Beast Games Review: Utterly Bonkers and Brilliant

From the groundbreaking mind of MrBeast comes a new, record-breaking competition series. A staggering 1,000 players compete in nail-biting, physical, mental, and social challenges, for a chance to win a whopping $5 million dollar cash prize. Week by week, players will use their strength and wit to stay in the game, with the hope of being the multi-million-dollar winner.

Mr Beast certainly knows how to put on a show but scaling up from YouTube to a streaming platform like Amazon is certainly a challenge for any YouTuber. Amazon arguably has a much different demographic (to a degree) and certainly appeals to different tastes in terms of the content it delivers so how would a YouTube-style format (amped up to 11) work on the streaming platform?

The answer to that question is, rather well actually! So let’s dive right on in with this Beast Games review debuting today on Amazon Prime Video.

In what plays out like a standard Mr Beast video on steroids I found the format of the game to instantly rival that of the upcoming Squid Game which is set to debut its second season on the Amazon competitor platform Netflix in a few days. A release date coincidence? I think not.

Get the biggest YouTube star in the world to challenge members of the public to win big cash prizes and nobody gets killed in the process. Winner! For those who don’t want the contestants to live beyond the game then hop on over to Netflix this Boxing Day for Season 2 of Squid Game, you little sadists you!

Beast Games kicks off in style as the public taking part are already faced with the dilemma of exiting the game early to share (if more than one quits) a 1 million dollar prize pot and surprisingly, people chose that option instantly scooping some cash before the game had begun.

These people rocked up at a game show where there was only one grand prize winner out of a thousand people and thought, you know what, I don’t like those odds and walked away with a nice 5 figure sum each. Not a bad day’s work! 

With lots of tricks and surprises up Jimmy’s sleeve, I found the opening episode of Beast Games to be rather engaging and whilst I’m not entirely invested in who wins I can appreciate the format of the show and how time and time again this YouTuber turned generational star has actively changed peoples lives.

Funnily enough, where Beast Games thrives is not the star of the show but in the stories of those competing. People with families, bills to pay, children to look after, and debt to get out of. Numerous stories of people from all walks of life all with one goal in mind, that 5 million dollars.

It’s great to hear these stories and whilst only one person can win at the end of the day they all feel like winners getting onto a show as big as this on a platform like Amazon. It must have been a cool thing to be a part of regardless of the prize on offer.

Expect plenty of ‘HOLY S**T’ moments as the first one floored me (quite literally) and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way edited in that choppy Mr Beast style to keep you engaged. 

Beast Games is ruthless in its elimination of contestants as the opening round was determined by trusting those around you, a room full of strangers who you probably only just met that very same day. Would you trust a stranger? Jimmy is poking that theory countless times in the opening episode with ruthless consequences, it’s great for us as the viewers but devastating for those contestants who haven’t shown their skills and have had their fate decided by a complete stranger.

“I don’t want Lamborghini, I want Tesla” screams one contestant wholly unaware that there is no Tesla on offer in this instance. 

The one thing that I do worry about is the show’s ability to keep me hooked throughout and that became evident in Episode 2 as things started to become quite samey with a long runtime. YouTube videos are edited in such a way to extend viewer engagement and by the end of that video, the viewer is rewarded with the grand finale/payoff. We don’t have that here.

I am curious as to how the viewing figures will pan out because Episode 2 did slightly drag compared to the first and whilst still engaging there was a definite loss of interest at points where my attention faded. Beast Games is essentially a VERY long YouTube video when fully stitched together with a massive budget.

Streaming audiences are very different to YouTube audiences in viewing duration and style of content consumed. That is my only concern as the episodes continue. 

Episode three however had a huge twist in store as the episode really dived into people’s behaviours and there certainly was a psychological study to be had there. People made friends but how would those friendships fare knowing that they’re now your competition?

It was compelling stuff, it was and take out the overly emotional and dramatic contestants (there were a LOT!) and it made for some really intriguing and quite compelling viewing.

By episode 3 certain contestants started to turn on the original saviours (without them they wouldn’t still be in the game) and it’s just starting to get a little spicy as there is a great divide between a few of the contestants. It’s all building up to something and at the end of the day, they’re all strangers and despite making friends within the games there can only be one main winner, none of them went on the show to make friends, they went to make money.

Don’t you just love a good drama?

Beast Games on Amazon Prime Video is utterly bonkers but utterly brilliant at the same time, I’m still holding out hope that he features a theme park challenge over here in the UK one day so we can VLOG it! Insert a shameless plug to our spin-off theme park and attractions website HERE.

Hats off to you Jimmy! I look forward to all future episodes of this mad series! 

I take PayPal if you ever read this review.

Worth a try eh?