As a person who’s grown up with KZfaq, I can definitely see the shift that has happened. I remember being 11 years old watching videos like “Super Mario Frustration” on the platform. A type of video that wouldn’t fly today. Now I’m watching 20+ minute Game Theory videos and last night watched a 43 minute NileRed video. I’ve been telling people that TikTok is cringe because of the type of videos that get popular there, only to now realize you’re 100% right; TikTok is just young KZfaq. Eventually TikTok will become the current day KZfaq, which makes me wonder what KZfaq will be in 15+ years.

Markiplier: Everything has to end CrankGameplays: I'm sorry, things have changed Game Theory: The end of an era Me: Why do they keep scaring me like this?

"the end of an era" *sweating* "Im not leaving youtube anytime soom" *instant relief*

matpat: im not leaving anytime soon! two years later: peace guys

"Not leaving KZfaq anytime soon" Well, 2 years certainly wasn't too soon was it?

Mat just calmly giving his entire fan base simultaneous heart attacks

“End of an era” had my heart racing till he said he wasn’t leaving, but then I finished the video and realize more KZfaqrs will leave in the near future

This really hits home with the current climate of KZfaq ESPECIALLY after hearing your talk at Vidsummit. Also, your talk at Vidsummit was epic.

Here I thought, convinced by the words "End of an Era," that Matpat was leaving KZfaq and moving on to something bigger. What I ended up getting was not an announcement, but a very intriguing and interesting video focusing on the growth of KZfaq, its commercial shift and its business side in relation to its competition. I really enjoyed listening to you today, Matpat! Thank you for another awesome and well-made video as always! Continue to thrive and keep growing! P.S. I would LOVE to see Matpat be the host of Jeopardy!

He really had me thinking he was gonna quit KZfaq.

Imagine if when matpat does his last episode he says "goodbye internet this has been the game theory" I would cry

I'd love to have a conversation with this man

Phenomenal video, bud

Mat putting "The end of an era" almost made everyone have a heart attack or almost experienced five stages of grief

Prisoner: “what’re you in for?” Matpat: “spoke about a fictional child murderer” Prisoner *slides away*

Actually, Newgrounds did share cash with its content creators, but since it did such back when it was going down and KZfaq's star was rising, it went fully unnoticed. Nowadays Newgrounds has gone back to being an "underground" content network, but apparently it barely pays the bills.

Every youtube theory video you post blows my mind. like.. reliably every time.

I THOUGHT THE CHANNEL WAS ENDING AND FREAKED OUT

Say what you want about MatPat, but Matthew Patrick is an incredibly smart person that is at the forefront of the internet content creation as a whole and that is not something to take lightly

MatPat is one of the few KZfaqrs who's found a perfect way to adapt to the new KZfaq without making too many drastic or "weird" changes to his content. Recent game theories feel like old game theories, just more modern.

I’m really afraid that YT is going to go even further towards this hyper-sanitized squeaky-clean library without the real spice of life.

That "you're not a casual viewer of youtube" call-out was too good, and too real

I feel like business theory is MatPat’s 4th “channel” though it’s not actually it’s own channel. It’s just theorys that come up in all his other channels; like this game theory, and we’ve seen a couple in film theory and food theory.

Teacher: Explain the concept of Censorship without saying the word censorship Matpat:

Maybe if MatPat really became the CEO of KZfaq, he'd finally fix all of the issues that's currently prominent.

"I never forgot any of you. Ever." "Well guess what Steve? We lost, and you weren't there."

TikTok just isn’t enriching like KZfaq is, and it never will be. Short-form content by its very nature is mindless and expendable. The reason I’ve spent so long on KZfaq is because of the genuine love I have for the creators on here. I could never feel that same way about someone by watching nothing but minute-long videos of them.

As someone who has been watching youtube for about 10 years, I just can't move onto TikTok like many of my friends did, but I do understand the appeal.

I grew up with KZfaq, but I am more sad to see the business aspect now being the mainstream of it all. I do miss the old KZfaq where people just did things because they taught it was fun. Let’s plays, funny animations and etc are starting to become a thing of the past.

9:34 I'd argue that Unus Annus by Mark and Ethan was a perfect example of constraints producing art. The whole point of the show was to be as vulgar and wild as possible because why not? There's a short limit on the channel's life so why not do whatever you want, no one can stop something that literally has nothing to lose and a pre-planned death. That was a brief moment of art. I wish we could see longer lasting channels like Unus Annus. Momento Mori, individualism and spicy content

You forgot to mention the literal two-tier system YT implements that more seriously punishes independent content creators while letting content from major corporations, such as Disney and Viacom, slide without so much as a word.

No wonder so many people reach out to you for consulting. You really shine a light on exactly the state of KZfaq and the state of various platforms. Awesome video

I wasn't sure what to expect with clicking on this video. "The End of an Era?" I was honestly thinking, "what the heck is this about?" But anyway, as someone who's only been making content for a little over a year now, this was more eye-opening than I was expecting it to be. Leave it to MatPat and his deep-diving into topics that get your brain a-thinking!

"The end of an era" *sees the jacket* "Is that the era that is ending?"

The internet has increasingly become self-aware, analyzing what they're watching, and sometimes causing good change, but often causing unnecessary conflict in the name of appealing to everyone, while at the same time everyone because politically charged and pinned against each other. Basically: Too many people are trying to control their influencers, and too many websites, _especially_ KZfaq, are listening to them. Niches channels are becoming the only place where you can thrive if you don't appeal to everyone.

Everything makes so much sense. So well put together. Thanks, MatPat!

I was scared shitless, thought that this was the end of the channel

i know he's joking about coming for susan's youtube ceo job, but honestly i would put my full support into the cause if he decides that it's no longer a joke

“‘We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?'” “‘Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.'” -Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

The problem is that every bit of "sanitizing" youtube does is the type where you kill a fly with a bazooka.

I can’t believe in the time I’ve been watching watching game theory we’ve reached the point where MatPat can confidently say he is the edgelord with absolute certainty

"I'm not leaving KZfaq anytime soon" They got us in the first half. not gonna lie

“I’m not leaving anytime soon.” *L I A R*

Kinda makes you anxious when you realize how much you're gonna have to consider when wanting to start uploading on youtube.

When Matt mentioned that everything on youtube is super long i got startled: The Game Theory used to be one of the channels with longer videos on youtube a few years ago, you had to make time for the videos; now the theory channels are possibly the shortest they've ever been and they're usually the first option for me. Congrats Matt, i remember you mentioning the extra effort to shorten the Videos to fit the watch time and cutting theories on half and honestly the effort paid off.

Honestly, I know that it was meant as a joke, but MatPat becoming the CEO of KZfaq would probably be the best thing to happen to this platform in years.

Taehyung is indeed the Justin Timberlake of this era so funny to hear about him in a completely unrelated video btw good stuff

Jeon jungkook most famous and papular in kpop and jungkook face of kpop❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Nobody's talking about how Matt's wearing "That" red jacket YET AGAIN. It's so iconic at this point that you could just say two keywords "MatPat" and "Jacket" and people would know what you're talking about.

“Don’t worry, I’m not leaving KZfaq yet” bro, you have no idea how scared I was with the title

You can tell our culture is strangling itself based on how derivative so much of our media content is. A sequel, spinoff or remake is most of what is out there.

watching this after the goodbye internet goes super hard

Imagine a world where MatPat says 'Hello Internet, welcome to Jeopardy!"

“End of an Era” 😿 “I’m not quitting KZfaq anytime soon” 👏Welp all I needed to see

Well Matt, I have to say you really got me on this one. When I read “the end of an era”, the first thing that popped into my mind was that Game Theory was OVER, and I just can’t stress enough through a 3 am written comment how scared and worried I was. Great video, nevertheless, I loved your sincerity and your “openness” in discussing these topics. Thanks for the in-depth analysis and review about the KZfaq and other video platforms creation sites. I have been thinking about starting to create content and making a YT channel, and I think this video gave me some food for thought and nudged me in the rightest of the directions. Hope to communicate more with you, I love your videos and even though I’m what could be described as a “wallflower”, just quietly watching without commenting or getting “too involved” , I’m currently making some “adjustments” in my life. And one of those is finally communicating and becoming actually active, instead of just silently watching from the sidelines and in silence. So TL;DR, I just wanna congratulate you and ofc Stephanie about this awesome channel and your awesome content, I love your way of explaining stuff and I think you have this awesome gift of connecting with your audience and communicating exactly what you mean. Thanks for everything and keep up the good work!!! Cheers from Guadalajara, Jalisco, México! If you ever come to visit, I’d love to meet you and show you guys around 😉 just for you to keep that in mind.

9:33 As I recall, this quote was about an artist deciding what they were going to do, as without drawing lines in the sand, the infinite possibilities prevent them from moving forwards with actually doing something. Cancel culture as it exists today is basically strangling art to death, slowly.

Love how this personally hit hard especially when MatPat was talking about the trends of the last few years and this year. I grew up with KZfaq, I'm in my early 20s and not going to lie, I went through the whole mindset of being edgy watching Leafyishere, and then being PC watching Tea channels, and then being passive watching reaction-commentary videos, and then finally being an open minded adult watching DIY vids, documentaries, retrospective commentaries (like this video). KZfaq will always be my preferred platform, and I'm not sure if it's because it caters more to our Generation and what phase we are currently in real life but I think it definitely is the most "inclusive" platform out there.

Curse you Matpat. I tune in after a year and see this. Thought the channel was ending. Now I've got a playlist of all your streams from this year and I'm bingeing irrationally. You sick genius.

As someone who's just started college, I grew up with MatPat and Game Theory. I watched through the early days when Nerf Wars and Minecraft were huge on the platform (what a time on KZfaq that was) and well on through my middle school and early high school years. I started to taper off his content after a while, though definitely not because of a dip in quality.. the videos are as good, if not better than ever! What made me smile though, as I came back to the channel and watched this video, was scrolling down to the comments and seeing so many other high-quality content creators leaving notes and messages on the video. It's like watching a Casey Neistat video when that generation of KZfaqrs followed his lead. Though I may be much younger than Matt and have a long way to go in this world, I couldn't be more proud of him and this community. Thanks for all the memories Matthew, I can't wait to see where you take this platform next.

This is amazing, It's great to see how much Matt knows about the creator industry and to get a general image of the changing landscape.

It's amazing how long KZfaq has stayed relevant. The analogy that the platform has become an adult feels so fittings. Longer videos typically mean longer discussions, at least for the reviewers and critics. I can't help but think back to the Lion King TikTok theory. It's the difference between a short "I had this idea" versus the longer "I had this idea and here's why." At least in that vein of content.

I kinda feel like the channels who don't care about getting demonetized tend to have better quality.

This is the best KZfaq Rewind I've ever seen! So glad they put you in charge of it this year.

I'm watching this video for a reference of MatPat for drawing "I'm not leaving KZfaq anytime soon" Okay I knew doing this would hurt but yeah...

When the title said the end of an era, I was scared that he ment he's quitting KZfaq for Jeapordy

When Mat’s on the couch, you know it’s serious.

"The enemy of art is the absence of limitation" that couldn't be more wrong. You can have all the restrictions in the world and the art would become only blank paper. Art grows and only can true be expressed in limitless conditions. Where the artis can make whatever the artist desires.

Matpat: “One and a half speed is how I have to watch everything on KZfaq these days because go figure, everything on KZfaq is so darn long! They’re all like, the length of movies!” Also Matpat: *releases several videos a week that are almost always 20+ minutes long each*

The old youtube slogan "broadcast yourself" always just stabs me through the heart Because... it use to be so reflective of how old youtube was, just some random people broadcasting themselves.

The most effective clickbait in decades... well played, Matt.

Absolutely loved watching this. Definitely the best use of 24 minutes 52 seconds (plus 15-20 seconds of ads) of my time

matpat is leaving, game theory ends

You already know things are bad when Mat is sitting on a couch talking to the camera

honestly, i love these deeper dives that MatPat does occasionally. you notice these changes in social media platforms and the content creators within them, but to see it formatted into a video makes you realise how big that change is. it's so weird to see.

Jeon Jungkook is your bias omg. He is everyone's bias at this point. Let me introduce him if some ppl don't know him. Jeon Jungkook, 24, youngest mem of band BTS. He is main vocalist, lead dancer, sub rapper, centre & face of BTS. He is immensely talented. A great artist and a great human. He is so popular worldwide. He is literally the face of kpop. Most popular nd successful idol at such a young age. 💜

This is the most comprehensive and mature video about the current content creation trends, platforms, and environment I have ever seen. Really REALLY well done. I mean, good job. Seriously.

I usually only watch about 30 minutes of KZfaq at a time, but I'm not scared off by long videos - I just break them up into multiple watch sessions.

If MatPat started a podcast just talking about social media and stuff, I would listen. This stuff is so interesting to me.

This was a punch in the gut. Being on KZfaq since childhood and then growing up with it feels kinda surreal. Great video, thanks for the insight. Really got me with that old Smosh video haha

This vid was 2 years ago... But now this title means something else

It's sad to see this platform most of us grew up with just become a shell of what it used to be, but still I completely agree with the points made and it was an insightful look at the bizzare state of modern youtube, so great job on this video matpat.

hey!! i know matpat himself won’t ever see this, but i just wanted to say thank you so much for being so kind to me when i asked for a photo with you. it made my entire week! i’m still in shock over it. i have generalized anxiety disorder, so i couldn’t properly say what i wanted to in the moment (also i was shocked!), but both you and steph inspired and continue to inspire me so much. you guys gave me a community, a place where i could be myself and relax. hope you guys are doing well!!! thank you for everything. :D

youre not wrong about that video length, Ive had this video on my tab for weeks and am now just finishing it

Dude bro this is why you're favourite. The analogy is so on point! When you broke it down by age group I remembered some of the old game reviews back in the and how the hosts would swear, yell, break stuff, or even smear feces over a games they thought were garbage, as a teenager would, and now you'd be hard-pressed to find a review that isn't a well thought out video essay complete with both good and bad points and just enough information for you to make your own decision, like a responsible adult. And I mean if the trend keeps up I think that grand-parent stage youtube is probably going to end up being one of the more caring eras, as more and more creators end up uploading videos of great advice, anecdotes, reflection, and probably even videos of just relying the message of 'I care'.

On the topic of shorts content on KZfaq: Given that KZfaq has the power of Google ads behind it, I think it will always be king in a financial sense. KZfaq Shorts is already struggling to figure out a viable way to pay creators for making shorts and it is no surprise because the biggest short player in the room - Tiktok - hasn't even got it figured out yet. The KZfaq Shorts creator fund is merely to buy more time since it's not exactly easy to monetize content with ads that are 1/4 - 1/2 the length of the content the person is watching. And banner ads don't earn enough to be worthwhile. I know they are trying really hard to make it right, and I strongly believe that KZfaq may be the only one to be able to do it correctly, but to most creators it feels like they stumbled through the dark with shorts leaving some creators burned and others wondering how it will all work out. KZfaq is rocketing forward on a train and laying down the track right in front of it hoping they will make it to their destination.

"The end of an era" title gave every single Theorist a panic and heart attack at the same time plus I like it when Mat discusses topics that are important to him as a youtuber or youtube in general because it makes me know that Mat wants us (the viewers) to be informed. Also when Mat said " I'm not leaving youtube anytime soon" like everyone else sighed in relief. "They grow up so fast" KZfaq in 2021 currently

0:33 Well that aged well

Jeon Jung Kook #JungKook We love you so much Jung Kook , OUR GOLDEN ARTIST JEON JUNG KOOK 🐰💜🐰🥳

I feel super fortunate to have been old enough to remember and experience phase 1 of KZfaq because boy is it different now. That panda sneezing video brings back memories

It's amazing how Mat just screams so loudly for all of the generation's concerns regarding the changes and how they have come about. I've legit never come across another person whos evolved as smoothly as he has. From the early days of Chrono Trigger, we love you man.

Mine too Jungkook is my favourite

This was super interesting, and nostalgic. Awesome. Been watching you since 2013

Why am I unusually hyped for an episode of “Dark lore of blues clues theory”

We really need a new CEO for KZfaq. Susan has ignored the amount of predators that have been outed, the fact that KZfaq Kids exist, and the fact that KZfaq was always a video sharing site not a huge corporation Edit: These comment bots I swear! Anyone else getting these?

To think i've been watching for almost ten years. thanks for all the laughs over the years.

Well this video aged like fine wine.

I really like how you’ve categorised the different generations of KZfaq. Having grown up with the platform, its fascinating to see its changes documented like that.

Man, I suddenly missed the days when a talking fruit kept me entertained.

The more censored KZfaq gets, the more I am tempted to leave. When one of the three, Tim Pool, Kevin Samuels, and of course you, Matt, ever get banned, I am stopping youtube permanently

This is such awesome insight. Made me pause the video and have my own sort of internal discussion extending on your points. Genuinely one of my favourite ever videos due to the brilliant dive into current, REAL observations. Brilliant stuff Mat!