Matthew Patrick

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Introduction

Trivia

Aliases

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Matthew Patrick
Alias(es)	MatPat Matthew Patthew
Born	Matthew Robert Patrick November 15, 1986 (age 38) Medina, Ohio
Residence	Raleigh, North Carolina
Nationality	American of Polish descent
Occupation	Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Theorist Media Theorist Channel Host(former)
Years active	2009 - 2024
Internet information
Twitter	Matthew Patrick (@MatPatGT)
Instagram	matpatgt
Facebook	MatPat (@GameTheorists) (official)
Wikipedia	MatPat
Other	Where Is MatPat?

Matthew Robert Patrick (born November 15, 1986), more commonly known as MatPat, is the CEO of Theorist Media and the co-creator of The Game Theorists, The Film Theorists, GTLive, The Food Theorists, The Style Theorists and LoreFi. MatPat is most known for his work as host of Game Theory and its Theorist spinoff channels, and is a well known and respected figure in the YouTube Content Creator community.

As of February 2024, the Theorist Channels have a combined total of over 43.15 million subscribers and more than 8.98 billion views. The Game Theorists channel, Game Theory, and spin off YouTube Red series MatPat's Game Lab have won five Streamy Awards for Gaming, Virtual Reality and 360, Editing, and Writing. Patrick's success on YouTube has led to many opportunities, both inside and outside of the digital space. These include hosting shows like The Runner and Game Lab, consulting for major tech and entertainment brands, interviewing notable figures such as Susan Wojcicki and Pope Francis, and making a cameo in the 2023 Blumhouse production Five Nights at Freddy's. Theorist Media has also hosted multiple charities, their most famous being their trio of charity livestreams for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which collectively raised $5.9 million across three years. He is an outspoken supporter for content creator rights, and has collaborated with many fellow YouTubers over the last decade.

MatPat retired from his role as host of the four main Theorist channels on March 9th, 2024. His final GTLive appearance as its host was October 26th, 2024. He continues to serve as the CEO of Theorist Media and as a mentor for the five new hosts. He is creating new Theorist Media projects such as LoreFi and Creators in Fashion, and he has also taken on the role of political lobbyist by meeting with US legislators to teach them about the creator economy.

Biography

Early life (1986-2011)

Early Childhood

Matthew Patrick was born on November 15, 1986 in Medina, Ohio as an only child to Robert and Linda Patrick. He came from a middle class background with his dad working as a lab tech at a powder paint factory and his mother as a bank teller. He has also talked about a supportive grandmother who watches GTLive regularly and tries her best to follow the topics he covered on his many channels. One of his grandfathers was of Polish, Czech and Slovak descent. MatPat enjoyed a strong relationship with his parents, stating that his parents spent quality time with him and heavily invested in his education. He has openly attributed his success to his "wonderful parents and wonderful teachers that inspired (him) to be curious about the world". Robert Patrick in particular encouraged a critical thinking mindset in MatPat from a young age, and MatPat credits him for developing his interest in hidden secrets and conspiracy theories.

Over the years MatPat has revealed several core memories of his childhood that structured his adult identity. During a keynote speech at PAX East 2024, he stated that many of his most important moments in his life were tied to video games. His earliest childhood memories were of sitting on his basement floor playing the video game Castlevania with his father, and of his green Mario themed childhood bedroom. He would eventually play through every single Castlevania game in the franchise in college. Another game that was incredibly important to him was the Super Nintendo game The Illusion of Gaia. The game came packaged with a World Map that showed the connection between the game levels and the real world locations that inspired them. According to MatPat, it was the first time that he was understand that "video games and the real world can interact", a realization which he credits as the earliest inspiration for Game Theory. It was also the game that eventually led adult MatPat to his first ever Game Theory editor, Ronnie Edwards, as the other man was a huge fan of the game and contacted MatPat after he saw his GT episode, Illusion of Gaia, World Wonders. MatPat credits the game as inspiring his intellectual curiosity, "it inspired me to explore and learn more about the world around me."

Intellectual curiosity and lifelong learning were important values imparted on MatPat by his parents. At one point in his early childhood MatPat demonstrated his intelligence to his parents by reciting a specific text passage and the exact page number it was on from a multi-volume set of books. This inspired his parents to prioritize education for their young son. MatPat also showed an interest in psychology from a very early age. In middle school he once did a science fair project on social cliques, using his own classmates as his test subjects. According to Matt, he "moved from lunch table to lunch table to invade other cliques to see how they reacted" to his presence. He won a state level award for this experiment. Another science experiment involved interviewing students from his old elementary school to determine gender stereotypes in career choices. He was a very active and engaged student, often taking extracurricular classes and attending summer school on college campuses. He also developed a lifelong passion for live theater and stated that he wanted to be an actor since he was in preschool. In Kindergarten, he chose to be an actor for career day.

Secondary Education

In the 6th grade MatPat was given his moniker, which is a combination of the first three letters of his first and last name. He would continue to use the name thorughout the rest of his childhood and would later adopt it as his online screenname/alias for Game Theory. The GTLive ritual of the "Clap and a Half" also originated in middle school, when MatPat was in 7th grade. His Social Studies teacher used the "Clap and a Half" as a reward for good performance in her class, however MatPat had several negative associations with the action due to the teacher's lackluster teaching performance. In his adulthood he would reappropriate the clap as a positive action for his community.

For more information, please see the article Clap and a Half.

High School Freshman Matthew Patrick

Throughout his elementary through high school years he got straight As in all of his classes. During this time MatPat also developed his lifelong passion for theater, and by middle and high school he had sung in five show choirs, played viola in the school orchestra and performed in six stage shows a year. In high school he was President of the Men's Chorus and Dance Captain. In particular, his role as President of the Men's Chorus would lead to a core event in his life. As President MatPat's main responsibility was to set up the rehearsal space for the rest of the students. In his sophomore (second) year of high school this responsibility led him to meet a drama student named Mark. Mark was a first year student who had faced constant bullying throughout his education. MatPat struck up a friendship with Mark, introducing him to other students in his social circle. However unbeknownst to MatPat, Mark was suicidal when they first met and the small act of befriending him before chorus practice kept the younger man from killing himself. MatPat would later explain the dramatic impact of his small act of kindness to an audience at VidCon 2018; "A conversation as simple as that at 6:15 in the morning [...] is the difference between Mark living and dying." This event would significantly contribute to adult MatPat's view of himself as a role model to his young audience; years later MatPat told the YouTuber duo Sticks in 2024, "that was the moment I was like, 'oh I want the world to be made better because I was a part of it'."

Starting in middle and high school, MatPat would also struggle to define his fashion style, something that he has noted multiple times throughout his YouTuber career. He credited his high school and college friends and Steph for staging fashion "interventions", forcing him to shift from his more unconventional style choices. But he gravitated towards large statement jackets and bright, holographic colors, and this influence would continue into his adulthood. This struggle with fashion would eventually help inspire his final Theory channel, Style Theory.

Duke University

MatPat graduated Medina High School as valedictorian, with a perfect score of 1600 in his SATs. He received an academic scholarship to Duke University, where he double majored in Theater and Neuroscience. Starting in his sophomore year of college, MatPat was a Resident Assistant (RA), a leadership role within undergraduate dorms in most US Universities. As a theater major, MatPat performed in various student plays and musicals and took multiple dance classes covering ballet, jazz, Latin, African, modern and ballroom dancing. At one point in his college career, MatPat went auction for a production of the show Urinetown at Duke's big rival university, The University of North Carolina (UNC). He did this because he was dissatisfied with the shows Duke was putting on that year. While working on Urinetown, he would meet UNC student Hailey Swindal, starting a friendship that would eventually lead to them working together to produce the Broadway show Grey House in 2023. During his time at Duke, MatPat would also befriend Michael Bergen, a future Team Theorist writer and huge supporter of early Game Theory.

In the summer of 2006, MatPat did a two month long study abroad program in London for theater. While he was there, on August 9th, 2006, UK law enforcement officers arrested 24 people in connection with a terrorist plot to use liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks to blow up multiple US and Canadian based planes flying out of London Heathrow Airport. The date and location of this terrorist plot was the same day and airport MatPat and his other classmates were to use to fly home to the US. The terrorist attempt, now known as the 2006 Transatlantic Aircraft Plot, caused massive delays and panic amongst travelers, especially those set to fly out of the UK. The event was the impetus for emergency international security measures prohibiting certain amounts of liquid carry-ons onto aircrafts, rules that persist into the current day.

MatPat flew home in the immediate aftermath of the event and suffered severe anxiety and stress throughout his flight. The event, along with his childhood memories of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, caused him to develop a severe phobia of flying. This phobia would dramatically impact how he behaved on planes--behavior that MatPat himself would describe as "self-destructive"--for several years. He would eventually learn to control this fear through years of "exposure therapy", due to the amount of travel required of him as a YouTuber.

Stephanie Cordato

MatPat and Stephanie's first photo together

MatPat met his future wife Stephanie Cordato in his sophomore year when they both took CompSci 4:Video Game Programming". MatPat has said they both chose the course because it involved making video games (something they both enjoyed) and was said to be an "easy A" while also fulfilling a graduation requirement. The two were competitive and highly motivated in the course, often competing against each other for the best code of the week. For the course's culminating project, MatPat and Steph paired up to create a parody of a Zelda game, called "The Epic of Stew", the name being a combination of their two names. Stephanie's work ethic and intelligence made a strong impression on MatPat. As he told YouTuber Phil DeFranco:

"It was the first time in my life that it wasn't me having to carry the entire group project. [..] Stephanie was the first person who was not only excited to [...]be a part of the group,(she) carried her own weight and also far surpassed anything we were planning."

This experience became the foundation of MatPat and Steph's relationship, even though it took them over a year to start dating; in MatPat's words, "we've been doing group projects since the beginning of our relationship." They would begin dating on October 8, 2006.

Theater Career

Hairspray Audition "Without Love" Opening

MatPat's second to last theater "Hairspray Audition: 'Without Love' Opening"

MatPat and Stephanie graduated from Duke University on December 28, 2009, right on the heels of the 2007-2008 economic crisis and in the middle of the Great Recession. While Steph went to graduate school, MatPat began to build a career in live theater. This required him to travel frequently and he lived in multiple states for several months at a time. In the summer of 2009 he was in multiple shows at the Mt. Washington Valley Theatre, in North Conway, NH, including performing as the narrator in the musical Blood Brothers and as ensemble/Chad's understudy in the stage adaption of High School Musical. It was during this time that MatPat created his YouTube Channel under the name MatthewPatrick13. His first upload was a scene from the Blood Brothers musical, and it was posted on August 23rd, 2009. MatPat would continue to upload scenes from his performances, as well as several performance reels for the next two years. Most notably, he performed as Jonathan Harker in an adaption of Bram Stocker's Dracula at the Jenny Wiley Theatre in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. He also played Edward Lyons in Blood Brothers, Barnaby Tucker from Hello Dolly and Damis from Moliere's Tartuffe. His final theater clip was uploaded to YouTube on September 26, 2010.

In the fall of 2009, MatPat followed Stephanie to New York City, where Steph would pursue a Masters degree in Pharmacology at Cornell University. While living with Steph, MatPat would continue to pursue his theater career in New York City, taking jobs as an actor, director and lighting designer. Although he found some level of success in his theater career, this was still a time period of intense financial insecurity for both MatPat and Steph. MatPat made so little that there were years where he did not file taxes. Their financial situation got to a point where they were unable to afford Christmas presents for each other and the couple were forced to travel over an hour to find affordable groceries. Stephanie has said that MatPat went to hundreds of auditions in New York for roles he ultimately failed to get due to his ineligibility for the actor's union. This resulted in several years of joblessness for MatPat, where he was forced to "take dangerous jobs rigging lights in theaters and working as an outdoor street vendor where he almost got hypothermia". In MatPat's own words, he eventually found the life of a starving actor creatively, intellectually and emotionally unfulfilling. He told YouTube Anthony Padilla,

"It was not a lifestyle that I wanted. I hated living out of a suitcase. I hated living paycheck to paycheck and every three months being out of a job, and that instability was devastating for me."

Living out of a suitcase was lonely for MatPat and he missed Stephanie. He has also said that he became disillusioned with the state of professional theater and has highlighted the notorious multi million dollar theater flop Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark as one of the many reasons he ultimately chose to leave the his first career. The explosion of theater adaptations of popular movie franchises and movie and tv actors appearing on Broadway also made MatPat feel frustrated with the direction of the industry.

Engagement to Stephanie

On November 17th, 2010, the 1500th day of them being a couple, MatPat proposed to Stephanie using a video he created of their time together. He also decorated their apartment with photos of them in order to create a "relationship museum". he carefully decorated apartment shocked Steph so much she accidentally knocked a mirror off of the wall in surprise. Even though she was worried that she had ruined the moment, MatPat took her hand and proposed on the spot next to the broken mirror. MatPat would later post the proposal video onto his YouTube channel on December 24th 2010. Although this proposal was carefully planned and executed, over the years, MatPat and Steph also also described a near perfect date that occurred several weeks before the proposal, where he almost proposed to Steph but instead gifted her a Tiffany clock.

The Beginning of Game Theory (2011-2013)

MatPat's transition out of theater began one of the hardest times of his life (in his words "the lowest of lows"), as he went nearly two years without a permanent job. He applied for different jobs in retail, television, film and Silicon Valley, only to receive no response or eventual rejection. It didn't help that he was unemployed during the "biggest economic downturn since the great depression," which made finding a job with his uncommon skillset mostly impossible. In his own words,

"I went from the guy who breezed through life [who] fully believed he was cable of doing anything, to questioning my worth, my smarts, my reason for being."

During this time, MatPat found himself watching episodes of Extra Credits, which is an educational web series covering a variety of topics, including video game development and education. He has gone on record and credited a particular episode about tangential learning, or learning through games, as one of the main inspirations for Game Theory as he liked the idea of developing a show that used video games specifically as a way to communicate educational topics. MatPat started working on Game Theory as "something to do in between sending out resumes" and as a showcase of his creative talent and research skills. He spent several weeks researching other gaming shows and popular gamers, "everything from their logos to their color schemes to their pacing and editing style". He received significant help from Stephanie with his research, and he also recruited her and a few college friends to read his first episode rough drafts. Stephanie was the one to give Game Theory it's name, as she was inspired by the work of her parents (both of whom hold PHD in Economics). She was credited in every single early episode until MatPat dropped the use of credits in 2012.

MatPat would publish the Game Theory promotional trailer on April 14, 2011. The first episode of the series, "Is Chrono Trigger's Time Travel Accurate?", was centered on one of MatPat's childhood favorite games and was uploaded to YouTube four days later on April 18, 2011.

For more information on the development and history, see Game Theory.

Because YouTube was not used as a discovery platform for videos in 2011, MatPat would also upload the first episode of Game Theory to the community area of popular gamer websites Screw Attack and GameTrailers. Matt's first episode caught the eye of a Screw Attack intern named Drake McWhorter. Drake was impressed by the episode and he decided to promote Game Theory to Screw Attack's front page. This not only gave MatPat his first big break, but it also resulted in MatPat and Drake becoming good friends and later show collaborators. After MatPat's published his third Game Theory episode, Illusion of Gaia, World Wonders, he was contacted by Ronnie Edwards. Ronnie was so excited by MatPat's love for Illusion of Gaia that he invited MatPat on his podcast series Random Internet Encounters, posting their conversation together on April 1st, 2012. This was MatPat's first ever interview as a YouTuber; however, sadly the podcast is considered lost media as no existing recording of this interview i available online. Regardless, this would begin another crucial partnership for both MatPat and Game Theory; MatPat has called his friendship with Ronnie, "an instrumental, foundational person and relationship in my life". MatPat would continue to collaborate with Ronnie and Drake, taking their advice and suggestions, along with feedback from his early audience.

By 2011, Stephanie had graduated with a degree in Pharmacology from Cornell. Sometime during the start of Game Theory she was hired by Campbell Alliance, which was a biotech consulting firm based in Los Angeles. By late May, Stephanie and MatPat moved to LA from New York City, as MatPat mentions being new to the area in the 4th Game Theory episode Frogger, Australian for Games. Meanwhile the show was steadily building a fanbase Screw Attack and GameTrailers. By the episode Viewer's Choice, Cyborgs, Fatalities and the Riddle, he added his first major fan contribution to the show, in the form of a new logo created by SpellingPhailer, a fan of MatPat's from Screw Attack who would later go on to create Game Theory's theme song. By August 17, 2011 MatPat was posting Game Theory on The Punk Effect and Reviewtopia websites. Science Blaster made its debut on August 31st 2011, along with the very first opening animation by Andrew, aka idiot9point0.

The first appearance of Live Action MatPat

MatPat hit another significant milestone in September when he made his first ever live action appearance in the episode Can Dig Dug Pop a Human. He did so on the advice of Drake, who had heard from his supervisors at Screw Attack that they viewed Game Theory as more of a "slide show". This episode is also notable for the first time MatPat did an experiment on camera. He inflated multiple tomatoes with a bicycle air pump as an analog to the Pooka characters in Dig Dug. He wanted to see how many pumps it took to blow up a "pooka" and found it only took 1-2 pumps to destroy the vegetable.

Game Theory continued to slowly gain followers, eventually becoming an affiliate show on Screw Attack, starting with the January 2012 episode, "Skyrim, On the Subject of Arrows and Knees". This started a brief moment in Game Theory history where episodes were featured on partner websites before being uploaded to YouTube. In particular, the partnership with Screw Attack was one of MatPat's first big breaks in his YouTube career. Screw Attack's influence in the 2011 gaming sphere was so massive, that it propelled the careers of multiple famous Gaming content creators, including the The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN), JonTron, ProJared, and the Deathbattle team. The site also hosted future Theorist writer, Bob Chipman aka MovieBob. Some of the creators also featured on Screw Attack would go on to become collaborators and friends with MatPat, including Jarard Khalil (The Completionist), Austin Hargrave aka PeanutButter Gamer, Nathan Barnett aka future DadFeels creator, and of course Drake. During this time, MatPat also struck up a friendship with Michael Sundman, aka Gaijin Goomba, when he was producing the show Gaijin Gamer. Gaijin Gamer was a very similar show to Game Theory, in that it focused on "teaching culture through the lens of gaming".

Wedding

On May 19, 2012, MatPat married Stephanie Cordato, in North Carolina. His best men were Michael Bergen and Kousha Navidar.

Early Partnerships and Big Frame

As Game Theory grew in popularity, MatPat still continued to look for work, taking on freelance jobs with g-Net and Reviewtopia.net. Concerned about the time it took for him to produce and publish episodes, MatPat decided to extend an invitation to Gaijin Goomba and Ronnie Edwards to partner with him on the Game Theorists channel. He reasoned that Gaijin and Ronnie both had shows focused on educational aspects on gaming and by partnering up on one channel, they could grow a larger audience together. On July 2, 2012, a video titled "Game Exchange: New Partner Show Coming This Thursday" was uploaded to The Game Theorists, launching Gaijin Goomba's new show Game Exchange (formerly Gaijin Gamer). The second video of the new series, by the name "Game Exchange: Japanese Culture in Kirby, Mario, and Zelda", was uploaded on July 5, 2012, three days after the first one. For more information, please see Game Exchange.

On August 30, 2012, Ronnie Edwards uploaded his own show, Digressing and Sidequesting. The first video on MatPat's channel was "Hit Points and Health Bars, Digressing and Sidequesting". This series included the infrastructure of creating a game and how they would function. In addition to running his show on MatPat's channel, Ronnie would also become Game Theory's first ever editor, starting with the episode, "How Much is Minecraft Diamond Armor Worth?", posted on December 22nd, 2012. Ronnie's impact on Game Theory cannot be overstated. Early Game Theory episodes would take MatPat about a month to create on his own, due to his own lack of editing knowledge. In his own words Ronnie's "[..] experience with animation and illustration was able to accomplish things that in two years of working on the series, I'd had never been able to do!" This began a new era, transforming the Game Theory channel, into The Game Theorists. MatPat would also continue to work with Drake, receiving feedback and episodes ideas from him while also supporting Drake with his own channel. But because Drake was working with Screw Attack at the time, he had a non compete clause that prevented his shows from being hosted on The Game Theorists until his contract ran out. MatPat would also briefly feature the work of SpellingPhailer and newcomer Carf Darko in a segment called "Chiptune Tuesday", which ran during October 2012. Another early viral video during this time was How Fast is Sonic the Hedgehog?. MatPat has identified this episode, which was posted on December 1, 2012, as the episode that started to gain popularity for the show.

A young MatPat in Julian Smith's Lottery skit

While all this was going on, MatPat was still looking for full time paid work, as he had not yet monetized Game Theory and was earning nothing from the channel. In June 2012, an MCN called Big Frame took an interest in him, with MatPat saying the higher ups told him "we don't know what we want to do with you, but we see that you're smart, so you'll figure it out." Eventually MatPat would have two roles at Big Frame, first as a Senior Data Analyst and later, as Audience Development Lead. He was employee hire number 7 and worked on the floor of the one room office on his personal laptop because the small MCN did not have the funds for extra equipment. This would be a pivotal moment in MatPat's life, where he would fully immerse himself in YouTube analytics, business practices and culture. At the time, Big Frame worked with some of the biggest channels on 2013 YouTube, including Tyler Oakley, DeSTorm Power and Tay Zonay. At Big Frame MatPat would advise the company and content creators on best practices for optimizing their channels and would really dive into the algorithm of YouTube. He even had a brief appearance in Big Frame client Julian Smith's Lottery skit in October of 2012.

2013 was a significant year for Game Theory, as The Game Theorists would grow from 30,000 subscribers, to 100,000 by March, to 500,000 subs in September and a million by the end of 2013. It was also a year with some of the channel's earliest hits, including the episodes, Portal's Companion Cube as a Dark Secret, Why Mario is Mental and Is Link Dead in Majora's Mask?. MatPat would also post his first major "meta" theory about the inner workings of YouTube, in the episode "How PewDiePie Conquered YouTube". The infamous "Wario is ten feet tall" mistake came from the 2013 episode, "Fart Rocket Physics with the Wario Waft", where MatPat misinterpreted how tall Wario would be in real life.

The infamous photo where png MatPat is taken from

The Origin of PNG MatPat

On June 21st-23rd of 2013, MatPat, Ronnie and Goomba were invited speakers at the ScrewAttack Gaming Convention (SGC) at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dallas, Texas. This was the first time The Game Theorists were able to meet in person and MatPat's first video game conference. It was at this conference that MatPat, Ronnie and Gaijin took the now famous picture of them standing side by side in 'thinking' positions and the source of the original MatPat PNG stock image that has been used in Game Theory episodes since 2013. MatPat, Ronnie and Gaijin were guests on the panel "Pro-Tips: Becoming a YouTube Gamer", alongside Bob Chipman, Jirad and Greg from The Completionist, Proton Jon and Andre of Black Nerd Comedy. MatPat and several other con guests would also do a dramatic reading of the picture book "Slowly Slowly Slowly Went the Sloth" by Eric Carle spontaneously in the lobby of the conference and would later post the footage to The Game Theorists channel on June 29, 2013.

Alloy and Defy Media

Meanwhile, MatPat continued to work at Big Frame until July of 2013. According to Matt, at one point he was accidentally shared on a document that contained the salaries of everyone in the company, and he discovered he was "the most overworked employee [...]and at the bottom of the rung" salary wise. After he was denied a promotion he left to join Break Media. He became their Senior YouTube Channel Manager and later their Director of Content Strategy. At the end of 2013, Break Media merged with another MCN called Alloy Digital, to form the company, Defy Media. Alloy Digital was the owner of The Escapist and Smosh at the time, and the merger would start MatPat's working relationship with the Smosh team, as their "analytics guy".

During the Break/Alloy merger, MatPat was charged with reviewing members from Alloy's digital department to determine if they were kept or made redundant and thus fired from the new company. During the interview process, Matt met future Team Theorist member Jason Parker, who was working as Smosh's content manager. MatPat was impressed by Jason's work and knowledge of the digital space, so he recommended Defy Media keep him on their staff. This critical decision began another lifelong partnership and friendship for MatPat.

The Game Theorists channel continued to grow and added another partner show at the end of the year when MatPat finally brought on his friend Drake, as by that time he had finished his time with Screw Attack. On December 28, 2013, Drake and his partner Kenny Landefeld, launched a new show on The Game Theorists known as Crossover. Focusing on "the six degrees of separation", Crossover aimed to bridge the gaps of the gaming multiverse but moved on to focus on video game timelines.

One Million Subscribers

MatPat, Gaijin Goomba and Ronnie Edwards in the 1 million subscriber episode

At the end of 2013, The Game Theorists hit one million subscribers. To celebrate, MatPat created the episode "Why You Play Video Games", in which MatPat, Ronnie and Goomba discussed the psychological reasons why video games are satisfying to players. MatPat also described how creating Game Theory fulfilled his own needs during his unemployment, giving him confidence, autonomy and community.

At the one million subscribers milestone, MatPat and the other Theorists finally turned on monetization for their shared channel, with MatPat running the business side of the channel. He would create Theorist Media Inc by the end of 2013.

Game Theory's Middle Era: Explosive Growth (2014-2016)

2014 was another landmark year for Theorist Media and for MatPat personally. His channel continued to gain subscribers at a steady pace, hitting 2 million around April 2024 and 3 million by October. 2014 also saw the start of brand sponsorships for the channel, with early partnerships with Hulu, and Nature Box. He would also create a short video series on animals for the Pet Collective YouTube Channel, called Pet-u-cation. The programming on The Game Theorists also rapidly expanded, with Gaijin Goomba starting a new spin off show called Culture Shock in April and Drake introducing Smash History in August.

New Partnerships, Going Solo

MatPat's first interaction with Ryder Burgin

In May of 2014, a young content creator named FootofaFerret aka Ryder Burgin cold emailed MatPat to ask if he would be willing to collaborate with him on an upcoming episode of Ryder's YouTube show, A Brief History. MatPat responded to Ryder in June 2014, while he was attending VidCon. He emailed a week later asking Ryder if he would be interested in becoming a partner channel on The Game Theorists, adding his show to their expanding roster. He also asked Ryder to edit an episode of Game Theory, as the workload for Game Theory was only increasing alongside their viewership. Ryder agreed and he became the second ever editor for Game Theory and a channel partner. Ryder's first episode as editor was Is Comic Con 2014 REALLY Worth the Wait? on July 20th, 2014, and the episode A Brief History of The Game Theorists aired on August 9th 2014.

In August of 2014, MatPat recruited another person to help with Game Theory; Forrest Lee, or "Furst" as he was known at the time. In 2014, Lee was creating content on the Smash Bros series, and one of his friends sent one of his videos to MatPat on twitter. He was so impressed by Lee's skills that he contacted him on Twitter on August 26th, creating yet another years long partnership with a fellow content creator. With Lee on board, Game Theory was now up to three editors.

While all this was happening, MatPat continued to work for Defy Media for the first half of the year. MatPat began appearing on Smosh Games and other Defy affiliated channels at this time, which helped to expand his popularity within and outside of YouTube. At Defy MatPat was overseeing other creators channels, breaking down their analytics and providing detailed PowerPoint presentations describing how they could optimize their work. But Matt discovered that a large portion of creators ignored his advice, which he found "devastating". He also stated that he had no work-life balance while at Defy, because he left for work at 6am, got home at 8pm and would start working on Game Theory in the evenings and on weekends. So as The Game Theorists neared 3 Million, MatPat decided to leave Defy and make Game Theory his full time job. He would leave Defy by August 2014, however MatPat would still continue to collaborate with Defy Media partners for several years and more crucially, would continue to use Defy as his MCN partner for The Game Theorists. Stephanie would follow MatPat in leaving her job and working fulltime on Game Theory several months later.

MatPat himself entered a new era of popularity during this time, as he began to appear frequently in other content creators videos, voicing multiple Did You Know Gaming episodes and collaborating with Jirard the Completionist. Thanks to his connections through Defy, he was able to network with channels such as The Warp Zone and Smosh Games. He also made his first appearance on YouTubers React in April 2014, the first of several appearances throughout the years. This was particularly significant as it introduced MatPat to a new audience outside of the Gaming Sphere. However, his popularity would take another massive leap in the final quarter of 2014 with the introduction of Game Theory's most popular franchise.

FNAF

The infamous FNAF vs Slenderman Tweet

On October 4th, MatPat posted a poll on his Twitter account, asking his Twitter followers to choose between two options for the topic of his Halloween episode of Game Theory. The choice was between Slender Man vs Five Night's at Freddy's (FNAF). FNAF was the clear winner and so on October 23rd 2014, MatPat posted "Five Nights at Freddy's SCARIEST Monster is You!", his first FNAF theory and his most successful Game Theory video to date. This first FNAF video had five million views within the first month, very quickly outpacing the channel's most popular video at the time, Is Link is Dead?. MatPat would follow this video up in December 2014, focusing on the second FNAF game in the episode, "FNAF 2, Gaming Scariest Story SOLVED!". The popularity and frequency of FNAF titles would dramatically change the direction of Game Theory, shifting it towards more lore driven episodes on indie game franchises. FNAF also had a massive effect on the Gaming vertical of YouTube, skyrocketing the popularity of Game Theory, Markiplier, CoryXKenshin, Living Tombstone and others. According to MatPat, FNAF was unique and so well received in part because it "showed that games could be built off of witholding the lore and forcing the fan base to solve it", keeping the community active and giving creators a profitable franchise to cover. Although this shift from more traditional storytelling to hidden lore driven plotlines has proven somewhat controversial for some in the Gaming Creator Community, there is no denying that the popularity of this genre made a huge impact in Game Theory and MatPat's popularity.

Game Theory Exposed

Throughout the later half of 2014, MatPat and Steph worked tirelessly on Game Theory; as Steph said in one interview, "we worked everyday, all day, from 7am-10pm, no weekends, nothing." This lack of work/life balance would reach an inflection point at the end of the year, when MatPat and Steph filmed the live action behind the scenes episode, Game Theory, Exposed, for twelve hours on Christmas Day. This experience was a turning point for the couple, and they vowed to never let work consume that much of their free time again. Game Theory, Exposed was also significant for several other reasons, as it was the first time MatPat spoke about his creation process with his audience and it was one of the few Game Theory episodes to heavily feature live action Ronnie on screen. It was also Game Theory's 3 million subscriber milestone and was posted on December 28, 2014.

Deadlock, Reality Check

2015 saw MatPat and Steph launching on several larger projects as Game Theory continued to gain popularity and they gained access to new sources of funding for his projects. On February 17, 2015, The Game Theorists premiered a new series called Deadlock, hosted by MatPat. Deadlock was a scripted show where MatPat and a guest would debate various video game topics. The project was funded with seed money from YouTube, as part of a initiative to create new channels and series to increase audience retention on the platform. The funding from YouTube allowed MatPat to hire additional editors and to commission music from Chiptune Tuesday creator Carf Darko. Deadlock took a long time to develop due to the amount of animation used and the fact that MatPat and the guest would film themselves in front of a green screen. But it would continue to run for several years on The Game Theorists before ending in 2017.

MatPat flying in the episode Star Fox in Real Life

March of 2015 was a busy month as Game Theory hit the 100 episode milestone on March 26, 2015. Immediately after, MatPat and Steph also launched another series on The Game Theorists called Reality Check, on March 30th, 2015. Reality Check was supposed to be a gaming "Myth Busters" like series where MatPat would investigate real world equivalents to famous game franchises. In the first episode, Game Theory partnered with Ubisoft and International Tactical Training Seminars--a firearms and tactics training team--to explore themes from the Rainbow Six series. MatPat invited YouTube creators Jovenshire, AtomicMari, The Strippin and The National Dex to train with counter terrorism and law enforcement professionals and perform a simulated hostage rescue mission. MatPat filmed one more episode of Reality Check in partnership with YouTube and the channel Field Day, originally titled Star Fox in Real Life|MatPat of Game Theory Has a Field Day, which was posted to the Field Day Channel on May 14th, 2015. This episode would not be shown on The Game Theorist channel until October of 2016 where it was retitled as "Reality Check, the Lost Episode". This episode was notable because it required MatPat to fly in a plane and face his fear of flying. He spoke of his Aerophobia for the first time in public on the Reality Check channel.

Reality Check was another short lived series. Immediately after filming those two episodes, MatPat and Steph were approached by YouTube to create one of the first shows on their new subscription service YouTube Red (which would later become YouTube Premium). They decided to take the general concept of Reality Check and rework it into the eventual YT Red show MatPat's Game Lab. However, these weren't the only projects MatPat and Steph were working on.

Film Theory

On May 12, 2015, MatPat and Steph created a new channel "filmtheorists" (later changed to The Film Theorists) and on June 2nd, 2015 they posted the channel trailer and five episodes of their newest show, Film Theory. The channel launched with two additional channel partner shows, Did You Know Movies, and Frame By Frame. The launch of Film Theory was partially supported by Defy Media, MatPat's old employer and MCN. It was part of a larger Creator Program, which funded its MCN partners in creating new shows and formats. MatPat and Steph were also inspired to create Film Theory to create another revenue stream, as by this time Game Theory was almost a four year old channel and most YouTube channels of this era began to lose subscribers around this age.

The Film Theorists gained half a million subscribers within the first few days of launch, hitting a million in the first month. MatPat attributed this rapid growth to the strategic way Steph and MatPat launched the channel, as they prepared five episodes of Film Theory to air during the initial launch. This would be his formula for launching all future Theorist channels going forward.

For more information, see Film Theory.

GTLive

With Film Theory launched and more partner shows aboard, MatPat entered the summer of 2015 more popular than ever. As such he was invited back as a guest speaker for the 2015 ScrewAttack Gaming Convention in Dallas, Texas. On the final day of their visit, MatPat and Steph went to an arcade where they met three kids who joined them for several games. At the end of the night, the kids approached MatPat, expressing their surprise at how he behaved during the evening. They had thought MatPat would act just like his exaggerated on-screen persona from Game and Film Theory. Later, at a panel during VidCon 2016, MatPat shared this story and quoted the kids saying, "Hey MatPat! You're not a d**chbag!" This experience changed MatPat's perspective of how he was viewed online and he realized that he needed to humanize himself more to his audience.

"This whole time I thought [..] the character I play on Game Theory was easily distinguishable from 'MatPat the human' [...] apparently there were people who didn't get that."

MatPat saw livestreaming as a way to interact more easily with his fans. He was also compelled to begin livestreaming thanks to rapid changes happening on YouTube. By this time, YouTube had launched YouTube Gaming, a live streaming Twitch competitor "aimed at gamers and and creators of game-related content". Livestreaming had been available on YouTube since 2013, however YouTube Gaming boasted a better experience for gamers specifically, with features like "high frame rate streaming" and instant stream notification to fans. It would also be a place for YouTube to experiment with newer features such as "channel memberships" before they were pushed to the main YouTube audience. MatPat and Steph felt like it was imperative for them to start pivoting to livestreaming in case they lost viewers and momentum on their other channels.

MatPat's second GTLive livestream

On August 20, 2015, MatPat uploaded the episode "The Assassin's Creed Shared Universe Conspiracy" onto Game Theory. At the end, he announced that he would begin live streaming on The Game Theorists channel on August 26 at 7:00 PM PST. In this announcement he said he would be trying livestreaming for one month, everyday at a consistent time. MatPat and Steph chose to livestream five days a week, in order to "run a clean experiment" and make a data driven decision about the success of their "experiment". There is no online archived footage of the very first GTLive livestream, however the second ever livestream, MatPat vs Mario Maker! was archived on both The Game Theorists and the GTLive channel. The livestream became wildly successful. What was planned as a short one month experiment became Theorists' third official channel and 14 months later GTLive would become the largest regular livestream, with as many as 50,000 concurrent viewers per stream. It was at this point that MatPat and Steph decided they needed additional help and brought on Jason Parker, the Defy colleague MatPat had saved from redundancy in 2014.

For more information about the history of GTLive, see GTLive Channel History.

Creator Collaborations & YouTube Rewind

Throughout 2015 and into the next several years, MatPat began to collaborate with other rising creators on YouTube. In 2015 MatPat would continue to appear on YouTuber Reacts videos by the Fine Brothers, make guest appearances on Smosh Games and Rooster Teeth, and would make his first singing appearance on the Random Encounters channel and Give Heart Records. These collaborations would continue to introduce MatPat to a wider audience and would enable him to create new partnerships across YouTube. Of particular importance was his participation in Random Encounter's various musical episodes, which connected MatPat with Markiplier. Markiplier and MatPat could go on to work on multiple projects together throughout the years, starting with Random Encounter's FNAF Musical in 2016.

In early 2016, MatPat added another partner channel to The Game Theorists, with Austin Hourigan bringing on his show The Science. Austin's science and math based show was a strong addition to the channel as MatPat began to add more storyline/lore heavy theories into the channel's programming. He would remain a partner channel until 2023, making him one of MatPat's longest channel partners and show collaborators.

MatPat's appearance on 2015's YouTube Rewind

MatPat would wrap 2015 with his biggest collaboration of the year; YouTube Rewind. YouTube Rewind was a yearly celebration of creators and viral videos and trends on YouTube, a new years tradition than ran until 2021. Appearing on YouTube Rewind was considered a significant achievement as it identified MatPat as a rising star on the platform. The 2015 YouTube Rewind also recognized the rise of FNAF and gamers like Markiplier in the gaming scene and MatPat's five second appearance occurs during a spooky recreation of a FNAF jumpscare. He would go on to appear in the 2016 and 2017 Rewinds as well.

Undertale & Representative to the Pope

At the beginning of 2016, Game Theory released one of its most famous episodes, UNDERTALE - Sans's SECRET Identity!. Undertale was a trending game for several years on YouTube and was a frequent Game Theory episode request by viewers. The theory MatPat created considered the thematic connections between Undertale and another Nintendo property, Earthbound and drew parallels between the characters of Sans and Ness. It was one of MatPat's favorite theories as the time of release as he is a huge fan of Earthbound.

But the San's Secret Identity episode--and every Undertale or it's sequel Deltarune followup episode thereafter-- had a mixed reception. It was notable for having a loud negative reception from the Undertale fandom, with the main criticisms being that such a theory was unrealistic and was rejected by the game's creator, Toby Fox. The reaction was so vitriolic that the phrase "Sans is Ness" has become an enduring meme in the wider online gaming culture. However, the website Know Your Meme notes that the overall reception to the first theory was positive, with more likes than dislikes as of the time the entry was submitted. As of 2024, the episode had 13 million views and 333k likes.

In May of 2016, MatPat and 10 other content creators were selected to be representatives at the World Congress of the Scholas Occurentes Pontifical Foundation. Scholas Occurentes is " international non-profit [youth] organization created by Pope Francis in 2013", designed to bring young people together to discuss global issues important to them. During the two day event, "a series of initiatives was presented, including the launch of a campaign against bullying" was presented to Pope Francis from over 400 representatives and guests from around the globe. MatPat and his fellow creators were also invited to a smaller private meeting with Pope to discuss various topics. MatPat was one of two US YouTubers selected for the event and was representing US gaming culture. The Roman Catholic Church has a tradition of giving a gift with "cultural and diplomatic symbolism" to the Pope and in following that tradition, MatPat and the other content creators selected symbolic gifts representing their individual audiences and cultures. To represent gamers, MatPat gifted the Pope a steam code for Undertale. He selected the title because of it themes of mercy and acceptance;

"I used Undertale as a figurehead [as] the most prominent example of the evolving social consciousness of Gamers [...] Its important to remember that we kickstarted Undertale, a game that pitched itself in its Kickstarter as a game about mercy and peaceful alternatives [...] it was something that gamers overfunded."

Audience reception to MatPat's Game Theory video which explained his visit to the Pope was also mixed, stemming from audience confusion and misunderstanding of the role of the papal gift. MatPat would clarify his rationale in a third Undertale video and highlight the irony of the gift being ridiculed when it was selected for its anti bullying message. However, like the Sans theory, his gift to the Pope became another meme that followed him for the next several years.

MatPat called the negative reaction to his first several Undertale episodes, "crushing", and admitted in 2017 that doing episodes on Undertale were "some of the worst experiences I've had" as host of the Game Theory channel. He would go on to have another negative encounter with creator Toby Fox in 2019 that would drag the Sans theory back into the public consciousness (please see Heartbound Incident for more info). A few commentators have highlighted Undertale as the start of an audience backlash against MatPat or as the start of when Game Theory "jumped the shark" ie started to decline in quality.

However by 2024, MatPat and Undertale creator Toby Fox resolved their minor differences publicly, with Toby thanking MatPat for his many theories when the later announced his retirement from the Theory channels. MatPat also honored Undertale by making it's sequel Deltarune one of his final Game Theories.

Global Gamer & Game Lab

2016 was also notable as it was the year another another two of MatPat's projects were launched. On April 6th, 2016, Game Theory posted MY SECRET PROJECT...MatPat's GLOBAL GAMER!. Global Gamer was a two episode mini series that was filmed in 8k using a 360 camera, filmed in Tokyo, Japan. The 360 camera made the two episodes immersive, allowing the viewer the option to rotate the video to see a panorama view. At the time it was posted, it was the longest 360 VR video ever in YouTube's history, requiring special modifications to allow for a complete upload to The Game Theorists channel. It was also one of the first 8k videos on the platform.

MatPat filming MatPat's Game Lab

On May 6,2016, Game Theory posted its first trailer for MatPat's Game Lab, a YouTube Red series that was reformed from the short lived Reality Check mini series. Game Lab was "at its core is testing video game mechanics in real life, testing gamers who play through these situations to see if those skills translate into real life". Game Lab was filmed in four weeks and involved 8 different locations. Each of its eight episodes involved multiple guest stars from across YouTube, creators like Pamela Horton and The Game Grumps. MatPat also involved longtime collaborators like The Beard Bros, PeanutButter Gamer, creators from Smosh Games and Ronnie Edwards and Stephanie Patrick from Team Theorist. Game Lab also incorporated a virtual component by filming parts of the episodes with a omnidirectional 360 camera. According to the VR studio Spectacular Theory, Game Lab created four hours of VR footage which at the time took up 40 terabytes of data. YouTube began supporting 360 videos in 2015, so the technology and usage was new at the time Game Lab was released.

Although only greenlit for one season, the first episode of Game Lab is the highest viewed video on The Game Theorists due to heavy promotion by the YouTube algorithm. The episode, "Can Gamers SURVIVE the Real Mirror's Edge?" had more than 98,000,000 views as of November 7, 2024.

For more information, see MatPat's Game Lab.

Departures, Loss, Birth and Recovery (2017-2020)

While the 2014-2016 era was dominated by intense growth and multiple large projects, the next three years were a cooler period for Theorist Media with fewer large scale projects than the previous years. However, MatPat would also have some of his most famous collaborations during the this period, such as his work with DeathBattle/Rooster Teeth, Joey Graceffa (see: Escape the Night), Rosanna Pansino and Markiplier. This era is notable for the start of Theorist Media's charity work, something that would become a major personal accomplishment for MatPat. He would also continue to work with Stephanie on the consulting side of Theorist, becoming increasingly sought out as an expert. However this era was also notable for significant changes and losses to Theorist Media as a company and to the personal lives of the Patricks.

Shifting YouTube Priorities & Channel Partner Departures

The start of 2017 saw Game Theory start the first episodes of popular franchises such as Bendy and the Ink Machine, Petscop, Kindergarten and Hello Neighbor. Film Theory covered big media franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, and popular television shows like Rick and Morty and The Walking Dead, while GTLive continued to gain momentum. Several of Game Theory's most popular episodes, including their coverage of Indie title Duck Season, were made during this era. However behind the scenes, there were some major changes with the Partner Channels that The Game Theorists hosted. In 2016, Drake took a step back from creating content for his Crossover and Smash History series. Declining mental health and uneven audience reception of his content convinced Drake to move to a behind the scenes position at Theorist. He assumed a freelance writer's position within Game Theory for the next year, until the summer of 2017 when he chose to leave The Game Theorists, making his official announcement on Twitter on August 24, 2017.

Lee also ended his show Breakdown in October of 2017. He would eventually depart from Team Theorist in 2018 to join the Normal Boots channel as a contributor. Ryder Burgin left The Game Theorists in December of 2017 to focus on his personal channel, taking his show A Brief History with him. Gaijin Goomba, the third of the original four Game Theorists stopped uploading Culture Shock to The Game Theorists a year later on June 21st, 2018. The Film Theorists partner shows also departed around this time.

The shift of The Game Theorists from a collaborative channel to one dominated by MatPat (the final partner channel, The Science, would leave in 2022) was a turning point for Theorist Media. Although audiences would speculate on the reasons for the channel partners departures, MatPat explained in multiple interviews and appearances that changes in YouTube's algorithm penalized all the series that weren't the main channel show (Game Theory and Film Theory). This would cause the former partners and Theorist to both be financially impacted whenever viewership dipped. Additionally, partner show episodes were not pushed towards non subscribers in the same way Game Theorist videos were, which meant that they got lost in between Game Theory uploads. Most channel partners have expressed nothing but gratitude and support for MatPat over the years. Lee and Ryder would continue to collaborate frequently with MatPat and Theorist Media, with Lee eventually returning to Theorist Media as an editor in 2019. Drake, Ryder and Austin has gone on record to explain that there was no "bad blood" between them and MatPat, and they, along with Gaijin Goomba and Austin, would reunite with MatPat for one of his final episodes as host of Game Theory in 2024. This did however mean that MatPat was now the main figurehead of Theorist, with his name becoming synonymous with all his channels. This would become most evident in 2019 during the Heartbound Incident where Undertale creator Toby Fox publicly called MatPat out for not linking games played on GTLive to their sale sites.

2018

MatPat has described 2018 in multiple interviews as "the hardest year of my life, [..] filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows". It started with the birth of his son.

Oliver Patrick

Another significant behind the scenes change centered on MatPat and Stephanie's personal life. On March 12, 2018, MatPat posted that he and Steph were expecting a baby in the summer of 2018. He made the announcement in a video post on Game Theory, titled "The Most IMPORTANT Video I've Ever Made (NOT CLICKBAIT)". The video format was a parody the video, how is prangent formed by creator J.T. Sexkik and featured very little information apart for the fact that Steph was 24 weeks pregnant at the time. MatPat and Steph later clarified on GTLive that they kept the pregnancy a secret for personal reasons and they thanked members of Team Theorist and their families for supporting their decision. Reaction to the pregnancy news was overwhelmingly positive, with congratulations from notable figures like Scott Cawthon, Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart. In preparation for the birth of their son, MatPat and Steph recorded multiple episodes of GTLive to air during parental leave. Part of those preparations were also tied to the promotion of MatPat's participation the third season of Joey Graceffa's YouTube Original series, Escape the Night, which would air during MatPat's paternity leave.

Oliver Robert Patrick was born on July 9, 2018. His father made the announcement on Twitter on July 10th, 2018.

For more information, please see, Oliver Patrick.

MatPat would describe the positives and negatives of having a newborn while running a business in his January 2019 Game Theory episode, "They stole 1.7 million". He described the difficulty he experienced watching Steph struggle through morning sickness and her postpartum recovery. They were often getting two hours of sleep during the first three months of Oliver's life but still managed to continue their consistent uploads on the three channels. Oliver's birth was "the highest of highs" but it was also followed by the "lowest of low points" of 2018.

Ronnie Edwards

While Stephanie and MatPat prepared for the arrival of their son, their longtime colleague, channel partner, and friend, Ronnie Edwards, suffered a mental health crisis in the summer of 2018. He died on July 4, 2018, the cause ruled as a suicide by the Los Angeles coroner's office. MatPat announced his passing on Game Theory, in a video titled, Losing the Battle, on July 25th 2018.

For more information on Ronnie's Life and Death, please see Ronnie Edwards. For help and access to crisis hotlines, see the International Association for Suicide Prevention.

The impact of losing Ronnie on the Patricks and Team Theorist cannot be understated. A member of Team Theorist learned of Ronnie's passing two days later, on July 6th, after they experienced a prolonged period of silence from their editor and performed a wellness check on his apartment. One day later, Stephanie Patrick went into labor. As MatPat explained in the July 25th Game Theory announcement, "[..] it was an emotional weekend...(and) it's been an emotional rollercoaster ever since". Five hours after Oliver Patrick was born, MatPat and Steph did an emergency phone call with Team Theorist and all former channel partners to give them the news.Team Theorist held off a public announcement for several weeks, so their team could process the loss and to give them time to determine the wishes of Ronnie's next of kin.

In his emotional public announcement, MatPat described Ronnie as a complex man an accomplished creator, attributing the Game Theory editing style as "Ronnie's style"; "he was my friend, he was the person who worked on (Game Theory) longer than anyone", second only to the Patricks. Although MatPat would rarely mention Ronnie's suicide publicly, in a 2024 interview, Stephanie would highlight the moment as a significant contribution (albeit one of many) to MatPat's decision to eventually retire as host of the Theorist channels. Ronnie's loss and Oliver's birth caused MatPat to question "what is important in life" and forced him to recalibrate his work/life balance.

Defy

Almost simultaneous to the pregnancy and Ronnie's sudden loss, Theorist Media suffered a significant financial blow, caused by their MCN (and MatPat and Jason Parker's former place of work) Defy Media. On November6th, 2018, Defy Media announced that it was ceasing operations due to bankruptcy. Not only did this leave Theorist Media without an MCN, it was later revealed by Stephanie that the company had lost "a good couple hundred thousand dollars" of AdSense earnings as a result of the sudden closure. 50 YouTubers were impacted in a similar way, losing a total of $1.7 million dollars in total.

2018 California Wildfires

In addition to the personal tragedies suffered by Team Theorist, the Patrick family narrowly escaped another tragedy in 2018. 2018 was the "deadliest and most destructive wildfire season" as of late 2024. On November 9th, 2018, Stephanie posted on Twitter that the Patricks' home was in the middle of an active fire evacuation zones, stemming from the Woolsey Fire. Although she later posted that their home was spared, this event would be cited as one of the major low points of 2018 by MatPat.

Trivia

Main article: MatPat/Trivia

Nicknames and Aliases

Main article: MatPat/Aliases

Awards

The Streamy Awards

Year	Category	Nominated Work	Recipients	Result
2016	Gaming	Game Theory	The Game Theorists	Won
2016	Virtual Reality and 360	MatPat's Game Lab	The Game Theorists	Won
2016	Nonfiction	MatPat's Game Lab	The Game Theorists	Nominated
2016	Show of the Year	Game Theory	The Game Theorists	Nominated
2017	Immersive	The Global Gamer	The Game Theorists	Nominated
2018	Pop Culture	Game Theory	The Game Theorists	Nominated
2019	Gaming	Game Theory	The Game Theorists	Won
2020	Creator Award	The Game Theorists-St Jude's Childrens Research Hospital #cancelcancerlive	The Game Theorists	Won
2021	Writing	Game Theory	Matthew Patrick, Justin Kuiper	Won
2022	Creator For Social Good	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Charity Livestream)	The Game Theorists	Won
2023	Scripted Series	Game Theory	The Game Theorists	Nominated

The Shorty Awards

Year	Category	Nominated Work	Recipients	Result
2016	Tech and Innovation: Gaming	Game Theory	The Game Theorists	Nominated