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Hundreds of children have thrown a sickie to see a high-paid internet star share some of his estimated $500 million net worth at Australia’s most iconic landmark.
James Donaldson – or MrBeast as he’s known – is the world’s most popular YouTuber who many Australian adults have never heard of.
The internet celebrity, who boasts 288 million mostly young subscribers worldwide, dug into his wealth to give away a slew of cars at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday.
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A Lamborghini and Scooby Doo mystery machine replica were two of 10 cars given to the finalists, which were streamed live on the star’s YouTube channel as they attempted to win.
Jackie Rios, Tyreese and Trey’s mother, gave her boys the day off to attend the event.
“We asked, ‘Why not?'” Ms Rios told AAP.
“They wanted to be here — it’s a day in the scheme of things.”
The family spent more than $200 on the internet personality’s product for their chance to win.
They used the packaging to make custom outfits just in case their ticket didn’t come out, but the boys were more than happy to see the creator they’d been watching online for seven years.
MrBeast pitted 10 product competition winners against each other for the event as they tried to win cars worth up to $250,000.
Competitors were tasked with passing a rugby ball into holes of various sizes on a large board.
Different holes had certain vehicles, with the most valuable being the smallest.
One contestant turned down $50,000 in favor of Volvo for $5,000 covered with another YouTuber’s face.
MrBeast, 26, rose to internet fame with frequent giveaway videos that eventually earned him the accolade of YouTube’s most popular creator.
Early videos included challenges such as counting to 100,000 in one video that took 40 hours to complete.
As his popularity grew, he began to earn money from the platform – becoming a multi-millionaire in the process – which he reinvested in large handouts to achieve further success.
Starting with smaller giveaways to strangers for sums in the hundreds, his giveaways later extended to a US$1 million prize for the last person to remove their hand from a pile of money.
He recently gifted an island in the Bahamas to a subscriber, and now 10 gifted cars in Sydney feature on his list of previous freebies.
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