6 westword.com WESTWORD APRIL 30-MAY 6, 2026 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | family vacations on the phone stressing about his upload schedule. These days, Beem’s operation is much larger. His most expensive video to date re- portedly cost $250,000 to produce, including payroll, construction and explosives used to blow up a mini village outside of Fort Collins. Beem says his company generates around $2 million per year from brand deals and ad revenue; last year, it made approximately $120,000 in profi ts. Most of the money goes back into the videos and employees, accord- ing to Beem, who says he often does not receive a paycheck himself. Disney recently bought out Beem’s cata- log for an undisclosed amount, and is stream- ing the videos on Disney+ and Hulu. Beem says he is also working with Disney on a potential original show. Despite his successes, Beem’s methodical approach to content creation has attracted criticisms from some who call it “soulless” and algorithm-focused, or say it’s a fame- seeking copy of MrBeast. Beem compares it to emulating the style of famous athletes when learning to play sports. He’s willing to shift the subjects of his videos as trends change — from surviving fi fty hours in vari- ous locations, to building giant items, to now constructing hidden rooms — because to Beem, the appeal seems to be the process of making videos rather than the specifi c content within them. He traces his current career to his pre-YouTube ambitions of be- coming a director and fi lming camcorder videos as a young child. Leading the YouTube channel is a 24/7 job. Beem says he works seven days a week; his spokesperson reports that Beem has taken just two days off in the last nine months. In order to fi lm with the biggest creators on the planet — including the likes of IShowSpeed, KSI and David Dobrik — Beem’s schedule is always in fl ux. While meeting with Westword in Colorado Springs, Beem was unsure if he had to be in Chicago the very next day. Beem says the non-stop work never feels like too much, but more “like I’m doing a passion project every day.” “It’s hard to quit something that you love,” he adds. “One time, a kid came up to me at a convention and asked for advice because he was thinking about quitting YouTube. It’s kind of crazy, but I told him, ‘You probably should quit,’ because I never thought about quitting.” Hometown Hero Beem can’t work out at his local gym without pausing over a dozen times to take photos with fans. When he orders food deliveries, restaurant employees ocassionally recog- nize his name and send him photos of his own order on Instagram. The outside of his Colorado Springs warehouse is disguised as a different business so strangers won’t turn up at the door. He has become a certifi ed hometown celebrity, and he works hard to live up to that reputation. Beem has collaborated with several lo- cal organizations for his YouTube videos, including fi lming at Colorado Springs busi- nesses, building a luxury dog hotel for the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, and building a hidden gaming room at a middle school, which he says is now used as a sensory room. In his latest YouTube up- load, Beem remodeled rooms in community members’ homes, knocking on random doors to see who would take him up on the offer. Beem says he is currently working on a project with Children’s Hospital Colorado in Colorado Springs. “This is where my heart is,” Beem says. “I’m the biggest hype man for Colorado and Colorado Springs. It’s cool to be able to do that.” While other internet stars like Sommer Ray and Jake Warden are also from Colorado, they relocated once they made it big, which is common in the industry. But Beem remains in his hometown — and in his mother’s basement. “When I was younger, I always wanted to move to L.A. But once I started to have suc- cess and travel to all these amazing places, every time I would land in the Denver air- port, I would feel at home and feel at peace,” Beem says. “Being an infl uencer can become extremely lonely, because people only ap- proach you for certain reasons. It feels really good to go home and see my mom and sister and be reminded who I am.” Beem has spoken at numerous local schools, talking to students about the reali- ties of being a YouTuber. Today, more than 30 percent of children aged twelve to fi fteen say they want to become professional You- Tubers, making it the top career aspiration among Generation Alpha, according to a report from the social commerce platform Whop. The second-most-sought-after job is TikToker, at 21 percent. YouTube’s heavy infl uence on children has stirred public debate. In March, a jury found YouTube liable for designing the plat- form to be addictive for children and teens without concern for the harm to their mental health. Individual child-facing YouTubers have also come under fi re, including some with whom Beem associates. Logan Paul, a repeat subject of Beem’s videos, has been called out for fi lming the dead body of an apparent suicide victim, tasering dead rats, and advertising his energy drink to kids. Jake Paul has been accused of sexual assault, racism and terrorizing his neighbors, leading to Paul being ousted from his Disney show. Even MrBeast has attracted controversy from critics who say he fi nancially exploits his young audience, most recently after he acquired a banking app designed for teens and young adults, inspiring concern from U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. Beem says he feels the pressure of having so many young eyes on him. It infl uences everything, from how he responds to road rage when driving to the kind of brand deals he accepts. He turned down a six-fi gure offer from a gambling platform because he didn’t want to promote gambling to his audience, he notes. “I take the situation seriously,” he says. “I’d like to say I’m a good person, so I just try to make the best decision I can. ...This life puts a microscope on who you are. It makes a bad person worse and a good person even better.” Beem aspires to become the biggest You- Tuber in the world, surpassing his friend and idol, MrBeast. He says he told MrBeast that he was coming for his spot on the very fi rst day they met, back when Beem only had 17,000 subscribers. Though he still has a ways to go, he sometimes feels like he achieved his dream long ago. “I remember hitting 100,000 subscrib- ers,” he recalls. “I was driving by the Chey- enne Mountain World Arena, where my high school graduation ceremony was. I was vlog- ging. I counted down: ten, nine — and then when I hit six, I couldn’t even talk. I was just crying like crazy. That was a lot for me. ...It re- ally felt like I made the right decision. I did it.” Email the author at hannah.metzger@westword. com. One of two editing rooms in Beem’s warehouse, designed to look like the Batcave. Matthew Beem and his sister, Cheyanne, fi lm a reaction video. Beem plans to double his warehouse space and the number of in-house employees this year. BEEM TEAM BEEM TEAM BEEM TEAM News continued from page 4
