Game Theory, Film Theory, Food Theory, and Style Theory – a quartet of channels created by Matthew “MatPat” Patrick –  has totaled over 40 million subscribers total, according to YouTube.  This brings attention to the fact that a lot of Youtubers from childhood are announcing their retirement.

     Game Theory –  most popular for their Five Nights at Freddy’s theories – analyzes various video games with almost 19 million subscribers. Film Theory, alongside 12.8 million subscribers, talks about secrets of fan-favorite movies, TV series, and more; they also discuss truth behind the mechanics of what we love to watch. Food Theory brings theories on food myths, brands, and mascots with 5.21 million subscribers. Finally, Style Theory and their 2.48 million subscribers ask the questions of if a heel could harm someone, or how do the Hulk’s pants even stay on? 

     Overall four of these Channels one thing is current: MatPat. MatPat first started Youtube in 2010 with audition tapes for musicals. Junior Riley Massoni says that she has been watching MatPat for “Around five or so years – off and on – but mainly through high school years.” She adds, “I will miss him a lot in the content. However, I am excited to see the new host of the channel, and [Patrick] will still be showing up from time to time. I’m excited to see where they take it in the future of the company.”

     Lots of Youtubers are stepping back from the spotlight, including Tom Scott, Stampy, MeatCanyon, CaptainSparkles, Seth Everman, and Hannah Witton. This started away when popular YouTuber Jenna Marbles stepped down.  YouTubers are growing older and decreasing uploads, this trend becoming more prominent. This begins the talk about YouTube regulations and rules and how they are changing. 

     YouTube created shorts, small videos so the platform can compete with TikTok. In a video from MatPat himself under the channel Game Theory  titled, “Why everyone HATES YouTube Shorts,” he talks about how these shorts have been pushed hard and are now shown on the homescreen on YouTube, taking up half of the screen. This means creators with long videos dont get shared as much and lose popularity. 

     Middle-level YouTubers must fit with YouTube’s regulations in order to make money and get views due to the algorithm used. YouTube has an active watch experience where viewers can pick and choose what they watch, using creators they like or topics they want. On the other hand, using shorts or TikTok is a passive experience; where the platform hand selects videos for the viewer.