- [Narrator] Once upon a time, YouTube was all about grainy home videos of cats with funny faces, bedroom karaoke, and kids biting their brother's finger. Today, YouTube is a little different, YouTubers creating expensive,
high-quality content with budgets that sometimes
rival Hollywood productions. From videos with giant stacks of cash, to mad inventions and even space-rocket launch attempts, YouTube may be free to watch,
but it isn't free to produce. So today, we're taking
a look at the videos with the biggest budgets, checking out some of the
most expensive YouTube videos ever made. (calm music) A Magnet Sandwich. They say some men just
wanna watch the world burn, but back in 2015 YouTuber TechRax settled for wrecking an
18-karat gold Apple Watch. Over the years, TechRax has destroyed enough iPhones and iPads to
stock an entire apple store, but at $10,000, the gold apple watch is one of his most expensive purchases. An extravagant watch deserves
an extravagant death, for the YouTube views, of course. So TechRax placed the gadget in between two powerful Neodymium magnets, before slowly pushing them together. Neodymium is used to make the
world's strongest magnets, and once TechRax's were close
enough to attract each other, they shot together with
650 pounds of force, squeezing the watch
like a magnet sandwich. The collision was so powerful, parts of the magnets snapped
off during the impact, and the watch, understandably,
didn't survive, the screen exploding
with a blast of sparks. It looked like the $10,000
watch had kicked the bucket. However, when TechRax
put the gadget on charge, it did make a charging indicator sound, proving it was somehow still alive. Totally unusable, of course,
but alive nonetheless. I'm not sure whether TechRax bothered to get the watch repaired, but after this video was released, he could definitely afford it. Currently, average content
creators on YouTube earn around $5 per 1,000
views in ad revenue, with the exact amount varying
from YouTuber to YouTuber. At these rates, TechRax's 7,000,000 views will have earnt him around $35,000, enough to buy three
more gold apple watches, with some spare change to
repair the original one. I guess destruction pays. In which case, let's end this section with an explosion transition. Homemade Hoverbike. Colin Furze is a YouTuber
from Stamford, England, known for his insane inventions. Over the years, the
plumber-turned-mad scientist has created real Assassin's Creed blades, backyard bunkers, and most famously a working homemade hoverbike. With over 50 million
views, Homemade Hoverbike is Furze's most viewed video
and likely his most expensive, the cost to build the flying bike clocking in at upwards of $16,000. The bike uses two parajet motors, giant fans that are typically
used for powered paragliding. At $5,000 to $8,000 a fan, these
motors pack a lot of power, and once Furze had constructed
the bike out of aluminum, they were strong enough to
allow him to take flight with a bit of trial and error. The approximate total
cost of around $16,000 might seem like a lot, but at
50 million views and counting, this video could've earnt
Furze another $250,000, making the cost of his
functioning hoverbike seem like a bargain. Do you think that's worth the
slight risk of dismemberment taking on in riding
this death-trap machine? Let me know in the comments down below. (calm music) Crushit's Gold Bar. When it comes to making YouTube videos, the team at Crushit
have always crushed it, literally and figuratively. The channel has crushed
all kinds of things with their hydraulic press,
from batteries, to cell phones, to bars of solid gold. For that latter feat, Crushit's bar was one kilogram of 24 Karat Gold, worth $40,000 back in 2016, a pretty high price to pay for something you're
immediately going to destroy. When it came time to crush, the bar was easily squashed
by the hydraulic press, the gold folding down like
an overpriced piece of paper. Despite its value, gold is actually one
of the softest metals, so the stainless steel hydraulic press managed to crush the bar
until it was nothing more than a shiny blob, the metal
offering almost no resistance. Of course, even after being crushed, the bar was still worth
$40,000, and today, the value of that same kilo of gold has risen to around 60 grand, making that bar a pretty good investment. That extra $20,000 added
to the value of the gold was a nice bit of pocket
money for Crushit, not that the team needed it. At 18 million views, the video would've earnt around $90,000, allowing Crushit to buy another gold bar, with tens of thousands left over. Now, that's what I call a golden ratio. "Video Game High School." Today, high-budget YouTube
videos are pretty common, with YouTubers like Mr
Beast spending a fortune every time they create a piece of content. But one of the earliest YouTubers to create high-budget
content on the platform was Rocketjump, an online production company
founded by Freddy Wong. Rocketjump's most successful series was "Video Game High School," an online show taking
place in a fictional world where competitive gaming is the most popular professional sport. The characters attend VGHS, a wacky high-school that
trains talented gamers to become professionals. The show was a hit, running for 3 seasons, growing in size and budget each year. These episodes required
expensive sets, stunts, special effects and actors salaries. Meaning that by the final season, the budget had risen
to around $2.5 Million, each of its 6 episodes
costing 416 grand to make. At the time, spending
416000 on a YouTube video was unprecedented, and the episodes were among
the most expensive videos on the platform. The funds were largely
sourced through sponsors and crowdfunding, and they
certainly didn't go to waste, with VGHS accruing over 150 million views during its 3 season run, and getting nominated for
several digital media awards, making it one of the first
examples of a YouTube series that felt like a Hollywood production. A tradition which, as you can
see, I am gladly carrying on. Explosion transition. High Stakes Hide and Seek. Now, for the moment we've all
been waiting for, Mr Beast. Over the last few years,
Mr Beast's channel has grown at blistering speeds, seeing real name Jimmy Donaldson become the 5th most popular
YouTuber on the platform, boasting over 100 million subscribers. If Mr Beast's subscribers
formed a country, they'd be the 16th largest in the world, beating out Turkey,
Germany, France and the UK. Most of Mr Beast's
citizens or subscribers, have been drawn in by
the huge amounts of money that the YouTuber gives
away in his videos. If we included all of his
multi-thousand-dollar challenges, we'd be here all day. Considering his annual
YouTube video budget is reportedly over $48 million. So instead of making this
video a Mr Beast compilation, I'm gonna focus on a few
of his most creative, outlandish, and expensive videos, starting with the YouTuber's
unique spin on Hide and Seek. You might think hide and
seek is just a game for kids, but back in 2021 Mr Beast
decided to raise the stakes, playing a round of the childhood game with a million dollar cash prize. If that wasn't outlandish enough, the game took place in the SoFi stadium, home of the NFL's LA Rams and LA Chargers. Usually, the 70,000 seat stadium
is used to play football, but Mr Beast rented out the entire arena to mess around with his friends. The hiders, including Logan
Paul, Bella Poarch, Zach King and other famous content creators. The competitors hid in the stadium, while Mr Beast and his
team hunted them down. After hours of intense hiding and seeking, the King was crowned, with Zach King winning a Million dollars for hiding in the ceiling of
one of the stadium's rooms. The cash prize was obviously
the video's biggest expense. Although renting out SoFi stadium would've cost a very pretty penny too. Renting an entire major stadium
is such an outlandish act, that info on how much it
actually cost the YouTuber is extremely scarce. However, we can use other
celebrities to make an estimate. Back in 2013, Kanye West rented out AT&T park in San Francisco, the home of the San Francisco Giants. Sources at the time reported that such an outrageously-extravagant act would cost around $220,000 for the day. So, if Mr Beast got a similar
deal for the SoFi Stadium, his little game of hide and seek could've cost upwards of $1.2
Million as a grand total. This budget was partially
funded by Mr Beast, and his sponsors, and
with the vid garnering just over 67 million views,
it could've earnt him upwards of $325,000 revenue to
invest into his other videos. And to think, we used
to play hide and seek on the playground for free. A Block of Cash. This next video from Mr
Beast is all about money, the challenge revolving
around a stack of $1 Million in cold hard cash. Mr Beast put four contestants
through a test of endurance, challenging them to place one
hand on the block of money, and leave it on there
for as long as possible. The last remaining challenger
winning the million bucks. When asked about the budget for the video, Mr Beast later explained
that the cash prize, coupled with renting the studio
and the production costs, added up to around $1.2 Million. With all that money on the line, the challenge lasted 36 hours, two of the contestants managing to keep their hand on the cash for a day and a half. Through endless waking hours of standing and occasionally peeing in a bucket, neither of them showed
any sign of letting up. Until one of the contestants
got a spasm in his knee, instinctively lifting his
hand in pain and exhaustion. Needless to say, his
regret was off the charts. Once the challenge was over, Mr Beast gave the prize
to the lucky winner. Hungry and sleep deprived, the winner definitely didn't
feel like a million bucks, but he'd won a fortune,
and took the cash home. He wasn't the only person
who earnt a block of cash. The video's over 90 million views earnt Mr Beast around $450,000 of his own, recouping some of that insane cash prize, ready for more insane projects, which we'll soon be hearing about. Dramatic Drone Shows. Time for a non-Mr Beast interlude now, and for their 50th anniversary in 2018, Intel decided to put on a
record-breaking light show, launching 2,000 drones into the sky. The electronics company specialize in creating cutting edge
electronical equipment, and the YouTube video they made to commemorate their anniversary
was just as innovative. The drones displayed dancing
spacemen, floating brains, planet earth and of
course, the company's logo. The video only achieved
163,000 views on YouTube, likely earning just $815. However, creating a viral YouTube video wasn't Intel's primary goal. At the time, this show set
a new Guinness world record for the most unmanned
aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously, making
Intel's 50th anniversary a record-breaking event. The show was pretty
spectacular, but unfortunately, Intel's record has now been beaten. Korean car manufacturer Genesis used 3,281 drones in their video, to celebrate the entry of their cars into the Chinese market. This show included the company's logo and Genesis' car models, beamed
across the Shanghai skyline. The drones used in these light shows look absolutely spectacular. It's almost unfathomable to
think all those colored lights are thousands of individual quadcopters, usually made out of lightweight
plastic and Styrofoam, with powerful LEDs built-in. With the computing power, planning, and sheer quantity of drones required, a show with around 500 drones
will cost you $299,000, meaning Genesis' 3,281-drone show could've cost just shy of $2 Million. Considering that price, when I need to celebrate
in my YouTube videos. I think I'll stick to
stock footage of fireworks. "Justin Bieber: Seasons." Justin Bieber is one of
the most famous people on the planet, so it's easy to forget that he was once just
an unknown Canadian kid, singing cover songs on
his YouTube channel. In 2020, the Biebmeister
decided to return to his roots, partnering with YouTube to
create an original series called "Justin Bieber: Seasons," a music documentary following the creation of his fifth studio album. The series was one of YouTube's
biggest investments to date, the platform spending $20
Million on the 10-part series. Reportedly, most of the money
was paid to Bieber's teams to give YouTube the exclusive rights to the documentary. $2 million per episode seems like a hefty price
tag for a documentary, but YouTube trusted
that Bieber's star-power would pull in the big bucks. The gamble seemingly paid off, with the series gaining over
227 million views in total in the first 3 months, as
Beliebers flooded to YouTube to watch the documentary. And here's an interesting point of note, the money YouTube creators
receive for their views is only about 45% of
the advertising revenue a video actually makes, the rest is taken by YouTube. And considering YouTube's Bieber series was uploaded by and managed
by YouTube themselves, the company would've earned more than double the
advertising revenue rate a standard creator would've
for those 227 million views. Though, considering this would net around $2.7 million in revenue,
that's still a massive loss, so they likely had a few sponsorship deals and other methods in place to
help make the money back too. Either way, that 227 million view-count still pales in comparison
to the 2.7 billion views on Bieber's "Baby" music video. Though, considering YouTube would've also received around a 55% cut of the advertising
revenue from that video, I'm sure they're not too upset. The Priciest Pokemon. When "Pokemon" first arrived in 1996, kids around the world
fired up their Gameboys, turned on their TVs and begged their moms to give them $4 for a pack
of Pokemon trading cards. It turns out, those $4
were pretty well spent because today, those same booster packs can be worth a small fortune, with 1st edition boxes of packs selling for hundreds of
thousands of dollars. This price inflation has
turned the children's game into an investment opportunity, and nobody's more passionate about it than YouTuber Logan Paul. (all screaming) Logan has publicly purchased some of the world's most expensive cards, encrusting them with diamonds and wearing them around his neck. In 2021, Paul uploaded a video called "I spent $2,000,000 on Pokemon cards," and the title wasn't clickbait. The video showed Paul buying 6
first edition boxes of packs, priced from $325,000 to $350,000. At over 9 million views, this video would've only
earnt Paul around $45,000. However, once he owned the most
valuable Pokemon collection in the world, and controlled the market, Logan put all of the first
edition packs up for auction. Nobody knows how much the
poke-baron earned on his cards, but he reportedly earnt a
heavy profit on his investment. Despite spending millions on Pokemon, Logan still hasn't caught them all and the YouTuber continues to
spend a fortune on the cards. Since uploading the aforementioned video, Paul has bought an ultra-rare
Pikachu Illustrator card for $5.2 Million, making it
the most expensive Pokemon card of all time. In true Logan Paul fashion, the YouTuber then placed the card in an $80,000 diamond pendant. And he wears the card around his neck at public events, letting everybody know that when it comes to collecting Pokemon, he's the very best. ♪ Like no one ever was ♪ "Squid Game in Real Life." Let's return to YouTube's
big-big-big spender now, with Mr. Beast's most
expensive video ever, "Squid Game in Real Life." If you haven't seen
Netflix's hugely popular 2021 South Korean show, "Squid Game," the series follows 456 contestants, battling through deadly
versions of children's games. All attempting to win a
prize of 45.6 billion Won, or $38 million. The show was the perfect source material for parodies on YouTube, and not long after "Squid Game's" release, Mr Beast posted one of
YouTube's most creative videos to date, a real life version of the show. He built near-perfect replicas of the TV show's elaborate sets, before recruiting 456 contestants to compete for a $456,000 prize. The contestants took part
in less-deadly versions of the challenges seen in the show, battling it out at red light,
green light, tug of war and the Dalgona challenge, a Korean children's game that involves cutting
shapes out of thin cookies. During the video, Mr Beast revealed that it cost $3.5 Million to produce, the costs of the elaborate sets shared between Mr Beast
and the video's sponsor. That said, the video currently sits at over 269 million views, meaning Mr Beast likely earned
upwards of $1.26 Million from ad revenue alone. And considering the Beast regularly hits over 120
million views on videos that cost a lot less to produce, you can begin to see how
this crazy fella keeps going. Keep it up, Jimmy Boy. Red Bull Stratos. Back in 2012, Red Bull paid
for daredevil Felix Baumgartner to break the world record
for the highest sky-dive, the daredevil floating up to 127,852 feet in a stratospheric balloon, before diving back down to Earth. The YouTube video immortalizing the event shows Baumgartner reaching
843 miles per hour, breaking the sound barrier,
and eventually landing safely. Needless to say, there was some seriously
expensive equipment and production costs
that went into the video. From Felix's cutting-edge spacesuit, allowing him to breathe and
travel up to the stratosphere without freezing, to the
balloon-and-capsule-combo itself. Media outlets reported that Red Bull invested
more than $64.8 Million into the event, covering the costs to
plan and develop the jump, pay Baumgartner, and use
their own production company to film the feat and distribute
it to other media outlets. Baumgartner's attempt was
broadcast to the world on YouTube, but unfortunately, his record was broken just two years later by Alan Eustace, the ex-senior vice-president
of engineering at Google, who dove from 20,000 feet higher. Much like a punctured
stratospheric balloon, I'll bet that left Baumgartner
feeling pretty deflated. Rocket Science. Now we're onto the real big guns. Or, big rockets, to be more accurate. They say that practice makes
perfect, and back in 2017, Space X spent $804 Million proving it. Since Elon Musk founded
the company in 2002, Space X has worked hard to
create a reusable rocket ship, an invention that would
make space travel far easier and cheaper. In 2017, SpaceX uploaded a YouTube video to show the trial and error that went into developing
the reusable rocket. The video shows all of
Space X's failed launches and landings between 2013 and 2017, with 12 orbital rocket boosters crashing, burning and even exploding in midair. The video's pretty funny, but the amount of money
burning up on screen is no laughing matter. A Space X Falcon 9
costs $67 million a pop, so the 12 failed landings cost Space X around $804 Million. At 27 million views, the video has only earnt around $135,000, which isn't a great profit margin. Though of course, creating viral videos wasn't exactly the intention
of this whole space venture. To most people, these losses are an incomprehensible amount of money, but to Elon Musk and his
$220 billion net worth, it's just another business expense. Musk and Space X's backers continued to pour money into the program, and the company was eventually triumphant. They're now able to consistently land several different
variants of their rockets, allowing them to reuse
them for later launches. The failure video is great entertainment, but it also provides a valuable message if at first you don't
succeed, try, try again. Especially if you're a multi-billionaire. Space Oddity. Every great song deserves
a great music video, but from expensive costumes to Hollywood special effects,
they can get pretty expensive, often costing more to produce
than the music itself. In 2013, Chris Hadfield
released the greatest, and most expensive
music video of all time, uploading a video to YouTube that cost $150 billion to produce. Confused? Well, Chris
Hadfield is an astronaut, not a musician by trade, and his music video was a cover of David Bowie's 1968 classic, "Space Oddity," recorded onboard the International Space Station. Cover songs are rarely
better than the original, but even Bowie himself
called Hadfield's rendition the most poignant version
of the song ever done. The video shows the astronaut floating through the space
station and gazing down at Earth as he sings Bowie's spacefaring lyrics. The version is definitely pretty poignant, but it's also pretty pricy, the costs arising in a few separate ways. First of all, the set. Although the exact cost of the
ISS isn't public knowledge, experts estimate that the space station cost around $150 Billion, making it a pretty expensive
setting for a music video. Now, the ISS clearly
wasn't built in the 1990s solely to provide a set for
Chris Hadfield's song cover, but even when you don't factor
in the cost of the location, the video was still pretty pricy. In space, time is money, and each second that an
astronaut spends on the ISS reportedly costs around $90. Hadfield set up and filmed
the entire video on his own, meaning that the few hours
that he spent on the project potentially cost NASA millions of dollars. As for the equipment used in the video, Hadfield's guitar is a Larrivee P-01, a parlor guitar that was
one of the many instruments placed on the ISS to keep astronauts sane. On Earth, the guitar costs around $2,000. However, this interstellar
version of the instrument costs almost $100,000, most of the money going towards shipping. Launching cargo up to the
ISS costs a ton of planning, fuel, and hence money, the amount calculated based
upon the item's weight. NASA intentionally chose a
small, lightweight guitar for the space station, but they reportedly still
had to spend around $100,000 to get it into orbit. When you add all of that to the costs of hiring people to record
the other instruments on Earth and mix and master the song,
edit the video and so on, it gets a little tricky to
put an exact total price on the production of the YouTube vid. However, whether it cost
$150 Billion, or $150,000, Hadfield's cover of space Oddity is clearly one of the most
elaborate videos of all time. Arguably, it might even be the pinnacle of human entertainment, showing the astounding
things we've been able to do, thanks to the incredible
stage of human technology that we currently live in. It's one small step for man, one huge leap for 60s psychedelic pop and a record-breakingly
expensive video for YouTube, showing the incredible potential of the platform we all love. And that about wraps up the most expensive videos on YouTube. I couldn't cover all of YouTube's most
luxurious content today, so let me know any of
your high-budget favorites down in the comments below. Thanks for watching. (cheerful music)
