- Gaming YouTuber Jackseticeye said he is considering retirement.
- In a recent video, he said he had up to two years to live.
- YouTube's platform is constantly changing, and many long-time creators are wondering about their future.
Gaming YouTuber Jackseticeye may be on the verge of retirement, the latest sign of an exodus of OG creators.
In a recent video, he said he was considering leaving his channel, where he has been creating content since 2012 and has amassed more than 30 million subscribers.
Jacksepticeye, whose real name is Sean McLoughlin, said he probably only has a few years left in making YouTube videos before moving on to other work.
“I definitely think that even if I do the best I can the way I am, I probably have about two more years left in me,” he said. “I want to do something creatively fulfilling as a springboard for other things.”
This confession shows that even the biggest and most successful content creators are currently struggling, feeling misguided and confused about their future on an ever-changing platform.
Although YouTube is growing from a business perspective, many long-time creators are questioning their future in the times. where mr beast AI has become mainstream, and platforms are almost unrecognizable from what they used to be.
OG YouTuber Leaked
In January, McLoughlin caused a stir on X when he said that after watching fellow YouTuber Matt Pat's retirement video, he realized he too had been on the platform for “literally a third of his life.”
Fans responded, “Please don't do this,” and begged them to “please don't go.”
His video posted on April 5 details some of his thoughts.
“No, I'm not retiring from YouTube,” he said. “At least not yet.”
McLaughlin said the retirement announcements of creators including Mattpat and Tom Scott made him reflect on his “tumultuous relationship” with YouTube.
“I think it's become clear over the last five years that I've struggled quite a bit with keeping up with the content, keeping up with the passion, keeping up with the energy, keeping up with the audience,” he said.
Creators have come under increased scrutiny from the platform since the 2017 adpocalypse, when major companies threatened to pull their ads from YouTube. They have had to pivot and censor repeatedly to ensure they comply with a long list of rules in order to profit from ad revenue.
McLoughlin said that when he first started, everything felt easy because he felt he fit the “mold” of what YouTube was looking for. As the years passed, the demands of the platform changed, and he felt he didn't know how to get along.
It can be difficult to understand. McLoughlin's videos regularly receive tons of views. Forbes magazine estimated his fortune to be around $27 million as of 2023.
He is one of the few content creators on YouTube who can upload a 5-hour game playthrough video that 3 million people are willing to watch. More than a decade later, his fans still eagerly await his next upload.
However, he says his perception of success was distorted and he suffered from lack of motivation and burnout. He said he couldn't believe the audience was still there when he came back from the break.
“It sucks to be in such a state of confusion about what's going on with my channels and my systems that I feel like what I'm doing sucks,” he said. “So I think this year I was like, 'Okay, I'm going to quit,' because I don't want to think too much about my content.”
McLaughlin also opened up about her own diagnosis of depression and how negative comments can affect her. He specifically mentioned the spambots that continued to flood and troll comment sections for months after his father's death in 2021.
After 11 years of a strained relationship with fame, he says, “I'm finally starting to see the cracks.”
“I didn't realize how much something like that was affecting me.”
The relentless content cycle
Burnout has plagued content creators since it started becoming a legitimate career path in the 1990s.
A 2024 paper, “Under Pressure: A Netnographic Study of Threats to the Mental Health of Influencers and Creators,” by researchers Ulrike Grätzel and Tanja Shellhamer, highlights the “precariousness” of content creators’ work. and how it is influenced by the need for constant visualization. It casts a long shadow over what is often portrayed as a dream job. ”
The paper cites pressure from audiences, platforms, their peers, and themselves as reasons that perpetuate the mental health challenges that influencers can face.
A YouTube spokesperson previously told BI that the company understands that being a creator is not an easy job. They said that each creator defines success differently, so they want to help them create content in a sustainable way.
It added that the tools on the platform do not consider average frequency or past video performance when recommending new videos to viewers, allowing creators to feel like they can take a break when they need it.
In reality, “nobody really seems to be doing anything,” Brandon C. Harris, an incoming assistant professor in the University of Alabama's School of Journalism and Creative Media, told BI.
“I think he's in the top 150 most successful YouTubers of all time,” he said of McLoughlin. But even at that level, “there is no protection,” he said.
“YouTube doesn't care about the mental health of its users at all,” he says. “They want you to keep making videos.”
The future of YouTube
McLaughlin was asked his opinion on MrBeast, the platform's biggest creator with 250 million subscribers, during a lie detector test last September, and asked what happened to YouTube. He seemed to be complaining. When asked if he liked his fellow YouTubers, McLaughlin answered “no.”
The two talked backstage and the matter was resolved. But in retrospect, McLaughlin's opinion seems to stem from the pressures YouTubers face.
A future where MrBeast's ridiculously high-budget content dominates YouTube views seems just around the corner. There are also concerns about how AI content will capture the attention of the rest of the population.
Harris said McLaughlin was one of the “old guard” who was “screaming and raising his fist at the new generation that was coming.”
“I don't care about YouTube because Mr. Beast is still out there,” he said. “And eventually when MrBeast gets tired of it, there will be another person who wants to do the same thing.”
McLoughlin said he knows he's lucky to have the platform he has, but he doesn't want to seem ungrateful. But he wanted to remind those watching that the people they admire are not “bulletproof.”
Although he's not on the brink of retirement, his ultimate plan is to be able to focus more on bigger projects, such as producing an animated show or writing a book, “something a little more creative than just uploading all the content.” That's what he said. Every day. ”
“I'm going to retire someday, but not right now,” he declared.
But he also wanted those watching to know that “I'm a minute closer to midnight than people realize.”
BI has reached out to McLoughlin and YouTube for comment.
