About

Game Theory is a video game YouTube series on the channel The Game Theorists created by Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat.^[5] The channel posts videos analyzing video games and theories based on them. Patrick is also the creator of the channel The Film Theorists, which posts similar content related to film and television. In January 2024, MatPat announced his retirement from YouTube, and said he would be passing the Game Theory channel along to someone else.

History

The Game Theorists channel on YouTube was first created August 23rd, 2009. A day later their first video was uploaded titled Blood Brothers (Scene): Swearing on the Bible and featured MatPat acting out a role in a play (shown below).

24 more videos of live-action content unrelated to video games were uploaded between August 23rd, 2009 and September 26th, 2010. On April 14th, 2011, their first gaming-related video titled Game Theory Promo (shown below) was uploaded and it was as the name implies a promo for the show Game Theory.

Notable Episodes

While the channel's early popularity grew at a slow pace, The Game Theorists started to gain a larger following when the Game Theory series was uploaded to ScrewAttack^[2] in January, 2012. The Game Theorists' fan base started to grow rapidly in late 2012 and as of March 22nd, 2016 the channel has 6 million subscribers and 733 million views.^[5]

Partnerships

MatPat has been known to endorse and promote fans of his, particularly those with similar shows on YouTube, since he started gaining popularity. In July 2012, Matthew Patrick partnered with fellow YouTubers Gaijin Goombah^[3] and Digressing and Sidequesting^[4] and regularly features their videos on his channel. Collectively they are often referred to as The Game Theorists.

Death of Ronnie Edwards

On July 4th, 2018, The Game Theorists editor and channel contributor Ronnie "Oni" Edwards committed self-murder. On July 25th, The Game Theorists channel uploaded a video titled "Losing the Battle," in which MatPat tearfully discusses the death of Edwards and his history on the channel (shown below). Within 48 hours, the video gained over 8.4 million views and 226,000 comments.

That day, posts submitted in Edwards' memory reached the front of the /r/gaming^[8] and /r/games^[9] subreddits. Meanwhile, MatPat's video reached the front page of /r/videos.^[10] Several news sites published articles about Edwards' passing, including Tubefilter,^[11] LADBible^[12] and GameRevolution.^[13]

Retirement

On January 9th, 2024, MatPat announced that he will be retiring from YouTube, and will be handing off his social media channels to someone else. The YouTube^[14] video announcing the news, entitled "Goodbye Internet," was uploaded by The Game Theorists, and received 8,700,000 views in less than sixteen hours (seen below).

Fans reacted with shock at the news, particularly on YouTube and X (formerly Twitter). For instance, on the same day, X^[15] user @YasuhoHirose69 tweeted a Walter White breaks down meme about the news, which received 77,000 likes and 13,000 reposts in about twelve hours (seen below).

Matpat and Game Theory are trending? I bet he came up with a new wacky FNAF theor- pic.twitter.com/9eZWALFl04

— Yasuho Enthusiast ⭐️🎄🎄❄️❄️☃️🎄❄️❄️☕️🧣🧣 (@YasuhoHirose69) January 9, 2024

MatPat responded to the show of both sadness and support from his fans on his X^[16] account @MatPatGT a few hours after the announcement, writing "Crying all over again reading your messages." The January 9th tweet received over 183,000 likes and 21,000 reposts in about twelve hours (seen below).

Related Series

Game Theory

A flagship series for the channel, Game Theory was originally given a tease on April 14th, 2011 and its first episode titled Game Theory: Is Chrono Trigger's Time Travel Accurate? was uploaded four days later. The show creates and examines theories focused on the plausibility and lore of video games and is well-known for its theories on the indie horror game series Five Nights at Freddy's.^[6]

Game Exchange

Game Exchange's first episode titled Game Exchange: Japanese Culture in Kirby, Mario, and Zelda was uploaded on July 5th, 2012. Hosted by Gaijin Goombah, the show focuses on the cultural differences in video games. It looks into mythology and folklore to explain the origins of concepts and peculiarities from foreign games, particularly games linked to Japanese culture. He also hosted a series called Game Exchange: Culture Shock, a shortened version of Game Exchange focused on interesting culture references in video games.

Digressing and Sidequesting (DNSQ)

Digressing and Sidequesting's first episode titled Hit Points and Health Bars, Digressing and Sidequesting
was uploaded August 30th, 2012. Hosted by Ronnie "Oni" Edwards, the show explores different aspects of game design and how they affect popular games, including Kid Iccarus, Super Mario Bros., and EarthBound.

Crossover

Crossover's first episode titled NEW SERIES! Connecting Mario to Gears of War – Crossover was uploaded December 30th, 2012. Hosted by Drake Mcwhorter, the show sets out to prove how all video game universes are connected to each other.

A Brief History

A Brief History's first episode titled The History of Metroid feat. MatPat – A Brief History was uploaded September 21st, 2014. Hosted by footofaferret, the show concisely presents the history of video game franchises.

DeadLock

Deadlock's first episode titled Game Theory Presents – DeadLock: SNES vs. Genesis was uploaded February 17th, 2015. Two viewpoints on video games are each defended by a separate host in an animated pixelated debate battle until both parties ultimately reach a deadlock.

Related Memes

But hey, that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY!

On April 25th, 2011, the meme first appeared at the end of the second episode of Game Theory titled Game Theory: Super Mario, Pipe Dreams (shown below). It has become a staple ending statement for every Game Theory episode since then.

An alternate version was used for the show Film Theory on MatPat's other channel The Film Theorists.^[7] First appearing on June 2nd, 2015, in a video titled Film Theory: Can a Doctor Who Doctor ACTUALLY EXIST? (pt. 1, Biology) (shown below), Film Theory's version of the meme was "But hey, that's just a theory. A FILM THEORY!" and is a staple ending statement for every Film Theory episode.

Search Interest

External References