When Ian Weber found out he had become a millionaire, the first thing he thought was simple: He finally accomplished what he set out to do.
“I set out on a challenge … to win money for my family,” Weber told The Salt Lake Tribune. “Above anything else, it was for my family. It was almost like this huge weight, huge relief that had lifted. That, ‘OK, I’m bringing something home.’”
Weber, a Lehi resident, won a $1.8 million private island while competing in the second season of “Beast Games,” a reality competition series created by a group of YouTube personalities, including host Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson. Weber’s winning episode hit Amazon’s streaming service, Prime Video, on Wednesday.
“Beast Games” follows contestants as they compete for a $5 million prize. The second season of the series pits smart versus strong, but once again centers around a foundational question: What would you do for money?
(Karsten Moran | The New York Times) Jimmy Donaldson, the streaming media personality known as MrBeast, is interviewed in New York in December 2025.
Weber said he was inspired to try out for the show after watching the first season with his family.
“What really intrigued me was the challenges,” he said. In one episode, someone pulled a monster truck, and in others, Weber was drawn to simple memorization tasks. He’s no stranger to challenges, either, as a three-time competitor on “American Ninja Warrior” who also has a knack for participating in Hot Wheels customization contests.
The “Beast Games” episode where Weber wins the island starts with 20 contestants having to find a cannonball in Beast City, the custom-built set for the show. Weber is the second of 10 to do so and moves on to compete for the island. Contestants are whisked off to another island to compete and are greeted by Jeff Probst, the host of “Survivor.”
The episode becomes a crossover with two challenges inspired by “Survivor.” In the first, the competitors split into two teams of five to complete a relay. Weber’s team wins and he proceeds to the second challenge, where he has to hang onto a long wooden pole. He ends up being one of the final two who hangs on.
When it came to his technique for both challenges, Weber said he started by picking members for his relay team that he could trust, since he was elected as one of the two captains.
With the pole challenge, Weber said, “I’ve been watching ‘Survivor’ for 25 years, and I have seen that challenge over and over and over again, and I knew that it was going to hurt, but I was going to give it everything I had.”
He said he used the strength of both of his big toes to slot into a notch in the pole and hold on as tight as possible. “Holding 210 pounds by my two big toes was murderous,” he said. “It hurt so bad.”
(Prime Video) Ian Weber competes as contestant 148 on Season Two of "Beast Games."
The eight contestants who were eliminated in the first challenge and the three who fell off the poles early then got to decide who won the island, picking between Weber and JC Gallegos, who previously competed on Season One and won $650,000.
When pleading his case during the tribal council, Weber said making it to that exact moment was “the dream.”
“As a kid, I would sit down with my nine siblings and I would watch ‘Survivor’ and my mom and dad was there and I could see myself sitting right here and being able to pitch my case,” he told the other contestants while tearing up.
Weber told the tribal council his bank account was dwindling, so coming on the show was risky.
“I told my wife,” he said, “‘I’m going to bring home something for us so we can live comfortably as a family.’”
He told the contestants if they awarded him the island, he would always be there for them going forward, and would even be willing to self-eliminate if they asked. The eight-member tribal council voted unanimously for Weber to win the island.
Weber told The Tribune that he meant what he said in that scene.
“Beast Games” Season Two was filmed last summer and is now streaming. Weber said being a part of the show was a dream. “Looking back, it was the experience of a lifetime,” he said. “It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.”
Viewers will have to tune in to see how Weber fared the rest of the season