MrBeast Took Out a Paid Ad on X To Wish Himself a Happy Birthday — Was it a Brilliant Self Promotion Move?

Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast aka the reason your kids are spending all day on that d--n tablet you wish you never bought them, just wished himself a Happy Birthday on X (formerly Twitter). While that really isn't news in of itself, how he went about doing so is what has people talking on social media.

And that's because he used a paid, promoted post to do it.

The massively popular YouTube streamer who hails from Wichita, Kansas, was born on May 7, 1998. His X account, which boasts 34.6 million followers, put up a post at 10:27 a.m. on the platform. All it read was a simple message: "Happy Birthday MrBeast!" followed by a party blower emoji.

As of this writing, it raked in nearly 8,000 retweets, 114,000 likes, and 17,000+ replies, along with 4.8 million views. Other users on X noted that his account paid in order to promote his birthday well wishes. As @Pospstonox noted: "Happy 28th birthday to the iconic MrBeast."

The account's post continued: "With over 480 million subscribers, he is the most-subscribed creator on YouTube to pay Twitter to promote his own tweet wishing himself a happy birthday," it read. The post included a headshot photo of the content creator, along with a screengrab of the May 7th X entry.

In a follow-up post, Popstonox added that other users on the platform reportedly received MrBeast's Happy Birthday post as a paid promotional post. "Multiple Twitter users are reporting receiving MrBeast's 'Happy Birthday' tweet to himself as a promoted post."

The social media account added: "It is not the first year MrBeast has paid to run his own Happy Birthday tweet as an ad."

On May 7, 2025, at 8:24, MrBeast did indeed wish himself a Happy Birthday on X as well. Just like his 2026 post, there were folks who noticed his post showed up on their feeds as a promoted social media entry.

And also like his follow-up Happy Birthday post, it received a ton of engagement, along with backlash from folks online who found it odd that one of the world's most successful content creators was paying for people to see his own birthday well wishes online.

Futurism reported on the mixed responses from folks online, highlighting that the economics of such a post could have been a costly advertising move for MrBeast.

In previous years, MrBeast also used his birthday as a chance to dole out gifts for his followers.

In 2024, he entered folks who commented on his Instagram birthday post in a raffle to win a Tesla. While there were throngs of folks who commended MrBeast's giveaways, others weren't happy to see media outlets wishing the YouTuber a Happy Birthday.

Some Instagram Threads users criticized Dexerto for listing MrBeast's accomplishments in this Instagram Threads post. "Happy 28th birthday to the iconic MrBeast. With over 480 million subscribers, he is the most-subscribed creator on YouTube. He is the founder of Beast Industries, creator of Beast Games, and holds multiple Guinness World Records."

Some seemed upset that he discovered a mutually beneficial way to launch giveaways for viewers while fattening his own back account in the process. "What good has he done to the world that he didn't film and show to benefit himself?" one penned.

Another Instagram commenter who gues by @lumpystew13 bluntly stated: "He's a creep. Who celebrates this guy? He is pure evil."

But there were those who wrote that MrBeast was "making the world a better place!"