MrBeast nabs Threads world record and celebrates with a pointed giveaway
Greenville, North Carolina - Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson has become the first Threads user to hit a million followers, and he is celebrating the record in the most MrBeast way possible - with a giveaway.
Vroom, vroom! Start your engines.
Threads, the new platform from social media company Meta, went live on Wednesday, and according to Guinness World Records, the influencer best known for his YouTube vids hit the milestone at 2:42 PM on Thursday, after putting up only three posts on Threads.
He even managed to beat Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the million mark, who hit it on Threads shortly thereafter.
MrBeast's bio on the platform hilariously reads: "Future Threads CEO (Follow for cookie)." In his second post, he urged followers to hit the heart button if they think Zuckerberg should actually make him a CEO.
But then, MrBeast upped the ante in his typical style - promising a freebie.
Why is MrBeast giving away a Tesla on Threads?
In celebration of his achievement and the platform's big launch, MrBeast vowed in his most recent post on Thursday that he would be giving away a brand-new Tesla to a random follower. The move is perhaps a bit pointed, as Tesla is owned by Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
Threads has been introduced as a direct rival to Twitter, with a very similar interface, while Musk and Zuckerberg have even agreed to meet for hand-to-hand combat in a cage match.
Yet Zuckerberg has been pushing Threads as a more positive and upbeat Twitter rival, explaining in a post that "the goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success."
"That's one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have," he added, "and we want to do it differently."
When Guinness World Records tweeted news of the achievement, MrBeast responded: "Shhhhh, don’t let the twitter police know I’m cheating on them."
Cover photo: Collage: Stefani Reynolds & Michael Tran / AFP