MrBeast and James Patterson’s Novel Collaboration Seems to Be Headed Toward Disastrous Debut
MrBeast and James Patterson’s Novel Collaboration Seems to Be Headed Toward Disastrous Debut
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THR Staff
August 31, 2026 8:27pm
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MrBeast (left) and James PattersonGetty Images (2)
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Could MrBeast and James Patterson have a dud on their hands?
According to Semafor, the pair’s new novel collaboration, titled The Most Dangerous Games, has been tracking poorly in presales.
Citing anonymous sources “close to the project,” Semafor reported that the thriller is “on track to be a historic bomb.” As of last week, preorders were “numbering in the four digits … a tiny fraction of what the publisher will need to justify Patterson’s and YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson’s [aka MrBeast] hefty fees.” As of Monday, the book was at No. 18 on Amazon’s new releases list.
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However, another knowledgeable source told The Hollywood Reporter that the number of preorders is not unusual, particularly for a genre novel, and that what really matters is first-week sales. They also pointed out that the book is currently at No. 1 on the mystery novels list.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to reps for book publisher HarperCollins for comment.
According to the book’s webpage, the logline is: “A thousand strangers receive the invitation. One hundred make the cut. An unprecedented competition from MrBeast, the world’s #1 creator with more than a billion followers, and James Patterson, the world’s #1 bestselling author, where the stakes couldn’t be higher.
“The Games begin in Antarctica, where one wrong step “on the ice kills you, and they never let up: Shark water off a remote Chilean island, desert heat that cooks you where you stand, storm-battered peaks, and caves so black you cannot find your own hand. No rescue. No second chances. A billion dollars to whoever is still standing.
“Then the terrain stops being the thing that can kill you, and the other players start. Alliances turn into ambushes. Trust becomes the sharpest weapon. And somewhere above it all, a hidden voice is watching every move, testing, deciding who deserves to survive.”
Donaldson and Patterson have been promoting the book on social media, including in a YouTube short titled “Read My Book, You Could Win $1,000,000.” Donaldson, who has 515 million subscribers on YouTube, is known for giving away money to his followers for taking part in (and successfully completing) various outlandish stunts.
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