-show-like battles since 2019, and just recently transitioned into television.
“Beast Games”, which originally aired in 2024, started season two on Jan 7 and has released an episode every Wednesday since. As only ten contestants remain from the original 1,000, I decided to explain just how insane the show really is.
Just in the first episode, $100,000 was given to ten contestants, totaling a whopping $1 million. The catch was that each contestant who took a bribe traded their place in the game with a contestant from season one who was eager to rejoin the fight for the final prize, including last season’s winner, Jeff Allen, also known as player 831 (yes, he numbers them). In season one, Allen won the grand prize of $10 million and an additional $6,242 from another challenge. What happened to the grand prize of $5 million? In both seasons one and two, one special player is given the “Beast Coin.” If the special contestant makes it to the final six, they can choose to flip the coin for a chance to double the prize fund— or be eliminated. The current coin-holder, Monika, player 152, and her Beast-Games-boyfriend, Jim, player 173, have been in an alliance since episode one and declared their love for each other in episode two. After making things official, Jim says to the camera, “New girlfriend in Beast City. Are you joking?” Things can get serious in Beast City.
Episode three included a returning challenge from season one called “Captain Bribe”, in which five teams of players each picked a team captain to resist a bribe of up to $1 million. If the team captain chooses to take the bribe, they stay in the game while eliminating the remaining contestants on their team. No one took the bribe in season one, but contestants in season two were not as lucky. JT, player 126, took a $1 million bribe for himself, eliminating four other contestants.
If the persuasion of turning on your teammates for a million dollars wasn’t already enough, commentary from Donaldson over a microphone, blasting throughout Beast City included “Think of your children, your entire family, your future. Is your team really more important than that?” and “Do you understand you will live, die, and never be able to press a button again to make $1 million!”
Episode four contained even more prizes. Debuting a special collaboration with “Survivor”, one of the longest-running experimental reality television shows in history, ten lucky contestants flew to Fiji to battle it out on Survivor Island with long-time host Jeff Probst. In the end, Ethan, player 21, was convinced to give up his shot at winning a $1.8 million private island for a $50,000 bribe despite being the player most likely to win the Survivor pole-clinging challenge. His persuader, Ian, player 148, walked away with the island.
Episode five brought the return of one of the most psychologically torturous games from season one. Contestants in groups of three all entered a red cube containing a handcuff. Players could then use a red phone to ask for anything they want, including bean bags, pizza, hazelnut Feastables (Donaldsons chocolate company), scallops, sushi, filet mignon, a keyboard piano, and even a barber. The catch of the game is that only two players can leave the cube; the other must handcuff themselves to the wall. Auguste, player 172, not only got to move on from the cubes, but the simple decision to ask for a Starbucks coffee won him free Starbucks for life.
The most recent episode contained the most twisted game yet. In episode seven, airing this past Wednesday, the final ten contestants picked a team captain they could trust, while the remaining nine were literally buried alive in glass coffins. The trusted team captain was then told he would choose one player at a time to be dug up and have a chance to take a portion of a $1 million prize. Contestants could decide on a free-for-all or split the money evenly. The team captain, Nick, player 118, was persuaded by Donaldson to take the million dollars for himself, especially after deciding not to do so as a team captain in “Captain Bribe.” Donaldson encouraged him to feel the money in his hands, climb on top of it, telling Nick, “This money could be yours. You don’t have to eliminate anyone. You don’t have to hurt anyone. You just have to say, ‘I want $1 million,’ and you’re a millionaire. Right here. Right Now.” The audience was left on a cliffhanger.
When people declined bribes, Donaldson would dispose of the money in dramatic ways, throwing three bags of money totaling $300,000 into the water below an obstacle course in episode three. After a player declined a $100,000 bribe in episode five, Donaldson swept the money off a high platform, throwing the broom down with it.
There are three episodes to go as the finale of season two draws closer. What other acts of “psychological torture” could MrBeast possibly have left in store for the ten remaining contestants?
