YouTuber MatPat announces his retirement

Gaming YouTuber MatPat announced Tuesday afternoon that he will officially retire from his YouTube channel, marking the official end to more than 12 years as an online gaming authority and fan following.

In a tearful video titled “Goodbye Internet,” MatPat — legal name Matthew Patrick — announced that March 9, 2024 would be his last day hosting “Game Theorists,” a popular YouTube franchise dedicated to video game lore and discussion .

After first starting YouTube in 2011, Patrick created Game theorists with his wife Stephanie as a one-stop-shop to discuss the internet's wildest theories behind popular video games. Since releasing her first video, the brand has grown into a YouTube empire, with spinoffs, 17.7 million subscribers on the main channel alone, and hundreds of millions of views each month.

In 2023, MatPat hosted the Streamy Awards, an award show dedicated to online achievement. (The Streamys are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which owns Rolling rockof parent company PMC.) Before the live show, where he was praised for his ability to host, Patrick said Rolling rock He was excited to celebrate the long legacy the creator economy has built.

Patrick said Tuesday that he was “honored” to be working on the channel and said that both he and the fans have gone through an evolution together — from big brother, father of YouTube and now “grandfather” of YouTube, to to live in a comfortable retirement home in Florida.

But heartbroken fans won't have to mourn just yet. There are nine more episodes of it Game theorists left — which Patrick said will still be filled with extensive discussion of all things gaming.

“One of the things that's nice to point out at this point, having such a long history on the platform, is [that] we've moved into this idea of ​​being able to cater to multiple generations of online viewers,” he previously said Rolling rock. “One of the goals for us has always been to enable the next generation of creators to rise up and take our platform and do great new interesting things with it.”