About

YouTubers Quitting YouTube, also known as YouTubers Retiring From YouTube or Content Creators Stepping Away From YouTube, refers to a viral debate ignited in early January 2024 about several prominent and long-standing content creators quitting YouTube or announcing their retirements and restructurings of their channels (such as MatPat, MeatCanyon, Tom Scott and others), resulting in widespread discourse, memes and tribute posts appearing across the internet. The debate became a prevalent topic on sites like Reddit, Twitter / X and other social media and was the theme for a series of essays on YouTube itself in early 2024 as people attempted to discern why so many YouTubers were walking away from the platform.

Origin

On January 9th, 2024, YouTuber MatPat announced that he was retiring from YouTube and would be handing off his social media channels to someone else. His statement prompted an ongoing debate on the internet about the creators quitting YouTube for the last few years, especially centered around YouTubers making an exodus in late 2023 and early 2024.

For example, on January 9th, X^[1] user @AidsCommentary_ posted the thumbnails of famous YouTubers MeatCanyon, MatPat, Tom Scott and Joel Haver, all of which had posted videos talking about quitting the platform in the weeks before. The tweet received over 9.8 million views, 52,000 likes, 3,900 retweets and 800 replies in three days.

Spread

The news about multiple high-profile creators leaving or retiring from the platform became the subject of a viral debate across multiple social media channels in early January 2024. For example, on January 5th, 2024, YouTuber^[2] @TheTalentlessWriter uploaded an essay video trying to explain why YouTubers are quitting (shown below, left), which amassed more than 329,000 views and 25,000 likes in a week.

On January 10th, YouTuber^[3] @MogulMail shared his take on MatPat's and other creators' retirement (shown below, right), which received roughly 788,000 views and 56,000 likes in a day.

The debate was also a trending topic on TikTok, with user @pdspopculture^[4] commenting on January 10th about MatPat's retirement video (shown below, left), amassing over 340,000 plays and 35,000 likes in a day. On the same day, TikTok^[5] user @birlap_ posted a video about the amount of YouTubers quitting the platform (shown below, right), which received more than 412,000 plays and 125,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References