MrBeast's "Every Country Fights for $250,000"

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About

MrBeast's "Every Country On Earth Fights For $250,000!," commonly known as MrBeast Olympics, is a viral video posted by YouTuber MrBeast in August 2023 in which contestants from nearly all recognized countries on Earth competed in a series of challenges for a prize of $250,000 USD. The video set a new record for the most views in the first 24 hours among non-music YouTube videos and sparked viral discussions and memes, mainly due to the map of the world shown in the video which recognized some unrecognized states and territories but not the others.

Origin

On August 19th, 2023, YouTuber^[1] MrBeast uploaded a 19-minute video titled "Every Country On Earth Fights For $250,000!" in which one person from nearly all recognized countries on Earth competed against each other in five sports disciplines, including track, gymnastics, archery, fencing and football. The video (shown below) received over 71 million views in two days.

In the video, a political map of the world is shown several times, displaying which countries have been eliminated from the competition. The map shown in the video recognized some unrecognized states but not the others, such as recognizing Palestine but not Taiwan, and included a number of minor mistakes, such as displaying the flag of Georgia the U.S. state instead of the flag of Georgia the country. This resulted in a joke about MrBeast recognizing or not recognizing certain states.

Spread

Shortly following the release of the video on August 19th, 2023, X^[2] user @RealOdysseas tweeted out an image of the map from the video, commenting, "MrBeast recognizes Palestine but not North Korea or Taiwan, uses the flag of the state of Georgia for the country." The post (shown below, left) received over 1,300 reposts and 42,800 likes.

Later on August 19th, X^[3]^[4] news account @Dexertonox and user @ilovemywiife made threads about the various countries and territories that were recognized or left unrecognized on the map shown in MrBeast's video (posts shown below). The first post in the thread submitted by @ilovemywiife received over 2,700 reposts and 28,200 likes in two days.

The video remained a subject of discussions and memes in the following days. Additionally, news of MrBeast setting a third record for the most-viewed non-music YouTube video in a 24-hour period in three weeks went viral on social media.^[5]^[6]