The end of 2023 saw the departures, permanent or otherwise, of some of the YouTube community’s famous content creators, and this creeped its way into 2024.
Hunter Hancock or “Papa Meat,” the man behind the absurdist animated YouTube channel “Meat Canyon,” said he would be straying away from this channel and moving to his side channel. Educational YouTuber and English online personality Tom Scott left his self-titled channel in an announcement video posted on his channel’s ten year anniversary a day after Hancock’s video. Even Matthew Patrick, better known as “MatPat,” announced his leave as the face of his video essay channels (such as “The Game Theorists”) in his own video just over a week later, claiming to be inspired by Tom Scott’s leave. In a spiraling domino effect, YouTube personalities appear to be leaving their fanbases in support of something greater. This all came seemingly out of the blue, but each one has their reasons which are, generally, all the same.
Papa Meat, famous for his videos parodying current events with “nightmare fuel” absurdist animation said in his video that his parody work was too negative and unfulfilling. He hopes to return in some years when he is healthier and ready to start making the content he is famous for again. Tom Scott shared similar sentiments in his own unrelated video, claiming that work became too draining to the point of near burnout. Scott believed his best option was to leave his channel, most likely temporarily, and if he is to return there will no longer be weekly uploads, which is how he has run his channel for years. MatPat himself even claims that his reasons are, “largely the same as Tom’s reasons… or Papa Meat’s,” as he felt that his work consumed his life, having less time to have genuine, non-filmed family time with his wife Steph and his five year old son Ollie.
Irish YouTuber Seán “Jacksepticeye” Mcloughlin would share MatPat’s feelings in an X (formerly Twitter) post he made, saying, “MatPat’s video made me realise that I’ve been doing youtube for a literal third of my life…” Many YouTubers, especially those in gaming and animation, find some of their work to be too overwhelming and unfulfilling. While these reasons may seem selfish to YouTube fans, it is important to understand the life and work of almost every famous YouTuber.
The YouTuber that had the biggest impact on me when they left was MatPat. Game Theory was a big part of my life and he was one of the first big YouTubers I watched. It influenced a lot how I view gaming, media in general, and it taught me how to analyze things. I think the reasons [for leaving] were, of course, justified. We don’t know these people; they are not our friends. They are entertainers, and when people view it as, ‘this is a person I know,’ that’s when it gets bad because this is their job. They get the final decision on what they do with it.”
— Jacob Rapoport, Junior
YouTube is not the steadiest platform to make content on; YouTube is a constantly changing service that has received flack in the past few years for terrible choices regarding changes in their platform. Most notably they removed the ability to publicly view dislikes on any video and even received a new, controversial CEO, Neal Mohan. Content creation, while seemingly a dream job, can also be draining, as YouTubers have to maintain a weekly, sometimes near-daily schedule of uploading quality content that is fresh, intriguing, and profitable. The more famous a creator becomes, and the more they upload the content their fans enjoy, the more is expected of those creators, especially when competing with other, similar creators on the same platform.
CaptainSparklez, a Minecraft YouTuber famous for his “Let’s Play” and music video content like “Fallen Kingdom” seemingly started this trend of YouTubers quitting with his own video, “Retiring,” posted on Dec. 5, 2023. In order to continue making money while also doing what he loved, he chose to quit making his famous Minecraft Let’s Play videos (of which he was largely famous for) instead of changing his channel’s structure entirely. He emphasized the importance of going out on a high note, which MatPat would agree and sympathize with in his own video.
Almost 2 months later on Jan. 30, CaptainSparklez made a video addressing this “trend” titled “The Retiring Trend.” He addressed the misconception that he and many creators would be leaving their channels entirely, when instead he and they simply changed their approach of content creation. He dubbed this trend as “pure coincidence” in its timespan but also said he would not be surprised to see this trend continue in 2024 and years to follow.
Unfortunately, these expectations are not unfathomed for a multitude of reasons. What many people forget is the actual scope of how long these creators have been making videos for. YouTube channels CaptainSparklez, The Game Theorists, jacksepticeye, Meat Canyon, and Tom Scott uploaded their first traditional YouTube videos in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2017, and 2009 respectively. Since then, these creators have gained massive following, leaving their channels to go from hobbies, to side jobs, to full blown businesses. Not only that but the creation of side channels and expansion into other genres causes demand for more diverse content and for it to be uploaded much more frequently. For example, across his five main YouTube channels, MatPat’s team churns out around 11 videos a week, all of which MatPat is involved in vocally, visually, and more. The need to maintain and grow one’s own popularity can go too far for some YouTubers; the job of content creation, on any platform, can consume one’s life and lead them to ignore other important aspects of life including friends, family, and relationships.
YouTube has never been unfamiliar with content creators quitting, but the past few months have shown some extremely popular, relevant creators and “YouTube OGs” finally taking matters into their own hands. YouTube, rather unfortunately, can not be a permanent job, let alone a healthy and long lasting one. While these are big changes with possibly more to come from other
“These reasons are absolutely justified,” Applications Trainer and Esports Club Sponsor Damani Brown said. “It’s not on us to even be able to say whether or not it’s a good reason. Pewdipie did something like this earlier and he’s just focusing on family now. No one’s popular forever. I think what’s happening is these YouTubers are saying ‘I can’t stay popular forever. I’ve got to spend time with my family. I’ve kind of made it, I’ve made some money, and now let me actually spend time, while I’m young, with my family.’ The trend of them leaving is [also] actually pretty common. Every year around January, that’s the least you see uploaders and content creators put content out there. I don’t know what it is but this always happens.”
YouTubers, the fortunate thing is that some may choose to come back, like Scott and Papa Meat, while others will choose to work behind the scenes, like MatPat. Whether these frequent recent leaves are up to coincidence or not, they have taught the YouTube entertainment community, much of them young, that not everything can last forever, even consistent entertainment. Perhaps 2024 and the years that follow will allow for new creators in gaming, animation, and comedy to fill in the gaps of what these veterans can not do in their age and experience.
