From: officialflagrant
MrBeast’s Squid Game video was a monumental undertaking, marking a significant leap in scale and production value for his YouTube content. It was an ambitious project that combined a trending phenomenon with extensive resources and innovative techniques to achieve massive success 02:23:31.
Budget and Visuals
The Squid Game video was, at the time, MrBeast’s most expensive production, costing 2 million 00:00:33.
A key factor in the video’s visual impact was the extensive use of Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) 00:00:40. Notably, the entire roof and sky above the red light, green light game were CGI, making it appear as if the game was played outdoors when it was actually indoors 02:29:16. The lights were strategically angled to mimic sunlight for a more realistic effect 02:29:47. Similarly, the dramatic drops for the glass bridge challenge were also CGI, creating the illusion of immense height, while participants actually fell into a foam pit 02:36:37.
Production Challenges
The video was filmed in 45 days, described as “hectic” and “hell” 02:25:52, with 150 people working on it 02:25:54. Filming in North Carolina presented unique challenges, as the region lacked the necessary studio infrastructure. The team had to improvise, using unconventional locations such as a rodeo station for the red light, green light game and churches for other sets 02:27:27.
For the red light, green light segment, 456 participants were equipped with individual squib devices to simulate being “killed” 02:26:04. These squibs were initially red, but the color was changed to avoid appearing as blood, aligning with MrBeast’s goal not to scare people 02:28:47. A custom app and upgraded Wi-Fi system were necessary to manage and trigger these devices for all 456 participants simultaneously 02:28:07. The initial attempt to film the red light, green light game failed when the Wi-Fi crashed, costing an additional $456,000 to upgrade the system and compensate participants 02:26:14.
The game challenges were chosen for simplicity and broad appeal, with musical chairs replacing the knife fight seen in the original show to ensure easy understanding for a global audience 02:39:35.
Impact and Strategy
The Squid Game video was a “mega Giga crazy Trend” that MrBeast “supercharged with [his] biggest bud ever” 02:23:34. This video was also the first time MrBeast extensively promoted a video beforehand on platforms like TikTok, releasing teasers of the sets to build anticipation 02:24:55. This strategy successfully generated millions of views on TikTok and created immense hype, with “millions of people on the channel just like refreshing waiting for it to go live” 02:25:29.
The Squid Game video became the most-viewed single YouTube video globally at the time 02:24:47. In the month following its release, the English channel gained 9 million subscribers, and across all platforms, MrBeast gained 25 million subscribers 02:24:26. MrBeast notes the high return on investment (ROI) compared to the original Netflix show, which cost around $9 million for 8 hours of content, while his 25-minute video achieved massive viewership on a smaller budget 02:27:01.
“The thing is like it doesn’t really matter that much like how much do you let’s see if uh the Mr Beast espanol channel gets 150 million views how much money do you think it makes how much how what you guess what do you think if it makes in in a month 150 millionth much 150 million views how much do you think that would bring in or let me 132 132 million views how much do you think that brought it 130 in Spanish yeah it’s going to be less than I think I’m going to say we have long videos Rolls Everything what do you think I’m going to say 85,000 yeah you’re basically on the dot” 02:46:24
MrBeast acknowledges that replicating the perfect alignment of factors that led to Squid Game’s success would be “damn near impossible” 02:25:40. However, the video’s success reinforced his belief in investing heavily in content and continuously pushing boundaries to maintain audience engagement in content creation 02:43:52.