MrBeast tested Elon Musk’s theory and took home $250,000

New York (CNN) 鈥� Influencer MrBeast said on Monday that he had made more than $250,000 from one video posted to X, in a sign of just how much major internet personalities stand to make from the social platform鈥檚 new ad revenue sharing program.

鈥淢Y FIRST X VIDEO MADE OVER $250,000!鈥� MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, said in a on the platform. He also shared what appeared to be a screenshot of X鈥檚 creator payment screen, showing the post had earned $263,655.

X owner Elon Musk in July launched a from ads displayed in the replies to high performing content with the creators who post it, so long as they subscribe to the platform鈥檚 premium service.

The program aimed to encourage more creators to post high quality content to X that would be appealing to advertisers, as the company struggled to revive its core ad business.聽It also put聽X more in line with rival social media companies, including Meta, YouTube and TikTok, which all have systems to pay creators for the traffic and ad revenue they help to generate.

MrBeast 鈥� who became 鈥� had said last month that he didn鈥檛 plan to regularly post his work to X.

鈥淢y videos cost millions to make and even if they got a billion views on X it wouldn鈥檛 fund a fraction of it,鈥� he s, in response to a request from Musk asking him to post his videos on the platform.

But last week, MrBeast decided to test the X ad revenue sharing program by posting one of his old videos, about trying out various expensive cars, to the platform. As of Tuesday, the video had more than 160 million views, according to X.

Following his payment from X, MrBeast said in a post on the platform that he planned to give away the money he earned to 鈥�10 random people that repost this and follow me鈥� on X. He did not indicate whether he plans to continue sharing videos on the platform.

The payout to MrBeast indicates that creators can earn meaningful cash on X鈥檚 nascent program, even though the company鈥檚 ad business is markedly smaller than its rivals鈥�. But even MrBeast himself cautioned that other creators might not have the same experience.

鈥淏ut it鈥檚 a bit of a facade,鈥� he said in the post about his earnings. 鈥淎dvertisers saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video (I think) and thus my revenue per view is prob higher than what you鈥檇 experience.鈥�

MrBeast鈥檚 payout was also likely boosted thanks to his significant audience on the platform, which may have meant his post, and the ads beneath it, received strong engagement. MrBeast has more than 27.5 million followers on X, well above the follower counts of other well-known influencers like Logan Paul and Charli D鈥橝melio.

However, not everyone is pleased with X鈥檚 new creator program.

Former law enforcement officer-turned-conservative political commentator Dan Bongino, who was for posting Covid-19 misinformation in 2022, on Tuesday posted a screenshot to X showing that he鈥檇 received a payment from the platform of just $379 and calling the payout to MrBeast 鈥渟hady.鈥�

Critics of X have also raised alarms that paying X Premium subscribers, who already have their posts boosted by the platform鈥檚 algorithm, could encourage them to post more inflammatory or offensive content in an effort to garner more engagement.

Progressive media watchdog Media Matters, for example, that an X user who had praised Adolf Hitler had posted about receiving around $3,000 in payouts from X鈥檚 ad revenue sharing program. (Separately, X is over a report that found advertisements for major brands running alongside pro-Nazi content; Media Matters has defended its work and vowed to fight the lawsuit.)

The-CNN-Wire