Night Light | Life After YouTube

Life After YouTube

We have to talk about the amount of creators that are leaving YouTube. MatPat announced his retirement yesterday, Tom Scott went on an indefinite hiatus, and MeatCanyon told us all “goodbye for now.” I think burnout has a lot to do with it, but also I feel that a lot of creators are ready to explore new opportunities. Here are some of my thoughts on why we’ve seen (and will see more) creators leave.

Post-Creator Avenues and Succession Plans:

It’s that time of the year again where we see a lot of creators rethinking their priorities and how many videos they want to post this year. In the past a lot of creators have left the platform to pursue more traditional careers. While that’s still happening, some of these creators have now been here for over a decade and they’re starting to think about what life is going to be like after YouTube.

Some of our creators are starting families, want to travel, and making plans after they inevitably want to step away from their channels. There’s never a bad time to start thinking about a succession plan. Over the years I’ve seen plenty of creators sell their channels/brand to studios or streaming services with varying levels of success. I think that the way MatPat is handing off his channel to his hosts is one of the best succession plans you can have.

Soft Retirement is Becoming More Popular:

Many of the creators above aren’t completely stepping away from creative work or content creation; they’re just shifting their focus. New avenues that they’ve built up over their time as content creators are still going strong. MatPat mentioned that Game Theory will still continue with new hosts, and that he’s working on a new ARG series, and Tom Scott still has his podcast. I think whether its a podcast, product, or business, having other avenues like this allows creators to continue passion projects, but not be tied to constantly having to make new content.

Burnout is Real:

The difficult job of being a creator is that the majority of time you’re playing every single role in production company: producer, director, editor, creative writer and talent. Which sometimes can be sustainable depending on the type of content you make, but over a long period of time becomes exhausting. This has happened to almost every single creator I’ve known. You’re always on, constantly having to think about new content, and 10 years in this industry can feel like 40 years at a traditional job.

Ending on a High Note:

Ludwig talks about this very well in his latest Mogul Mail. We’ve all seen creators who we thought retired a long time ago still making videos for much smaller audiences than they previously had. This job doesn’t last forever, which is why so many creators like MatPat feel that it’s important to end on their own terms. I’ve seen a lot of creators who abruptly stop posting, or they lose their passion and videos don’t feel the same anymore. When creators decide to step away at their creative peak, they take control of how they want to end their careers and end on a high note. They can then maintain their energy and creativity and put it all into their next projects.

Maybe it’s because I’m a big Batman fan, but I can’t help but think “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”.

For the record, we fully support Ludwig opening a bakery, good bread is important.

Creator News

Same.

Pat McAfee beefs with ESPN execs over programming control
Entrepreneurial media enterprises and corporate influence do not always mix.

BookTuber John Fish is building a ‘Goodreads killer’
Combatting America’s media literacy epidemic, one book at a time.

Can't Miss Clips

We like the piece that looks like a horsey.

Chess Grandmasters Horsing Around
We still don’t know how to play.

Steamboat Willie Never Had a Chance
FYI Donald Duck and Goofy expire in 2029.

Business & Entrepreneurship

Credit: The Verge

Twitch is Cutting a Third of its Staff
Prime subs = critical, having staff to run the platform = not so critical

Jobs