Gaming YouTube Influencers: Why Teens Follow MrBeast and PewDiePie

If your household includes a child between 8 and 18, there’s a reasonable chance you’ve heard “MrBeast” or “PewDiePie” more often than you’ve heard the names of some of your child’s actual friends. These creators aren’t just entertainers—they’re parasocial companions, cultural reference points, and in some cases, identity figures. Understanding why takes understanding what gaming YouTube actually is.

Key Takeaways

• Gaming YouTube creators fulfill multiple psychological functions for adolescents simultaneously: entertainment, parasocial companionship, skill modeling, and community membership.
• The appeal of gaming YouTubers is not primarily about gaming—it’s about personality, humor, and parasocial relationship, which is why non-gamers often follow them too.
• Revenue models for major creators are sophisticated and multi-layered: ad revenue, sponsorships, merchandise, memberships, and affiliate deals—all directly monetizing viewer loyalty.
• Parasocial bonds with creators can influence purchasing behavior, worldview, and identity formation in ways that require parental awareness.
• MrBeast and PewDiePie represent different creator archetypes with meaningfully different content and risk profiles.

Why Teens Watch Gaming YouTubers

Social currency and shared reference. “Did you see MrBeast’s new video?” is a social conversation starter. Knowing the content—the jokes, the challenges, the callbacks—provides belonging in peer conversations. Not watching can mean missing cultural references that affect social belonging.

Parasocial companionship. Many teens, particularly those who struggle socially or spend significant time alone, use YouTube creators as background companions. The creator feels familiar, funny, and present. Research on parasocial relationships (Horton & Wohl, 1956; Tukachinsky, 2021) documents that these relationships fulfill real social-emotional needs, particularly for adolescents who feel socially excluded.

Skill and aspiration modeling. Gaming YouTubers demonstrate skill that viewers aspire to. Watching high-level play, creative problem-solving, or entertainment production provides vicarious competence satisfaction.

Entertainment format appeal. Gaming videos combine several formats teens find engaging: reaction content, competition, humor, surprise/spectacle, and personality. This is high-engagement content by design.

MrBeast: The Spectacle Model

Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast) has built the most-subscribed individual YouTube channel in history through a specific formula: extraordinarily high-production spectacle challenges with large cash prizes. Key facts parents should know:

• MrBeast’s content is largely appropriate for a wide age range (often 8+), focused on challenge completion, philanthropy stunts, and production spectacle
• His revenue model is primarily ad revenue and his own branded products (MrBeast Burger, Feastables chocolate, merchandise)
• He runs multiple channels including dedicated gaming content, reactions, and a Spanish-language channel
• His content has been criticized for creating unrealistic expectations about gift-giving and for the resource consumption involved in high-production challenges

For parents: MrBeast’s content itself carries relatively low direct risk. The brand integration (his own products) is more sophisticated than it appears—he is simultaneously a creator and a CPG brand, and his audience’s loyalty drives product sales.

PewDiePie: The Personality Model

Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie) pioneered the “commentary over gaming” format and was the most-subscribed individual creator for years. Key facts:

• PewDiePie’s content skews older (13+) and includes more mature humor, references, and commentary
• He has a history of significant controversies: two incidents in 2017 involving anti-Semitic content in videos, followed by a well-documented 2019 incident involving a racial slur during a live stream
• He has since expressed remorse and changed his content; his current channel involves gaming, commentary, and lifestyle content aimed at adult audiences
• His community (“the Bro Army”) has a distinctive culture and inside language

For parents: PewDiePie’s historical controversies are worth knowing if your younger child follows him. His current content is generally less extreme than his 2017 period, but the community culture reflects a specific online humor sensibility that can influence worldview.

How the Revenue Model Works

Understanding how creators make money helps parents understand the incentives at play:

Revenue Source	How It Works	Viewer Impact
Ad revenue (AdSense)	YouTube pays per view/click	Incentivizes maximum viewership
Sponsorships	Brand pays for mentions	Direct product promotion to loyal audience
Merchandise	Creator sells branded products	Brand loyalty monetized as clothing/accessories
Channel memberships	$4.99+/month for perks	Recurring payment like Twitch subscriptions
Affiliate marketing	Commission on purchases via links	Teens buy products through creator links
Creator-owned brands	Creator launches product company	MrBeast’s Feastables; Logan Paul’s Prime

The total annual income of top gaming YouTubers is substantial: Forbes estimates MrBeast’s 2023 earnings at over $54 million. These numbers matter for parents to know because they illustrate that what feels like a friend sharing videos is actually a sophisticated commercial enterprise with strong incentives to maximize your child’s attachment.

What to Watch For Over 3 Months

• Is your child’s language, worldview, or values vocabulary significantly shaped by a specific creator?
• Are they purchasing merchandise or products linked to creators without considering whether they actually want the product?
• Do they feel distressed when a creator takes a break, posts less, or receives criticism?
• Are they following a creator who has documented controversies that your family would consider significant?

Frequently Asked Questions

My kid watches 4 hours of gaming YouTube on weekends. Is that a lot?

Four hours in a day is substantial but not unusual for adolescent media use. The more useful question is what it’s displacing (sleep, physical activity, homework, in-person social interaction) and whether it’s passive consumption or active engagement. Gaming YouTube watched socially or in conversation with peers has different developmental effects than solo passive consumption.

Should I watch YouTube with my kids to understand it?

Yes—watching even one or two videos gives you genuine insight into the format, the humor, and why it’s appealing. You don’t need to understand every reference to have a meaningful conversation about the content. Most parents who do this report that the videos are less alarming than they expected, which is useful information.

How do I talk about sponsorships with my kids?

Start with the disclosure: “Did you notice he mentioned that this is sponsored?” Then: “What do you think that means about how he’s recommending it?” This builds the media literacy skill of recognizing commercial content without requiring you to condemn the creator.

Sources

1. Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction. Psychiatry, 19(3), 215–229.
2. Tukachinsky Forster, R. (2021). Parasocial romantic relationships. Communication Theory, 31(1), 1–13.
3. Pew Research Center. (2022). Teens and video games today. Pew Research Center.
4. Forbes. (2023). Highest-paid YouTube stars. Forbes Media.
5. Common Sense Media. (2024). YouTube app review. Common Sense Media.
6. Boyd, D. (2014). It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press.

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Ricky Flores is the founder of HiWave Makers and an electrical engineer with 15+ years of experience building consumer technology at Apple, Samsung, and Texas Instruments. He writes about how kids learn to build, think, and create in a tech-saturated world. Read more at hiwavemakers.com.