It’s not only a principle, YouTuber MatPat has formally introduced his retirement.
Matthew Patrick, who for the final 13 years has been higher referred to as wisecracking on-line character MatPat, on Tuesday evening introduced he would stop to host his ever-popular “Game Theory” movies.
“It’s not clickbait. On March 9, I will be hosting my last ‘Theory’ episode, at which point I will be handing off the channels to someone else,” Patrick stated in a 25-minute video titled Goodbye Internet.
The 37-year-old social media star struggled to maintain his feelings at bay all through the announcement, at occasions shedding tears whereas he addressed his loyal fan base.
“This has been a literal third of my life and I’m going to miss you,” Patrick cried to his viewers.
The video has garnered almost 9.5 million views in its first 18 hours on-line.
Patrick known as The Game Theorists YouTube channel the “first child” of he and his now-wife Stephanie. The pair co-created the challenge in 2011 within the hopes of reaching fellow online game lovers eager about lore and fanciful theories about their favorite video games.
Since then, the couple have cultivated a following of 18.5 million subscribers on the channel — and have seen Patrick launched to worldwide fame as a much-beloved, nerdy on-line creator.
Over the years they’ve launched a number of different spin-off tasks about movie, meals and fashion theories.
But by Patrick’s self-admission, his “work-first” mentality has taken a toll on him and his private life. He and Stephanie had a son in 2018, and the “late nights” engaged on movies are not perfect for Patrick and his household.
Patrick stated he additionally misses the times when he was capable of merely bask in his ardour for taking part in video video games with out ideas of content material creation.
“I miss the days where I could just sit down on the couch with (Stephanie) and play video games, and it’s not for content,” Patrick stated. “Or I’m playing a game, and I’m not thinking about what theories are going to come out of that.
“We knew that we couldn’t do this forever,” Patrick stated of him and his spouse. “We knew that, honestly, we didn’t want to do this forever.”
Luckily for his followers, Patrick received’t disappear completely. Instead, the YouTuber will keep concerned behind the scenes and will seem in future livestreams and Style Theory movies.
Patrick introduced {that a} group of creators who already work on The Game Theorists and different affiliated channels will take over his video internet hosting duties. He stated the gaming channel has uploaded greater than 1,200 impressively in-depth theories about widespread video video games, with most of the channel’s hottest movies surrounding the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise.
Patrick even scored a cameo within the new Five Nights at Freddy’s film, the place he obtained to make use of his well-known “that’s just a theory” line.
In his Goodbye Internet video, Patrick stated he all the time wished his YouTube profession to exit “on a high note.” With Game Theorists’ views at an all-time excessive, and Patrick’s different tasks succeeding, he stated now felt like the precise time.
Still, a lot of Patrick’s devoted fanbase is now mourning the lack of the self-described grandfather of YouTube.
Video recreation designer Robert F. (Toby) Fox thanked Patrick “for the theories” with a crude drawing of characters from the favored role-playing recreation Undertale.
YouTuber Jacksepticeye wrote that it was “hard to believe” Patrick received’t be internet hosting The Game Theorists movies anymore.
“MatPat has done so much for youtube (sic) and YouTubers (sic) over the years!” he stated.
Other followers — lots of whom have been viewers since childhood — expressed their upset at seeing Patrick step away.
Patrick isn’t the one YouTuber to ever dangle up their content material creation cap — be it absolutely or partially. Some of the platform’s largest creators have traditionally introduced their retirements amid mounting job pressures, burnout, a want to keep up privateness or different causes.
Just final week, YouTuber Tom Scott, recognized for posting weekly short-form movies as a part of his “Things You Might Not Know” collection, stated he would cease making movies. He cited adjustments to the YouTube platform and their creator partnerships as one purpose for quitting.
Even a number of the platform’s largest creators, like the favored gaming YouTuber PewDiePie, have pulled again on posting. PewDiePie, whose actual title is Felix Kjellberg, stepped again in 2022 from importing common gaming movies as a result of burnout and a want to spend time along with his household.
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