Matthew When Patrick, better known to his millions of fans as MatPat, announced his resignation in January, he took a look back at the many generations of YouTube stars and how they became on par with traditional celebrities.
According to him, in the 2010s, “YouTuber” was a relatively new profession, and its creators forged close bonds with their followers by becoming more approachable, relatable celebrities with whom they could engage in real-world interactions.
According to Patrick, a lot of the creators who made YouTube their full-time job in the early going have begun to fade out, blaming burnout, age, and the mounting pressures and challenges brought on by the platform’s constantly shifting policies and algorithms.
Patrick attributed his success to a combination of fortunate timing and The Game Theorists’ current integration into a larger organisation. Patrick and Stephanie, his spouse and business partner, sold Theory Media to Lunar X in December 2022.
They were able to take on more operational roles behind the scenes and retreat from the spotlight as a result. The Game Theorists, with its numerous channels and 19 million subscribers who eagerly await the ideas and mythology behind the major games, will continue to exist, albeit under new team members.
Patrick’s decision to reduce the scope of his YouTube career was not unique. Tom Scott famously terminated his “Things You Might Not Know” YouTube series on New Year’s Day. For ten years, he had been producing weekly films on his channel about various aspects of the workings of the globe, from bear-resistant bins to the Suez Canal to flu camps.
Although he acknowledged in his farewell video that becoming a YouTuber was still his ideal career, he added that “it’s a job that keeps getting bigger and more complicated and I am so tired.”
In an interview with the Guardian, he stated that he had observed numerous colleagues cutting back on the amount of time they spent on YouTube.
He stated that it’s “going to be a difficult few years” on the platform, saying that “everyone I know is noticing their views slowly falling, and therefore their ad revenue reducing.”
