“The Most Dangerous Games,” the debut novel from YouTube’s most-subscribed creator Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, went on sale September 1 through William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, arriving alongside dueling accounts of how well it is actually selling. Donaldson co-authored the thriller with bestselling novelist James Patterson, and the release is paired with a real-money elimination contest that mirrors the format of Donaldson’s video franchise.

The novel follows 100 competitors selected from 1,000 invitees for a survival contest that moves from Antarctica through shark-populated waters off Chile, desert terrain, mountain storms and caves, with a fictional $1 billion prize and the stated chance to save humanity on the line. Donaldson appears in the book as a fictionalized version of himself, first as an investor in the competition and later as a participant. HarperCollins is releasing the title in standard hardcover, a 480-page deluxe edition, digital, audio, large-print and Spanish-language formats, with the deluxe edition featuring stenciled edges and illustrated endpapers. The standard hardcover lists at $35.

Buyers who purchase the book can enter a real-world companion contest: a series of weekly, book-related elimination challenges running through September that narrows to a final ten entrants, with one reader eligible to win $1 million.

The rollout has produced conflicting read-on-demand. Citing anonymous sources, Semafor reported the book was tracking toward what it called a “historic bomb,” with preorders “numbering in the four digits” as of the week before release. The Hollywood Reporter, which noted the book sat at No. 18 on Amazon’s new releases list as of August 31, said a separate publishing source pushed back on that framing, arguing that four-digit preorder counts are not unusual for a genre novel and that first-week sales are the more meaningful indicator than preorders alone; that source also pointed out the book ranked No. 1 in Amazon’s mystery category at the time. Business Insider reported that as of release-day Tuesday morning, the book stood at No. 12 on Amazon’s new releases list and No. 73 on the overall book list.

Donaldson has more than 500 million YouTube subscribers. Matt Kaye, co-founder and CEO of the creator-focused publisher Bindery Books, told Business Insider that “having the name MrBeast attached to any book is going to get it a ton of immediate awareness and interest,” but said the book’s longer-term performance depends on “how much readers love it and recommend it to each other.” Jeff Speich, who oversees Range Media Partners’ publishing arm, told Business Insider that “books are having a moment again” among creators with existing audiences, a shift Business Insider tied partly to the rise of BookTok.

The book is one of several ventures Beast Industries has pursued beyond YouTube, alongside the “Beast Games” competition series on Prime Video, the Feastables candy brand, and financial services following its acquisition of the banking app Step. Net Influencer reported on the novel’s cover and release date in June, when Donaldson said he wanted to “make something that would draw young people in and get a whole generation psyched about reading again,” and Patterson described the collaboration as leaning on what he called Donaldson’s “best storytelling instincts.”

Donaldson has also said the title’s overlap with Richard Connell’s 1924 short story “The Most Dangerous Game” was coincidental, telling USA Today he had not read Connell’s work.

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