YouTuber MrBeast Gave Away $100,000 to the First Person to Solve This Riddle
Popular YouTube MrBeast says he and his team have created the hardest riddle in the world, but someone solved it in just eight hours.
Jul. 31 2020, Updated 6:22 p.m. ET
Hey, could you use an extra $100,000 right now? Of course you could! Luckily for you, YouTube star MrBeast is giving away $100,000! No questions asked! Really! All you have to do is follow a few steps, watch some YouTube videos, and keep track of some numbers and letters in order to solve a riddle. Easy peasy.
Before you get too excited, though, you should know that MrBeast calls this riddle the World’s Hardest Riddle. Curious to learn more? Here’s what we know.
Think you have what it takes to solve MrBeast’s riddle?
On Thursday, July 30, 2020, MrBeast uploaded a video to his secondary YouTube channel entitled “Solve This Riddle for $100,000 (Step 1).” The video opens with a shot of what definitely looks like $100,000 USD, so that’s pretty encouraging. What follows is a barrage of clues — or maybe they’re just distractions from the real clues!
MrBeast says the riddle took months to develop. “These steps are gonna take you all across the internet,” he says in the video. “You’re gonna be watching hundreds of hours of YouTube videos, you’re gonna be doing a lot of crazy things.” Then he smashes a vase and says that could be a clue.
The video goes on to feature a bunch of framed posters, bizarre office happenings (like driving a golf cart through a wall of giant LEGO bricks), and just all-around chaos that was apparently filmed in a single take. At the very end of the video, MrBeast reveals what you have to do in order to get to the official Step 1:
In the video description of the first video, there are 10 links that appear to go to YouTube videos. Except, only one of those links actually works. Once you click on it, you’ll be taken immediately to Step 1 and you’re officially on your quest for the money!
MrBeast clarifies two things in his initial video. First, you’ll apparently come across some phone numbers while solving the riddle. He says to use a phone emulator (which he and his team will provide) in order to contact those numbers rather than using your real phone.
Secondly, he says that you won’t have to download anything to participate in solving the riddle — although there’s apparently an exception to this caveat, as he also says you’ll need to download the game Apex Legends in order to complete the riddle. We’re giving him a pass on that one, though, because Apex Legends is also the video’s sponsor.
Incredibly, someone solved the MrBeast riddle after just one day!
As difficult as the MrBeast riddle was — and it was very difficult, it apparently didn't stand a chance against the rest of the internet. A mere eight hours after MrBeast released the first riddle video, he announced that it had been solved!
In a rather heartwarming turn of events, it was the internet's willingness to work together that was the riddle's ultimate downfall. Solving the riddle quickly became a collaborative effort for hundreds of people, and the they made incredibly quick work of the puzzle.
In an interview with Newsweek, MrBeast said that he wasn't disappointed that the riddle was solved so quickly. "It's definitely not disappointment, more shock that it was solved in under 12 hours. Ultimately, we did this because we knew fans would enjoy it and it would also take their mind off everything else going on in the world."
