MrBeast sets first Guinness World Record on Threads app soon after its launch

MrBeast, a famous US-based YouTuber, has made history as the first person to reach 1 million followers on Threads, soon after the Twitter-slayer was launched, leaving behind the app's creator, Mark Zuckerberg.

The brand-new social media app with a text-based chat feature to compete with Twitter went live on July 5 and instantly made headlines for receiving more than 22 million sign ups soon after the app was launched.

Jimmy Donaldson, the YouTuber's real name, gathered a sizeable following in a matter of hours, setting one of the app's first Guinness World Records. Although it was technically not the first account to do so, the others belonged to businesses like Instagram and National Geographic.

MrBeast’s bio on Threads reads: "Future Threads CEO", and he earned a following of 1 million after posting just three times.

His first post, shortly after the app went live, read: "Soooooo, how long until we’re also addicted to this app? Lol."

He also invited his fans to like a post if they thought Meta's Mark Zuckerberg should make him the app’s CEO.

"I feel like I’m cheating on Twitter by using this app," MrBeast joked.

The meta-app Threads was marketed as a "friendly" substitute for Twitter, which has experienced some setbacks ever since SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk took control of it.

Similar to Twitter, users can post links, photos, and videos, and others can like, comment on, and share those posts with their own followers.A maximum of 500 characters can be used in posts.

Additionally, to make things simpler for brand-new users, the app also allows users to sign up using Instagram, import their profile pictures and bios from the photo-sharing application, and even follow everyone they already follow on Instagram with a single click.

According to reports, the reason Threads received more than 22 million users from its database within the first few hours of its launch, is due to the 2 billion active Instagram accounts.

Zuckerberg, the second person to reach 1 million Threads followers, wrote in a post: "The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success. That's one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently."

MrBeast, who is credited with creating a category of YouTube videos focused on pricey challenges and stunts, has a sizable fan base on all of his social media platforms.

In addition to having 165 million YouTube subscribers, he has 38.5 million Instagram followers.

MrBeast also holds two other Guinness World Records: the most male subscribers on YouTube and the highest-earning YouTube contributor (as of today), with reported earnings of $54 million (£40 million) in 2021.