“That’s just a theory.”
Over the past decade this phrase has been increasing in popularity along with its creator, Matthew Patrick, also known as MatPat, the host of the YouTube channels “The Game Theorists,” “The Film Theorists,” “The Food Theorists” and “The Style Theorists.” Each channel is known for outlandish content based on making “theories” on numerous subjects ranging from the lore of Five Nights at Freddy to whether or not one could live off a grocery store.
“I like games,” Carter Crayton, ‘26, said. “I like listening to theories and I have an interest in science, so the channel was very interesting for me, and I don’t mind dad jokes or cringe humor.”
However, on Jan. 9, Patrick announced on his channel that he would be retiring from his hosting duties for all of his channels after 13 years. The video currently has about 19 million views with fans and fellow YouTubers expressing their feelings in the comments.
“I was just more shocked,” Crayton said. “I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is happening because he has such a long legacy on the platform on YouTube.’ He is one of the founding YouTubers, someone that you would think would be around for decades to come.”
Though Patrick plans to take a step back in order to spend more time on personal projects and with family, the show will go on, albeit with a different host. Many enjoyed Patrick’s high energy and unique style of hosting when it came to his videos.
Tre Hall, ‘25, won’t continue to watch the channels.
“I think other people will still watch it, but I, personally, will not because I feel like MatPat is the face of Game Theory. And if he’s not going to be there, why watch it,” Hall said.
As the year progresses, more and more notable YouTubers aside from Patrick have stepped back or completely quit such as Tom Scott and Seth Everman, leading to a notable shift in the platform’s reception.
“I think YouTube is becoming sort of an obsolete platform in a way,” Hall said. “Unless you’re the biggest of the big, people have sort of migrated to TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat or social media in general, rather than using YouTube to get their source of entertainment.”
Though Patrick’s retirement has saddened many, he plans to go out with a bang via his last ten theories for each channel, bringing closure to some of his longest-running topics and allowing fans to reminisce once more.
“He really sounds like he cares about the things that he’s talking about,” Crayton said. “Not all the topics, but he cares about his channel as a whole. And so I just watched [the videos] for MatPat, even if I didn’t even care about any of the content.”