Five Beast Games contestants have filed a class action lawsuit against MrBeast‘s limited liability corporation MRB2024 and Amazon for alleged mistreatment on the set of what the duo touted as “the world’s largest live gameshow” with the “biggest single prize in the history of television and streaming.”
The 50-page suit, filed Sept. 17 in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, includes many of the complaints that began surfacing in July, just after filming of the show’s first round was completed in Las Vegas. Those complaints were highlighted by creators like Rosanna Pansino, who said she personally spoke to over 200 people involved in the production, and that their reports characterized it as a disorganized affair where contestants weren’t being given scheduled medications on time, faced apathy or outright hostility from staff, and were kept up to film at night, without enough rest during the day.
At the time, MrBeast’s team blamed alleged issues on the July 19 CrowdStrike incident, as well as “extreme weather and other unexpected logistical and communications issues.” It said it had “taken steps to ensure that we learn from this experience.”
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Per the suit, Beast Games contestants were “shamelessly exploited” and subjected to “unreasonable, unsafe” conditions and “infliction of emotional distress,” with a lack of proper food, sleep, medical care, and “the necessities of basic hygiene.”
There were allegedly also instances of sexual harassment; the suit is heavily redacted, so exact details are unavailable, but it claims the Beast Games crew “created, permitted to exist, and fostered a culture and pattern and practice of sexual harassment including in the form of a hostile work environment.”
“While participants knew upon signing the contract at the production’s inception that they were facing a potentially long and challenging competition, they allege getting a lot more than they bargained for,” the contestants’ attorneys said in a statement. (The contestants’ names are not being released.) “Several contestants ending up hospitalized, while others reported suffering physical and mental complications while being subjected to chronic mistreatment, degradation and, for the female contestants, hostile working conditions.”
The suit describes contestants as de facto “employees”–which, if the court agrees, would give them specific and strong legal protections, especially in California. Robert Pafundi, the contestants’ lead counsel, told Variety that competitors were promised compensation for their services, and that that expectation, “along with them being consistently under the control and supervision of the production staff, makes them employees under California law.”
It’s not clear if, by saying contestants were promised compensation, Pafundi is referring to their chance to win Beast Games‘ grand prize of $5 million, or if there was other compensation involved for people who didn’t come in first place.
In addition to demanding punitive damages from MrBeast’s production company, Amazon, and separate production company Off One’s Base LLC, the suit asks for contestants to be compensated for unpaid wages and overtime.
Worth noting: The suit cites a leaked MrBeast production guide, criticizing the practices inside for promoting “boys-will-be-boys working conditions” and claiming that guide is what “paved the way” for his team’s alleged behavior on the Beast Games set. (We have a breakdown of the guide and its contents here.)
We reached out to MrBeast’s team for comment on the lawsuit, but didn’t hear back. If we do, we’ll update this story with any new information.
