Featured Image Credit: MrBeast / Instagram
Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson became the first YouTuber to hit 500 million subscribers last Friday, June 12, yet this incredible milestone was called into question by some online who speculated about the dead internet theory.
While it was once a throne that Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg claimed, MrBeast has for many years now dominated the YouTube scene with his wild challenge videos and crazy giveaways.
Using clever methods to keep people's attention despite the challenges of staying relevant in the modern internet world, Donaldson has been handsomely rewarded with his videos regularly amassing hundreds of millions of views.
That has manifested in his subscriber count as well, with it recently reaching the 500 million milestone – nearly 200 million more than the next highest account, but the prevalence of bots on the internet and social media has led some to suggest that this number might not be as impressive as it seems.
First conceived on message boards in 2019, the 'dead internet theory' refers to the growing number of bots that are dominating social media and the web, to the point where it appears inevitable that they will outnumber actual humans.
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It's something you've been able to observe for a number of years now across platforms like X and Facebook, and the popularity of AI has made it increasingly more difficult to discern what's real and what's fake.
Frightening studies have suggested that the dead internet theory could become reality in just a matter of years, with analysis indicating that bots are already occupying around half of all internet traffic these days with the number rapidly climbling.
How that relates to MrBeast's subscriber count is clear, as some are convinced that a large proportion of MrBeast's 500-million-strong audience is made up of bots or fake accounts.
That's not something that's unique to Donaldson in the slightest, as even minor social media accounts are likely to have a sizeable bot following, but his status as arguably the web's biggest creator is guaranteed to draw a larger proportion than most.
"Crazy to think how many of these are bots because there's simply no possible way 1/16 of the world's population is subscribed to MrBeast," wrote one user on X responding to Donaldson's announcement. "Like this has GOT to be dead internet theory."
crazy to think how many of these are bots because there’s simply no possible way 1/16 of the worlds population is subscribed to mr beast. like this has GOT to be dead internet theory https://t.co/QtHlUWV0eH
— dawn🪽 (@silver_star_13) June 13, 2026
His numbers aren't unique when looking at wider social media, as both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both surpass his following on Instagram with 506 million and 664 million followers respectively.
However, they also are likely to have a sizeable number of fake followers, yet it's impossible to actually quantify beyond estimations without looking into each individual account.
