MrBeast’s ‘Beast Games’ on Amazon has a strange message about money

• The show is family friendly, but its message about the concept of money makes me uncomfortable.

• I’d say enjoy the show, but remind your kids that money doesn’t work this way in real life.

“Beast Games,” the game show on Amazon Prime Video from MrBeastdebuted on Thursday and I watched with my son in elementary school. As an adult, I enjoyed the performance and thought the show was very watchable. But as a parent, I’m not sure I liked the message about money that it gave to my young congregation.

Children of elementary school age, whether they are allowed to watch YouTube or not, everyone knows who MrBeast is. He is a superstar for Gen Alpha. His candy bars line grocery store shelves, and his ghost hangs over playgrounds and lunchrooms.

(My colleague reports that his teenage son says MrBeast isn’t quite as cool in high schools anymore, perhaps because he’s seen as too young for kids.)

Like most parents, I want to teach my kids the value of a dollar: that money comes from hard work, and that saving and budgeting are important.

“Beast Games” flies in the face of all that. Money is thrown around like this strange, easy-come, easy-go object. It opens with MrBeast standing on a pyramid of cash (supposedly the prize of a whopping $5 million in stacks of bills). We’re told repeatedly that this is the biggest cash prize ever on a game show.

The show’s premise is that a group of contestants will complete challenges to win the grand prize — a season-long version of some of his popular YouTube videos.

Later in the season, there will be physical challenges (we see preview clips of people pulling a monster truck), but in this first episode, the games are almost all psychological tests.

This first series of mini-games aims to win the entry pool down from 1,000 people to 500. The games are variations on the Prisoner’s Dilemma – games that make it difficult for individuals to choose for themselves vs. for the benefit of the group.

In the first game, MrBeast makes this offer: anyone who leaves the game immediately can share a pool of money – but the pool gets smaller and smaller for each person who chooses to exit early. In another game, each team of about 100 people must have one person sacrifice themselves and leave the game with no prize money at all – or their entire team will be eliminated. People are sobbing and yelling at each other to be the ones to quit.

I am concerned about the message ‘Beast Games’ is sending

As an adult watching, it’s a fascinating challenge. But I’m not sure a child can really understand what’s going on – the excruciating pain of people losing what they thought might be a chance to pay off a loan or buy a home.

In the game, money is an object you can build into pyramids or throw around in bags – it’s fun money, it doesn’t feel real.

Representatives for MrBeast did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI about Donaldson’s views on youth financial literacy or the game show.

Other game shows have cash prizes – even kid-friendly ones like “Is It Cake?” or even the old “Double Dare” on Nickelodeon. But on other shows, the prize was an exciting treat at the end, that wasn’t all point of the show.

In “Beast Games” money is the point – and even the games are about money. I’m not sure I like what subtle message that sends to young minds not old enough to earn a real paycheck.

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