Ex-Youtuber MatPat shares his journey from content creation to government involvement

Written by: Maximo Legaspi 🇵🇭 & Henry Quach 🇻🇳

MatPat at UMD SEE's All niter (Maximo Legaspi)

It was a cold night on the University of Maryland’s campus when famous YouTuber MatPat of the Game, Film, and Style Theory channels walked out to an uproarious crowd in the Stamp Student Union building on Feb. 6, during SEE UMD’s All Niter. 

The internet personality, whose real name is Matthew Patrick, garnered a large fanbase over the past decade and a half by making videos analyzing various media forms, including video games, films, fashion, and more. This night, however, the focus was on himself.

Success didn’t come instantly, however. It took a long time before Patrick was able to monetize his videos, which is a large part of YouTube today. Even though he wasn’t making any money from his early videos, he and his partner would work day and night to make quality videos. He credits his eventual success to experimenting with videos, especially in making data-driven decisions, working to “create a platform underbelly built on math, science, and data.”

Throughout the hour-long lecture session, Patrick detailed his journey to becoming an internet star. He talked about his beginnings, citing his innate interest and curiosity as coming from his father, with “his approach to the world” and “his open, neutral mind” giving Patrick the inspiration to start making videos. He originally began his YouTube experience by posting clips and excerpts from various theater productions he was involved in. This eventually led to the creation of the theory videos he is now famous for.

He credited his father for influencing him not only in gaming but also in theory, since his father constantly researched all sorts of games while Patrick was growing up. 

After talking about some of his favorite videos, including his most notable series, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Patrick moved the focus to his post-YouTube life. He revealed how, after retiring from running his various channels in 2024, he has moved to working with the federal government and YouTube, setting up the Congressional Creators Caucus with the House of Representatives from Texas and New  York to improve the implementation of internet-related laws and improve tax issues for content creators. 

Outside of that work, Patrick talked about the freedom that comes with not having an intense content-creation schedule, and the “freedom to pursue projects…with just people in mind, just fans.” In addition to that, he hinted at a potential presidential campaign in the future, much to the pleasure of the sold-out crowd.

However, for those game theory fans who asked if he’ll ever return to YouTube. He instantly answered, “No,” as he’s been enjoying his retirement as a YouTuber, but still being involved in the grand scheme of helping YouTube grow time and time again. 

Junior mechanical engineering major Kenneth Vasquez Chicas viewed MatPat as his childhood hero and enjoyed Patrick’s presence throughout the whole lecture.

“The dude's really authentic… this guy is really high energy I'm glad to see some authenticity in this day and age,” said Vasquez Chicas.

Additionally, junior biology major Isabela Vallar was intrigued that MatPat sounded the same off camera and matched the energy that he would showcase in his old YouTube videos. 

“When he came in, I was looking at him, and I was like wow, he sounds exactly the way he sounds,” said Vallar.

It was a surreal experience for the University of Maryland students to witness the event.