Matthew Robert Patrick (born November 15, 1986), better known as MatPat, is an American former YouTuber and internet personality. He is the creator and former host of the YouTube series Game Theory, and its spin-off channels Film Theory, Food Theory, and Style Theory, each analyzing various video games, films alongside TV series and web series, food, and fashion respectively. Each of the different series is posted on individual channels, each named after the respective series. In addition to the creation of his channels, MatPat narrated the majority of the videos that are presented on his channels before his departure on March 9, 2024.
MatPat has also created the gaming channel GTLive and hosted the YouTube Premium series MatPat's Game Lab and the 2023 Streamy Awards. As of May 2024, MatPat has amassed over 40 million subscribers, as well as over nine billion total views across all five of his channels. He departed the channels as a regular host in March 2024, although he continued to make minor appearances and host GTLive until October.
Early life and education
Matthew Robert Patrick[4] was born on November 15, 1986,[5] in Medina, Ohio.[6]: 02:00 He has Polish, Czech and Slovak ancestry.[7]: 00:15 He was nicknamed "MatPat" by his friends in sixth grade. An only child, MatPat was interested in video games, theater and school early on.[6]: 01:50–03:20 He was the valedictorian of his high school and received an academic scholarship to Duke University,[8] graduating in 2009 with a double major in theater and psychology with a concentration in neuroscience.[9]
To fulfill his dream of becoming an actor, MatPat moved to New York after graduating and performing in theater productions to little success, spending two years unemployed.[6]: 04:20–06:15 His first YouTube videos were auditions for stage plays. In 2011, he decided to revamp his channel as a "portfolio" which could demonstrate to potential employers his ability to write, research, and edit videos online.[9] Inspired by an Extra Credits episode on tangential learning,[8] MatPat uploaded the first episode of Game Theory on April 18, 2011.[10] It discussed the quantum mechanics in the 1995 video game Chrono Trigger.[9]
The channel slowly gained subscribers and his videos were posted on the front pages of sites such as ScrewAttack and GameTrailers.[11] In 2012, MatPat introduced two new segments hosted by fellow YouTubers Gaijin Goombah and Ronnie Edwards, and Austin Hourigan's "The SCIENCE!".[12] In 2015, MatPat launched the spin-off channel Film Theory, which covers movies and television.[10] This channel reached over one million subscribers in a month.[13]
He occasionally uploaded videos commenting on the gaming market and gamers, as well as on other matters that he deemed noteworthy.[14] MatPat started a Let's Play series called GTLive on August 26, 2015,[15] where he posts gameplay and video reactions with his wife Stephanie. Starting on October 3, 2016, the Monday streams became part of YouTube Gaming Primetime, and were therefore scheduled for 3 pm to 5 pm PST. It also included a voting mechanism, which can be used by MatPat to conduct quick polls.[16] As of March 2022, GTLive had 2.94 million subscribers and over 649 million views. As of 2022, the GTLive channel continues to upload mostly unedited, pre-recorded content.
On May 29, 2016, MatPat and eleven other YouTubers met with Pope Francis for an hour. MatPat asked the Pope to encourage others to "fight for what's right" and gifted him a copy of Undertale (2015), saying that its recurrent theme of mercy fits the Pope's proclamation that 2016 would be the "year of mercy for the Catholic church".[21][22]
The third Theory channel, and fourth overall; The Food Theorists, began releasing videos in July 2020. The Food Theorists, using the same style as its predecessors, blends food science with psychology, physiology, and conspiracy.[26] The channel was being developed for two years before its launch.[27] As of October 2022, The Food Theorists had 4 million subscribers and over 499 million views. It had reached 1 million subscribers exactly a week after launch and had then gained another million over the succeeding 4 months.[28]
On December 20, 2022, a fourth Theory channel, and fifth overall, was announced on the Game Theory channel,[29] along with the purchase of their company Theorist Media by startup Lunar X.[30] On February 18, 2023, The Style Theorists was launched. Like the other channels, it focuses on the science, math, history, psychology, and mystery of fashion. It reached a million subscribers three days later.
MatPat also made cameo appearances in multiple installments of YouTube Rewind.
On August 27, 2023, MatPat hosted the Streamy Awards,[31][32] which scored 15 million views across digital platforms in its first 48 hours, beating the 2021 record of 9.7 million views as the most-watched show in its 13-year history.[33]
On January 9, 2024, MatPat announced in a video titled "Goodbye Internet" that he would step down from hosting the channels on March 9,[1] and would be replaced by a different member of the Theorist team for each channel, while still retaining a creative role and making occasional appearances on the channels, along with GTLive, until mid-2024.[34] While he joked that his decision was inspired by Tom Scott, who had recently ended his decade-long run of posting weekly videos, MatPat said that he and his wife had been working towards the change for years.[35] They also chose a ten-week timeframe when announcing his retirement.[36] He additionally revealed that following the departure, he would continue to pursue creative projects.[34] One such project includes a lo-fi mystery series entitled LoreFi;[37] its channel was launched in summer 2024.[37]
Other media and collaborations
MatPat was involved in the web seriesTerrain of Magical Expertise. He gained the series more attention and exposure by uploading a remastered version of the first episode on the channel on October 1, 2013, and then providing a platform for the series.[38][39] MatPat, alongside Cordato, Sundman, Hourigan, and Edwards, also contributed their likeness and voices for self-parodied opponents in the video game adaptation.[citation needed] The game was released on Steam on September 9, 2021.
A character based on MatPat was included in The Walking Dead: Road to Survival (2015).[40] In 2017, MatPat and his wife Stephanie participated in Nintendo's Pokkén Tournament DX Invitational, an event held during E3 2017. He was paired with Allister Singh, the only pro-Pokkén Tournament player in the event. His team eventually won the tournament.[41] MatPat voiced Computron in the animated series Transformers: Titans Return (2017).[42]
In 2016, MatPat hosted the go90 reality series The Runner.[43] In 2019, MatPat partnered with Nickelodeon to make the show Fact or Nicktion.[44] In this show, MatPat examined various phenomena in Nickelodeon shows, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Rugrats to determine whether they could or couldn't happen in real life.
MatPat's videos about the video game series Five Nights at Freddy's have made him prominent within the series' fandom, which is known for its dedication to theorizing about the underlying narrative of the series.[46] He made a cameo appearance in its 2023 film adaptation as a waiter.[47] In 2024, he collaborated with the series for a Youtooz figure and pins.[48] In total, he made 68 theory videos on the series.[49]
In May 2024, MatPat appeared on an episode of Wired's "Web's Most Searched Questions" series.[50]
Personal life
MatPat with his wife Stephanie in 2018
MatPat is married to Stephanie (née Cordato), whom he met while studying at Duke University. The two became close after creating a Legend of Zelda parody called "The Epic of Stew". They married on May 19, 2012.[51] Their son was born in 2018,[52] and the family currently divides their time between living in California and North Carolina.[53]
^Subscribers, broken down by channel: 18.4 million (The Game Theorists) 12.3 million (The Film Theorists) 4.83 million (The Food Theorists) 2.09 million (The Style Theorists) 3.3 million (GTLive)
^Views, broken down by channel: 3.82 billion (The Game Theorists) 2.59 billion (The Film Theorists) 675 million (The Food Theorists) 49.04 million (The Style Theorists) 721 million (GTLive)
^"YouTube Updates 'n Vlogs + New TOME stuff COMING SOON!". Newgrounds. Kirbopher. December 6, 2013. Archived from the original on July 26, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2017. I haven't been able to get Google Adsense to work on my YouTube channel for well over a year. The "experiment" was MatPat would be uploading TOME episodes and shorts to their channel as a new show (since they have 3 shows on the GT channel) and giving me a cut of the revenue each month. However, the show didn't perform as well as we were hoping within the first two episodes, so it was ultimately decided to pull it from their channel.
^"TOME now on Game Theorist YT & Progress Report". Newgrounds. Kirbopher. October 9, 2013. Archived from the original on July 26, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2017. MatPat and the Game Theorist crew reached out to me, as fans of the show, and wanted to give it more exposure. So, they've graciously invited me to be part of their channel and help TOME reach a bigger audience than before.
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