Soon after Threads launched, a well-known US-based YouTuber named MrBeast became the first user to accumulate one million followers, surpassing Mark Zuckerberg, the app’s developer.
The brand-new social media app with a text-based chat feature to compete with Twitter went live on July 5 and made headlines right away for receiving more than 22 million sign-ups soon after the app was launched.
One of the first Guinness World Records for the app was set by Jimmy Donaldson, the YouTuber’s real name, who quickly grew a sizable following.
It was not the first account to do it, but the others belonged to companies like Instagram and National Geographic, so it was technically not the first.
In just three posts, MrBeast amassed a million followers, according to his Threads bio, which calls him the “Future Threads CEO”.
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 newly launched 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.
To further simplify things for new users, the app also enables them 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 2 billion active Instagram accounts are the reason Threads attracted more than 22 million users from its database in the first few hours of its launch.
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.
