Thousands of ravenous fans of popular YouTube personality MrBeast swarmed a New Jersey mall over the Labor Day weekend for the opening of his first burger joint.
More than two thousand camped out at the American Dream mall overnight Saturday for the chance to meet their idol Jimmy Donaldson, the Kansas-born YouTube sensation with more than 100 million subscribers.
One fan tweeted: “If anyone is curious how the MrBeast overnight in the mall for a burger thing is going… I just taught a 4:30am, half hour stretch class on the floor of the mall to a gathering crowd of people.”
Another tweeted on Sunday at 5:10 AM that she “tried to sleep on a gallon of water.”
Tens of thousands more descended on the sprawling East Rutherford, NJ mall Sunday, some from as far away as Nebraska and Denmark, to sample his MrBeast Burgers, according to tweets.
The MrBeast Burger opened its first brick-and-mortar eatery at American Dream on Sept. 4.
The 24-year-old YouTuber, known for giving away millions of dollars to those in need via his charity, Beast Philanthropy, and for his high-stakes competitions and tournaments, has the fifth-highest circulation on the platform.
The massive turnout for MrBeast Burger’s first brick-and-mortar location even surprised the entrepreneur, who tweeted a photo of the crowds and suggested people avoid the packed mall and return on Labor Day.
“I feel pretty good about serving all you but anyone else coming idk maybe come tomorrow/later tonight haha,” Donaldson tweeted.
Fans who did make it to the third-floor hot spot Sunday were handed wristbands when they arrived and the eatery stayed open two hours past its 10 pm closing time, the mall operator said in a statement.
Others left with grumbling stomachs, tweeting photos of their wristband numbers that were as high as 17,941 and 18,113.
Fans from as far away as Nebraska and Denmark came to the opening.
The smashed burgers are nothing fancy but have become a national obsession for his followers. MrBeast Burger opened as a delivery-only concept in December 2020 and has grown to some delivery-only 1,700 locations, according to a press release.
One McDonald’s franchisee tweeted, “Wow, quite an impressive opening for a restaurant.”
The timing couldn’t be better for MrBeast’s landlord, the second largest mall in the country.
American Dream opened shortly before the pandemic began and then struggled during the outbreak to stay afloat with delayed retail openings, barely making its debt payments earlier this year.