Daily newspaper circulation

MrBeast's subscriber count climbing as American daily-newspaper circulation collapses. The biggest individual creator on the platform and the entire newspaper industry, on opposite sides of the regression line. The publisher of the morning paper has, statistically, more readers in the comments section.

MrBeast YouTube subscribers grew from about 14 million in 2016 to over 200 million by 2024 as the philanthropy-and-stunt format scaled to become the largest individual creator on the platform. US daily newspaper circulation fell from about 33 million in 2016 to under 21 million by 2022 as digital displacement, classified-ad collapse, and ownership consolidation gutted the industry. Two completely unrelated media-consumption lines on opposite trajectories sharing a window because the same eight years scaled one creator's reach and emptied one industry's subscriber base.

Two media empires went different ways. One creator beats one industry. The decade was specific about its winners.