David Dobrik’s latest venture sold half a million dollars’ worth of jigsaw puzzles–yes, jigsaw puzzles–in one hour.
Launched Dec. 10, The Hundred Thousand Dollar Puzzle promises that anyone who purchases it will win some amount of cash, with prizes ranging from a single humble quarter to a $100,000 jackpot. Each puzzle costs $30, and when completed will form a unique QR code. Scan the code and that puzzle’s prize will be revealed.
Viner-turned-YouTuber-turned-all-around-digital-content-creator-and-entrepreneur Dobrik tweeted shortly after the project’s debut that within its first hour, fans had snapped up 17,000 puzzles. At $30 per, that equals sales of $510,000–and counting.
We just sold 17,000 puzzles in the first hour… hahahah what!! Oh my goodness. Thank you guys this is absolutely insane!!
— DAVID DOBRIK (@DavidDobrik) December 10, 2020
According to rules posted on The Hundred Thousand Dollar Puzzle’s website, there is a total of 100,151 puzzles available for purchase. Prizes break down like this: 95,500 puzzles will reward their players with $0.25; 1,500 will pay out $0.50; 1,500 will pay out $1; 1,000 will pay $10; 450 will pay $50; 50 will pay $100; 50 will pay $250; 50 will pay $500; 50 will pay $1,000; and one will pay $100,000.
Total prize pool: $251,125.
Puzzles will begin shipping Jan. 25, per the website. Players must complete and scan them by March 31, 2021, to claim their prizes. (For those wondering, there’s no reference image to use for completion, since each individual puzzle will end up with a different QR code. Putter-togetherers are on their own.)
This is just the latest in a long string of ventures from Dobrik. Ahead of last month’s election, he got more than 80,000 people to register to vote by partnering with voter action nonprofit Headcount and giving away five Teslas. In October, his nascent social media company, Dispo, raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian. In September, he launched his own fragrance company, David’s Perfume. (He’s reportedly cooking up a foodie business called Doughbrik’s Pizza, too.) And, earlier this year, he hosted Discovery TV series Dodgeball Thunderdome.
