These YouTube growth tactics come from MrBeast's leaked production memo, which judges a video by three numbers. The first minute carries most of the weight. I retitled 81 of my own Substack posts in one day against the same click logic, so the rows below show the memo's first number at work.
Rosanna Pansino shared the 36-page memo, "How to Succeed in MrBeast Production," in August 2024. She said a former employee sent it and four other former employees confirmed it, according to Passionfruit. A MrBeast spokesperson declined to comment on whether it is real. A published copy of the text is online, and every memo quote below comes from it.
Its author runs the channel that YouTube says was the first by an individual creator to pass 500 million subscribers, in June 2026.
TLDR
The memo sets one goal, the best YouTube videos, and measures it with three numbers: CTR, AVD and AVP.
Titles drive CTR. Put a number or a loser in the title and keep the video true to its promise.
The memo's example video lost 21 million of 60 million viewers in the first minute.
Plan a spectacle at minute 3 and again at minute 6.
The memo's other rules coordinate a crew and can wait until you have one.
One Rewrite Moved the Price Out of Parentheses
Take one post I retitled against a headline checklist. The topic never changed, and the packaging did.
Before: "Free LinkedIn Comment Tool (I Almost Paid $250)." The price sits in parentheses and the title names no loser.
After: "A $250 LinkedIn Comment Tool Lost to a Free Extension." The price leads and the free tool wins.
Subtitle: "Paid plans charged $49 a month for 20 comments a day." That line carries the proof.
The checklist: a real number, the reader's headache and the keyword. The new title holds all three.
A stranger sees a title and a thumbnail before anything else, so the memo's first number rewards exactly this change.
Watch out. I have no view counts for these rewrites yet. The memo supplies the logic, and my rows show the shape of the change.
The full post behind that title is live.
The Memo Names One Goal and Three Numbers
The memo says the goal is the best YouTube videos possible. It adds that this means neither the best produced nor the best looking video. Three numbers measure that goal.
CTR: clicks divided by views of the thumbnail. The memo's example is 10 million clicks from 100 million people who saw the thumbnail, a 10% CTR.
AVD: how long people watch on average. YouTube's graph shows the exact second each viewer leaves.
AVP: the share of the video people watch. The memo tells staff to "make people watch as long as possible."
The memo says AVP matters less to most staff, because the length is set above them.
Step 1. Write the Title Before You Shoot
The memo says the title and thumbnail set the viewer's expectation, so the whole crew must know both. Its example compares two titles with similar effort behind them.
"I Spent 50 Hours In My Front Yard" is the weak one. The memo says "I Spent 50 Hours In Ketchup" is easily 100x more viral.
"I Survived" beats "I Spent," because the memo says it adds intrigue and feels more extreme.
A broken promise costs the viewer. A thumbnail with a giant yellow bouncy castle on a video that shows a red one makes people click off.
My rewrites follow three checks: a real number, the reader's headache named and the keyword kept. Three more rows from the same batch:
"Claude Code Memory. The 5 Files That Persist" became "Claude Code Forgets Overnight. 5 Memory Files Fix It." The headache is forgetting.
"Build a Content Flywheel. Distribution Strategy" became "Your Posts Start From Zero. A Content Flywheel Fixes That." The headache is starting from zero.
"Replace a Quote Spreadsheet With a Pricing Engine" became "Quotes Took 45 Minutes. A Pricing Engine Cut It to 5." The number is the cut.
Rule of thumb. Write the title first, the thumbnail second and the shot list last.
The Boring Marketer says the right angle separates a product that does not sell from one that cannot keep up with demand.
For a second pass on a title, use SEO Blog Grader. It takes a draft, a file or a live URL and returns a ranked list of fixes.
The same click test applies to a post image. Social Card Studio builds a LinkedIn, X or Instagram card from real screenshots and real command output.
Step 2. Spend Your Hours on the First Minute
The memo calls the first minute the most important minute of each video, because every video loses the most viewers there. Its example video drew 60 million clicks. It lost 21 million viewers in the first minute and kept 39 million, which the memo calls above average next to other channels.
The memo's example of a bad start has four faults:
An opening shot that is not well lit.
An opening that misses the promise of the thumbnail.
Words nobody planned.
No interesting content in the first minute.
Reverse each one. Light the shot, open on what the thumbnail promised, script your first sentence and put your best moment in the first 60 seconds. Then open the video's analytics in YouTube Studio, find the second where the line drops and fix that moment in the next video.
Example. Our first B2B promo video had text on screen and background music, and it got 200 views. The topic was fine and the hooks were missing. We rebuilt it with a visual hook, a text hook and an audio hook.
Step 3. Land a Spectacle at Minutes 3 and 6
After the first minute the memo plans in blocks, and each block has one job.
Minutes 1 to 3: show the story. The memo's "crazy progression" covers several days of a 10-minute survival video in the first 3 minutes, so viewers want to see how far the person goes.
Minute 3: a re-engagement, which is content that fits the story and impresses the viewer. The memo's test is a segment where "only MrBeast can do this." On your channel, show the one thing only you can show.
Minutes 3 to 6: quick scene changes and simple, stimulating content.
Minute 6: a second re-engagement that pushes the story into the back half.
The memo says the average MrBeast video runs 13 minutes 37 seconds, and staff must always know which minute their work fills.
Rule of thumb. For every scene, write the minute of the finished video where it lands.
The Other Rules Keep the Shoot From Failing
The memo's remaining advice protects a production with a crew. Group it into three habits and skip it until someone else touches your shoot.
Communicate:
Video everything critical, and anything people might ask about.
Treat written messages as unread until the person confirms. The memo says writing does not count as communication until they confirm.
Own a mistake, because the memo says mistakes are okay and expects you to make many.
Protect the shoot:
Name the critical components, the things without which the video cannot happen, and guard them.
Check outside claims. If ten pillow companies have a few hundred and an eleventh suddenly has 10,000, the memo says to investigate.
Learn the channel:
The memo says to watch the last 50 or so videos to get 60% up to speed.
Watch the top hits of your niche the same way.
OutlierKit, a YouTube competitor-data tool, announced an API and an MCP server for agents to pull that kind of data.
Packaging earns the click. Distribution decides who sees the title, and How to Get Your First 10,000 Users Without Spam covers that part.
Five Questions a Creator Asks About the Memo
Does this work without a team? The three numbers, the title habit and the minute plan need one person. The last group of rules matters once someone else touches the shoot.
Is the memo real? Pansino said four former employees confirmed it, and Passionfruit reported that two former producers called it legitimate. A MrBeast spokesperson declined to comment on whether it is real.
How many titles should I write per video? The memo gives no count. Write several, and keep the one with a number, a named headache and your keyword.
What is a good CTR? The memo gives one worked example of 10% and no benchmark. Compare your own videos with each other.
Where do I see my first-minute drop? YouTube Studio shows a retention graph for each video. The memo says it reveals the exact second viewers leave.
The Appendix Holds the Title Check and the Minute Plan
Copy this into a note and fill it in before each shoot:
Title:
Real number in it?
Names the viewer's headache?
Keyword inside?
Thumbnail promise (one sentence):
First 60 seconds:
Opening shot lit?
Opens on the thumbnail's promise?
First sentence scripted?
Best moment placed here?
Minute 3 spectacle:
Minute 6 spectacle:
Scene -> minute it lands in:
CTR and retention framing cuts through noise. This is mechanics, not mythology.
Here's the TL;DR version of this:
• YouTube rewards retention over production value.
• First-minute optimization dominates outcomes.
• Titles and thumbnails are tested, not guessed.
• Money and stakes must be visible.
• Execution beats cinematic ambition.