MatPat Announces His Retirement From The Game Theorists

Highlights

Beloved gaming YouTuber MatPat has announced his retirement from his channel, The Game Theorists. Made popular for his deep exploration of the intricacies of video game lore and theories, Matthew Patrick has been the host of The Game Theorists for the last 13 years. At the time of writing, his channel has amassed 18.4 million subscribers and is a staple in the gaming community on YouTube.

MatPat began his theorist journey with The Game Theorists, delving deep into the lore of games like Five Nights at Freddy’s, Minecraft, and much more. Along the way, he has expanded the business into four other unique channels: The Film Theorists, GT Live, The Food Theorists, and The Style Theorists. The channels, and Theorist Media, belong to CEO Matthew and his wife and COO, Stephanie Patrick. According to Matthew, the couple has been “work-first for over a decade” and has successfully grown their channels to approximately 42 million subscribers altogether.

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MatPat announced on January 10 that he would be stepping down from the YouTube channels for a slew of personal reasons. He will officially step down on March 9, after nine more theory videos and lots of celebration. The channels will not be ending, but will instead be garnering new hosts who have been featured in videos as well as working tirelessly alongside the business for many years.

Matthew explained in his announcement video on YouTube, entitled “Goodbye Internet,” that he knew his departure was upcoming, which is why he and Stephanie had been working to bring on staff members and even partnered with a larger company to help keep the channels thriving after they stepped away. MatPat said that with content creation, one can either choose when they are finished or inevitably see their hard work, passion, and relevancy fade. With other YouTubers stepping away from their content, he intended to leave the Theorist channels on a high note rather than watching them fade.

“I love you guys. I do. You’re not just numbers. You’re not just ad impressions, you’re not just merch sales. What you have done for me… and what I have done for you is special.”

MatPat expressed that the biggest reasons for stepping down were to spend more time with his son and relieve the pressures of incessant work from his family life. The YouTuber also intends to pursue his own creative projects after years of analyzing those of others and assured fans that he would continue to work behind the scenes of the channels. Regardless of reason, The Game Theorists has raised money for charity, showing their heart and that of their dedicated following, and the news of Matthew’s retirement has been received with lots of emotion.

With a third of his life dedicated to his channels, Matthew will leave behind a huge MatPat-shaped hole in the gaming community on YouTube. In the last few minutes of his video, he gushed about how honored he is to have held such a special place in the childhoods and lives of his subscribers, and in a touching and tearful statement said: “I love you guys. I do. You’re not just numbers. You’re not just ad impressions, you’re not just merch sales. What you have done for me… and what I have done for you is special.”