Exactly how much money can you make by uploading a video to X? The going assumption has been that X \u2014\u00a0like Twitter before it \u2014\u00a0is a poor platform for video creators that can\u2019t compete with YouTube and TikTok in terms of monetization and reach. So there\u2019s been a lot riding on the results of a recent test<\/a> by MrBeast, who aimed to see whether he could actually make money on Elon Musk\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Last week, MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, posted a video to Musk\u2019s platform with the explicit goal of seeing \u201chow much ad revenue a video on X would make.\u201d Musk had previously encouraged MrBeast to post to X, and he sent out an excited message<\/a> shortly after the test went up. \u201cFirst MrBeast video posted directly on \ud835\udd4f!\u201d Musk wrote. Now, a week later, Donaldson has shared data<\/a> on how his first video performed: it made around $260,000 across more than 150 million views.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On the surface, the results sound promising. That same video<\/a> has been up for four months on YouTube, and it\u2019s only notched 215 million views over there. That revenue also compares favorably to a recent YouTube video that MrBeast shared analytics<\/a> for \u2014 that one made $167,000 over a five-day period with 99 million views. So it\u2019s at least plausible that X can keep pace with YouTube.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Donaldson was quick to note that his performance on X comes with some real caveats. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a facade,\u201d he wrote. For one, he has the advantage of being MrBeast, and there was increased attention on this video given that it was his first on the platform. Advertisers bought ads to run specifically on his video, earning him a higher rate. Shopify\u2019s president, Harley Finkelstein, bragged shortly after<\/a> the video went up that his company was \u201cthe first commerce brand to partner in the ad pre-roll\u201d for MrBeast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That suggests a typical video from another creator won\u2019t earn as much. \u201cAdvertisers saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video (I think) and thus my revenue per view is prob higher than what you\u2019d experience,\u201d Donaldson wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are other reasons to think MrBeast\u2019s test video did better than a typical upload would. Multiple<\/a> reports<\/a> have<\/a> indicated that X was quietly boosting MrBeast\u2019s video to viewers, artificially inflating the view count. Musk has denied<\/a> that this happened, but there\u2019s enough evidence to suggest that someone was putting the post in front of more eyes than it naturally would have achieved. MrBeast\u2019s entire account was getting an artificial boost<\/a> from X, too, as of last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n X\u2019s view count doesn\u2019t seem to be a particularly reliable metric of performance, either. Musk didn\u2019t respond<\/a> to a question from Donaldson on how much of a video needs to be watched for it to be counted as a view, meaning it\u2019s possible that every flicker of the video across a user\u2019s feed helps add to that 150 million view count. YouTube is quick to count playback as a view, too, but it\u2019s generally understood that there needs to be at least some amount of actual viewership. Ads, for example, require a full 30 seconds of watch time to be counted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Of course, MrBeast was always going to make far more money from a video and have far higher viewership than the typical user. But all signs point toward his performance on X struggling to keep pace with one of his poorer performances on YouTube. Donaldson previously wrote<\/a> to Musk, \u201cMy videos cost millions to make and even if they got a billion views on X it wouldn\u2019t fund a fraction of it.\u201d As of this writing, there are no longer preroll ads playing on the test video, so it seems like Donaldson\u2019s prediction was right \u2014\u00a0even if X\u2019s ad revenue were high enough, the platform doesn\u2019t even seem to have enough available ads to run on the video for him to keep making money. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Donaldson didn\u2019t indicate one way or the other as to whether he\u2019ll continue to post videos to X, but it\u2019s very clear that Musk is hoping he will. Among Musk\u2019s many, many new business pillars for X is transforming it into a robust creator platform and a rival to YouTube. If YouTube\u2019s biggest star doesn\u2019t think his platform is worth the time, it\u2019s going to be hard to convince anyone else to bother.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n