Pumpkin spice products on shelves

MrBeast's subscriber count and the number of pumpkin spice products available on American shelves have risen together with the inevitability of two trends that understand seasonal marketing on a molecular level. Between 2016 and 2022, both curves climbed with exponential confidence, suggesting either that MrBeast's content pairs well with a pumpkin spice latte or that both phenomena are symptoms of a culture that has decided more is always better, especially in autumn. The correlation is 0.976, which is roughly the same as the pumpkin-to-spice ratio in a Starbucks PSL.

Pumpkin spice products have proliferated from about 60 SKUs in 2016 to over 150 by 2022, as brands discovered that slapping pumpkin spice on anything—cereal, deodorant, dog treats—generates free social media coverage and seasonal sales bumps. MrBeast's growth during the same period followed a similar formula: escalating spectacle generates views, views generate revenue, revenue funds bigger spectacles. Both are products of an attention economy where novelty and scale are the primary currencies. The shared variable is not pumpkin or philanthropy but the infrastructure of virality: social media platforms that reward excess and repetition in equal measure.

Seven data points of MrBeast and pumpkin spice is barely a trend, but it captures the spirit of an era that measures success in units of "more.” More subscribers, more pumpkin products, more of everything, faster. The spice must flow, and apparently, so must the content.