An aerial shot of a Beast Games Season 2 campus, emailed between N.C. Commerce officials in June and provided to The News & Observer through a public records request.
The new trailer for Season 2 of MrBeast’s reality competition “Beast Games” teases alliances, betrayals, contestants being buried alive, contestants bashing each other with pugil sticks, longtime “Survivor” host Jeff Probst, and a $5 million prize.
North Carolina didn’t want to miss out. State records obtained this month by The News & Observer detail not only when and where the forthcoming 10-episode season was shot, but also how North Carolina specifically updated its film incentive guidelines to bring Beast Games to MrBeast’s home state.
In Season 1, Greenville-native Jimmy Donaldson, better known as the YouTube star MrBeast, guided 1,000 competitors through a series of mental and physical challenges in pursuit of $5 million (which the winner doubled to $10 million in a final coin toss). Amazon Prime Video said it was the platform’s most watched unscripted show ever. Reviews were mixed.
Formal discussions about filming Beast Games Season 2 in North Carolina began in November 2024, public records show, a month before the inaugural season premiered. In April, Beast Industries informed the state through an “intent to film” application that it sought to spend at least $65 million and shoot at least 80% of the second season between a studio in Wilmington and at various sites in and around Greenville, the Eastern North Carolina city where Donaldson graduated from high school and has kept his company headquartered.
Following this plan, a Beast production company named Trailblazer Events filmed over five weeks beginning in early June. Trailblazer estimated its entire production process, which includes post-production extending into 2026, will employ around 630 people in the state. Ultimately, nine of Season 2’s 10 episodes filmed in North Carolina, with one episode shot in Nevada.
In June, N.C. Film Office Director Guy Gaster emailed state commerce officials an aerial photograph of a Beast Games Season 2 campus, a colorful park-like site surrounded by fields.
Gaster believes Beast Games would not have come to the state without a financial boost. In a June 4 email, he told commerce officials that Season 1 had “filmed outside of North Carolina because of incentives.” In a separate email to commerce staff that day, Gaster emphasized Beast Games was a priority for Amazon, a major tech company that has extended into movie and TV production.
In June, the Nevada Film Office approved a $2.5 million tax credit for Beast Games to film a Season 2 episode in Las Vegas, a year after the state gave the Season 1 production a $2.2 million incentive.
“There are certainly people who have asked, ‘Why are you giving this production an incentive? They were going to be in North Carolina regardless,’” Gaster told The N&O in a phone interview Monday. “And they have proven that, no, they would not necessarily shoot this in the state.”
NC adjusts film grant guidelines for Beast Games
North Carolina started awarding TV and movie productions tax credits in 2006. Nine years later, the state pivoted to offering grants, 25% rebates on qualifying expenses, capped at $15 million. It is one of 37 states to offer entertainment industry incentives, though some think it shouldn’t. In a policy report last year, Jon Sanders of the Raleigh-based conservative think tank John Locke Foundation called for the end of the North Carolina Film and Entertainment Grant fund, writing “unlike other economic incentive programs, film grants don’t require recipients to earn them over time by hitting specific local job–creation targets or fulfilling other long-term promises.”
“When the project is over, the grant money is gone and so are the jobs,” Sanders wrote.
Courting Beast Games earlier this year, North Carolina faced a logistical, not ideological, roadblock. Under its film and entertainment grant guidelines, the N.C. Film Office couldn’t offer grants to game shows. Gaster did not know exactly why North Carolina and many other states exclude game shows from their film incentive programs, but North Carolina also keeps production incentives away from award shows, talk shows and live sporting events which can film within short time frames.
MrBeast attends the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards at UBS Arena on September 07, 2025 in Elmont, New York. Noam Galai Getty Images for MTV
The Beast team had a solution: asserting Beast Games was not a game show but instead a competition show. On March 25, Beast Industries sent the N.C. Film Office a fact sheet delineating the two formats. Competition shows contain “story arcs,” the company said, that build drama over multiple episodes as characters develop and twists unfold. A game show is like the question-based contests “Jeopardy” or “Family Feud”; a competition show is like “Survivor.”
This spring, the state commerce department added language to the North Carolina Film and Entertainment Grant guidelines, writing, “For purposes of the Program, a reality-based competition series will not be considered a game show and, therefore, may be eligible for a Grant award under the Program.”
After a 15-day comment period, during which no public comments were received, the state finalized this clarifying text in June. Principal filming on Beast Games Season 2 commenced the same month.
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 11:37 AM.
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Brian Gordon
The News & Observer
Brian Gordon is the Business & Technology reporter for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. He writes about jobs, startups and big tech developments unique to the North Carolina Triangle. Brian previously worked as a senior statewide reporter for the USA Today Network. Please contact him via email, phone, or Signal at 919-861-1238.
