MrBeast says 1,000+ fans chased his car in Uzbekistan. Then two viral rumors got shut down

MrBeast’s first-ever trip to Central Asia turned into a full-on frenzy: crowds chased his car through Uzbekistan, and the internet decided he must have run for it. Organizers say he didn’t. According to Kursiv Uzbekistan, the trip only ever covered two cities, Tashkent and Samarkand, and he was heading to the airport on Oct 11 to wrap a planned three-day visit.

The visit was organized by Uzbekistan’s state Art and Culture Development Foundation together with the country’s Tourism Committee, per Kursiv and UzDaily.

What actually happened

1. Oct 6The foundation announces a Tashkent fan event; entrants must be over 18 and are picked at random (Kun.uz)
2. Oct 9MrBeast lands in Tashkent and holds the fan event
3. Oct 10He heads to Samarkand, where hundreds of fans gather
4. Oct 11The foundation says he’s heading to the airport, as scheduled

At the Tashkent event, three participants won 100 million soums each in cash, UzDaily reports. That’s 300 million soums total. The program mixed challenges, quizzes and logic tasks in the style of his videos, and Feastables bars were handed out from a cart.

What he said

MrBeast posted crowd footage to his Instagram Stories and seemed genuinely surprised.

I didn’t know how many people in Uzbekistan watch our videos— MrBeast, on Instagram Stories (via Kursiv Uzbekistan)

In another video, Kursiv reports, he said he had underestimated his popularity there and that more than 1,000 people followed his car, which made getting through the streets very hard without police help. He thanked fans, but also said the situation was tough for his production team, suggested his presence might be putting too much pressure on local authorities, and said an early departure could become necessary. That line is a big part of why the “he fled” talk took off.

Rumor 1: “He fled and canceled Bukhara and Khiva”

Social media reports said he hurried out of Samarkand after struggling through the crowds, and speculation spread that he’d abandoned planned trips to Bukhara and Khiva, per Kursiv. The foundation denied it, telling Kursiv that his departure was planned in advance and no stops were canceled, because he had only ever planned to visit Tashkent and Samarkand.

His production crew did keep going to Bukhara and Khiva to film landmarks. Bukhara regional police spokesperson Ulugbek Shukurlaev confirmed MrBeast himself never arrived but his crew did, and asked residents who headed to the Ark Fortress hoping to see him not to spread unverified claims.

Rumor 2: “His Lamborghini crashed in Tashkent”

Social media users spotted visible paint damage on the red Lamborghini he’s using in one of his challenges, and crash claims followed. Tashkent’s city traffic police denied it, saying the car wasn’t in an accident in the capital and was under constant watch whenever it moved, according to Podrobno.uz. The outlet also reported that MrBeast himself said the car was damaged in Delhi, India.

Where it stands

His three-day visit was set to wrap on Oct 11, and both rumors have official denials on the record. The next thing to watch is what his crew does with the footage it shot at the landmarks in Bukhara and Khiva.