American YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson known as MrBeast, famous for his gaming and challenge videos, opened a theme park in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Beastland features traditional theme park activities such as roller coasters, rides, drop towers, and ferris wheels. It also features MrBeast inspired activities and challenges from his YouTube videos, giving the park a unique twist.
Beastland opened its doors on Nov. 13 and is a temporary theme park which is planned to close on Dec. 27, as a part of Riyadh Season, an annual entertainment and cultural festival held in Riyadh from roughly October to March of the next year. The Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority (GEA), as led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who is known for launching ambitious projects, launched Riyadh Season in 2019 as a part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 to boost tourism, diversify the Saudi economy, promote Saudi heritage and culture, and position Riyadh as a major international entertainment hub. Beastland could help Saudi Arabia achieve this goal, by attracting millions of his fans to Riyadh. It’s a good strategy to have people talking about the kingdom, bringing popularity and trendiness to it.
In 2024 Riyadh Season surpassed 16 million visitors, with its partnership with MrBeast a smart way to promote and position Saudi Arabia as an international entertainment hub. Beastland isn’t just a theme park, it’s a test of how far a YouTube empire with over 450 million subscribers can go offline. If MrBeasts’ theme park proves successful, it could redefine the way for the future of creator led entertainment. This is because MrBeast is one of the very first online content creators who has attempted to do such a thing as opening a theme park, especially not in America. This could prove how interacting with fans offline, brings them together and boosts popularity for the creator as well, bringing in more revenue.
The park covers 188,000 square meters, including roller coasters and thrill rides such as Phantom XXL and Top Spin. The park also features immersive challenges inspired by his viral videos in the Beast Arena, including Tower Siege, where players launch balls at catapults, and Drop Zone where six contestants stand on top of trap doors with the last person to push their button falling in the Drop Zone. Other MrBeast inspired games include Air Mail, where players on zip lines must drop a weighted bag on a target below them, and Dungeon Escape, where players race through a maze to earn points. Other than the MrBeast inspired activities, the park also features a 165-foot-tall bungee jump as well as 2 full scale roller coasters, and a slingshot ride. These fun activities at Beastland bring visitors from all over the world to see Beastland but also Saudi Arabia as a whole. The GEA and MrBeast made sure to make Beastland a fun, immersive, and exciting experience and I think they didn’t fail at their goal.
Wherever there’s MrBeast, there are always giveaways. Beastland offers daily rewards for top scorers and a massive grand prize for the overall leaderboard winner based on all-time points, which is around $260,000. Overall, over $500,000 in prizes are available at Beastland. Participants gain points in games and compete for top daily spots, with some daily winners receiving 7,000 Saudi Riyals (around $1,900). Points are earned by competing in timed games that test speed, agility and intellect. This is an amazing marketing strategy in order to make Beastland a popular place overall, attracting visitors who have a chance at winning prizes.
I think Beastland is an amazing theme park. Not only is it a fun theme park, but it’s also a way for fans to interact with each other and live through the challenges in the videos they enjoy. Although the theme park is MrBeast themed, it isn’t a bunch of advertisements. It fulfills what a theme park is, with a MrBeast twist.