YouTuber MrBeast challenged people to keep their finger on an app. It went for 70 hours.

Some people lasted for almost three days.
 By 
Siobhan Neela-Stock
 on 
YouTuber MrBeast challenged people to keep their finger on an app. It went for 70 hours.
MrBeast urged players to also sleep throughout the competition. Credit: Iana Alter / SHUTTERSTOCK

Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson is at it again.

The YouTuber, who is known for his elaborate stunts and cash giveaways, challenged willing participants to join his "Finger on the App" competition. The premise was simple: Be the last person to take your finger off your phone screen while the game plays and win up to $25,000. Though the rules stipulated that all players who didn't cash out would decide how much money people win if there was more than one winner.

Donaldson partnered with the internet art collective MSCHF to launch the game on June 30. The game ended on July 3 at 1:15 p.m. ET.


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After 70 hours of playing, Donaldson congratulated the last four people remaining and announced they would all receive $25,000. He called up two of the winners to tell them the exciting news and then insisted they sleep.

They weren't the only players to benefit from Donaldson's generosity, however. The 22-year-old gave some players the chance to win thousands of dollars if they took their fingers off the app. It worked. On July 2, two players won $5,000 each and an additional two nabbed $10,000 apiece the next day, according to The Verge.

The app required participants to move their finger at times, though there were some controls to catch potential cheaters. Donaldson told The Verge he was especially interested in ensuring that people "couldn't just duct tape their hand to the phone." Though he admitted not all of it was up to him.

"I think the beauty of the game is that we don’t really have control," Donaldson said. "It’s really up to the people playing and seeing who lasts the longest, and I think our main thing was just keeping the game fair."

Topics Activism

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Siobhan Neela-Stock

Siobhan was the Social Good reporter at Mashable, writing about everything from mental health to race to the climate crisis. Before diving into the world of journalism, she worked in global health — most notably, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique. Find her at @siobhanneela.

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