Duel streaming

Ronaldo challenges MrBeast: he wants to be king of YouTube (but the winner of the maxi-competition is Google)

Trophies and a billion followers are not enough for him: now CR7 is duelling with MrBeast to become the king of YouTube. Here's how the match between the two went

by Enrico Marro

22 November 2024

Un frame del video «The Best and the Beast», pubblicato sul canale YouTube di Cristiano Ronaldo.

2' min read

2' min read

This time his rival is not Lionel Messi, and it is not the Ballon d'Or that is at stake, but a far more challenging backhand goal: becoming YouTube's number one. Moreover with a channel opened just three months ago, the now famous 'UR Cristiano'.

One billion followers

And to say that Ronaldo, if we combine the various social media, is already a champion: he surpasses one billion followers between Instagram (643 million), X (114 million) and Facebook (170 million).

Plus the brand new 67 million YouTube videos, collected in some 70 videos in which he talks about his life, his passion for football, his family and interviews his partner, the model Georgina Rodríguez (to whom Netflix has even dedicated a reality show, 'I love Georgina').

But we know the character: that's not enough for him. So a few weeks ago he set out to overtake MrBeast, aka 26-year-old Jimmy Donaldson, the world's number one YouTubeuber who (albeit floundering amidst various scandals) with his 331 million followers still allows himself to look down on CR7.

"He's the man I have to beat on YouTube, and I want to beat him! My children tell me I've become a YouTuber!" the irrepressible Portuguese striker keeps repeating between the serious and the facetious - even at press conferences.

Beware of metrics: in relative terms, i.e. on the speed of growth, CR7 is already world champion even on YouTube.

He was the first to amass 20 million followers in twenty-four hours (Mr Beast took 132 days to reach ten million), of which one million in 90 minutes, the time of a football match. But Ronaldo is Ronaldo, and he wants to rip poor Jimmy apart even in absolute terms.

The Friendly: The Best vs the Beast

Hence the Al-Nassr spearhead's idea: why not invite MrBeast to my house, i.e. on the 'UR Cristiano' channel? Said and done. After an interminable preview to create anticipation (entitled "I Meet MrBeast To Break The Internet"), the two appeared together in a video entitled "The Best and The Beast".

Ronaldo's interview with Jimmy, in whichthe king of youtubers doles out advice to the Golden Ball, from themes ("talk more about football") to elaborating on the cover artwork of the videos on his channel, the 'thumbnails'. Mr Beast shows him his impressions ("my fans love to see me suffer"), explains his strategies and teases him ("you're almost forty, you're old") with CR7 who, ready, volleyed: "I'll be a hundred years old".

Between the two quarrels, Big G enjoys

Football-wise, a friendly match between old glories ended in a draw. As web metrics go, it was a triumph: 2.6 million views in the first hour, almost a million likes, 64,000 comments (the most frequent being 'Cristiano, now you have to invite Messi').

But between the two pretenders, there is someone else who enjoys. The winner, in fact, is always the banker: that is, YouTube, which, also thanks to the numbers of Ronaldo and MrBeast (with relative ratings) has exceeded 50 billion dollars in annual turnover. 25% more than Netflix. Quite a blow for Google, owner of the video-streaming flagship. At least until CR7 sets out to beat even Big G.