YT Battles

Matthew "Matt" Raccuglia (born August 7, 1992),Edited by YT Battles better known online as YT Battles or pwnyy (formerly Youtube Battles), is an American YouTuber who primarily does data visualizations and live streams of popular YouTubers reaching notable milestones or popular YouTubers surpassing other popular YouTube channels in subscribers. He occasionally does mix in other content, such as analytics from other social media sites, U.S. Election Results, New Year Countdowns, etc. His content would help him grow on YouTube. YT Battles is one of the largest communities of YouTube analytics enthusiasts with over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube, a Twitter/𝕏 account numbering over 8,000 followers, and over 1,000 Discord members.
==YouTube Origins==
Matt first discovered YouTube in 2006 during his sophomore year of high school. Someone in his small computer class of around 10 people was like 'Hey everyone, check out this funny video!' and that was Matt's first exposure to YouTube. Over the years, Matt would gradually become more and more interested in watching YouTube. In 2011, Matt created his first YouTube account (which will remain secret) so that he could subscribe to channels such as RayWilliamJohnson, sxephil, smosh, and nigahiga. Later in the 2010's he would add more channels such as PewDiePie and MrBeast to the mix.
On November 6, 2015 Matt created pwnyy as his first real YouTube channel just to show a cool trick that he learned in his favorite online game, Bombermine (now called Game of Bombs). His first upload ever on the pwnyy channel was made with Windows Movie Maker and did not even have sound. While creating videos for the game, pwnyy taught himself basic video editing and graphic design skills that would set the stage for the much better success of the future Youtube Battles channel.
On January 24, 2019, Youtube Battles was created as an experiment. Pwnyy did not expect to see this channel grow much more than his original channel did, which had around 150 subscribers at the time. The original purpose of the channel was to simply do his own version of a PewDiePie vs. T-Series live stream and see what happens. Matt also was a PewDiePie fan and he wanted to help support his favorite YouTuber in defeating the mega-corporation, T-Series. Youtube Battles did not immediately jump into the PewDiePie vs. T-Series trend, but his first ever live stream was actually HolaSoyGerman vs. Badabun (a Spanish language channel spinoff of the YouTuber vs. Company rivalry trend at the time). The first few livestreams did not produce much results, so YouTube Battles decided to stop live streaming for a while.
He began uploading on March 2, 2019, when he created a video called "PewDiePie vs. T-Series SECRET "Plan U"", displaying a time lapse of the PewDiePie vs T-Series subscriber battle when T-Series used it's secret "Plan U" to subscribe to T-Series and unsubscribe to PewDiePie.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4iWa8RijVs Youtube Battles did not expect much to happen with this video; he was simply trying to show other PewDiePie fans the "attacks" being done by T-Series supporters in the battle. To his surprise, this video started gaining traction. His next uploads showing time lapses of the subscriber battle would go viral and get the channel off the ground.
==A Brief Year-By-Year History==
====== 2019 ======
After the initial success of the PewDiePie vs. T-Series time lapses, Youtube Battles continued to make time lapses of other popular battles at the time. The official Youtube Battles Discord server was created in April. He did not return to live streaming until a brief James Charles vs. Tati live stream in May. In June, Youtube Battles joined a partnership with Subscriber Wars (more info on that below) and began livestreaming 24/7. The core community began to grow a lot during this period. The abbreviation of real-time subscriber counts in September threw a wrench into plans for the channel, but YouTube Battles persevered until estimated subscriber counts became available.
====== 2020 ======
In a year defined by the rise of MrBeast Gaming, the massive popularity of K-Pop view counts, and pandemic lockdowns keeping people indoors watching YouTube more, YT Battles grew massively. MrBeast and a few of his crew members entered live chat during the MrBeast Gaming subscriber count live stream. The live view count live stream of BLACKPINK's 'Ice Cream M/V' peaked at 12,541 viewers and the live view count live stream of BTS 'Dynamite' MV amassed over 3 million total views. The biggest event of the year turned out to be his livestream showing the results of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, with over 3.8 million total views. There was a lot of drama within the YouTube Stats community as a whole during this time, but what do you expect when everyone is locked indoors all day everyday?
====== 2021 ======
It was around 1am in YT Battles' time zone (12am CST) on January 1, 2021 when over 100k concurrent viewers were watching the annual New Year Countdown livestream.https://x.com/pwnyygaming/status/1344938896640110594 On January 14, JackSucksAtLife gave him a shoutout in Which of my subcribers has the most subcribers *2021*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue205Kaa2_k. He also said YT Battles specifically was his favorite out of the channels he shouted out. That same day, MrBeast also gave YT Battles a shoutout on Twitterhttps://x.com/MrBeast/status/1349908167824723970 for a final push to 100,000 subscribers and the Silver Play Button. Not a bad first two weeks of the year. However, it wasn't all smooth sailing. YT Battles was initially denied a Silver Play Button by YouTube. After about a month (and after posting multiple times on Twitter about the issue) YouTube changed their mind and sent him his Silver Play Button.
Pandemic lockdowns began to ease in 2021, but many people were still indoors watching YouTube for much of the year. Some of the biggest live stream events of the year for YT Battles were the TeamSeas live donation count, MrBeast Squid Game live view count, and various K-Pop live view counts. The popularity of K-Pop live count live streams and the divide between this K-Pop community and the existing YouTube Stats Community prompted YT Battles to create a new channel called YT Battles SK. His intention was for this new channel to feature all K-Pop related stats content. However, the popularity of that type of content began to decline and the new channel never really launched. Matt also launched the YT Travels channel in 2021 and, unlike YT Battles SK, actually uploaded a few videos from his driving adventures.
====== 2022 ======
The biggest live stream events on YT Battles this year included MrBeast hitting 100 million subscribers, MrBeast vs. PewDiePie, and TeamSeas ending. YT Battles' official Discord Server also got accepted into the Discord Partnership Program.
====== 2023 ======
The year started off with a 24/7 live stream centered around the massive growth of MrBeast. In March, YT Battles began a hiatus from YouTube that would last all the way into the end of May 2024. He still did a few live stream events during this hiatus, but there was no 24/7 livestream. Some of his reasons for this included: lots of classwork in his final semester of college, getting removed from the YouTube Partner Program for obscure reasons, wanting to prepare for his next steps in life after college, etc.
====== 2024 ======
During his hiatus, YT Battles lost over 10k subscribers. On May 31, YT Battles returned to 24/7 live streaming as MrBeast vs. T-Series neared its conclusion. Another massively popular trend happened in August when Cristiano Ronaldo used his massive influence to create a new YouTube channel. The YT Battles live sub count live stream of Ronaldo's new channel turned out to be the most viewed content ever on the channel, with over 6 million total views as of August 27.
==Youtube Battles vs. Subscriber Wars==
On January 24, 2019, pwnyy created his channel which was named "Youtube Battles". Later it was changed to "YT Battles". When he started growing fast and was close to Subscriber Wars in subscribers, they both decided that they wanted the sub gap to be as close as possible. Other trends such as Barry vs. Larry had sprung out of the PewDiePie vs. T-Series trend, so we wanted to see if we could get a similar result. In May-June 2019, the gap was going from Youtube Battles leading to Subscriber Wars leading and it kept on bouncing back and fourth until Youtube Battles created the MrBeast Gaming live sub count live stream that got major attention. Suddenly MrBeast came in chat and donated over $100. Subscriber Wars actually out-donated MrBeast with a $500 donation. Due to drama between the two communities, Youtube Battles and Subscriber Wars eventually had to end their partnership. They remain on good terms as they both continue to grow their channels.
== Personal Life ==
Matt was born August 7, 1992 in North Carolina, United States. His hobbies outside of YouTube include watching sports (MLB and NFL), traveling, tracking weather, and hiking. Matt describes himself as an introvert. During his childhood, he also lived in the states of Tennessee, New York, and Maine. Despite a very turbulent life growing up, YT Battles maintained very good grades throughout his time in school. After moving from New York to Maine, Matt skipped 8th grade. As a result, he graduated high school in 2009 at the age of 16. After high school, he went directly into the workforce for about 10 years rather than pursuing higher education.
In 2018, Matt decided that he wanted to pursue a career in Meteorology because of his hobby of tracking weather. In 2019, he would move to Vermont to study Atmospheric Sciences at Northern Vermont University - Lyndon (formerly Lyndon State College, now called Vermont State University). Around the same time, Matt's hobby of YouTube was increasingly becoming a priority. Fun fact: His move-in day at college turned out to be the same day that PewDiePie hit 100 million subscribers. In May 2023, YT Battles graduated Magna Cum Laude and finished his Bachelor of Science in Atmospheric Sciences. After graduating college, Matt moved back to Maine.
==Channel Milestones==
===Subscriber milestones===
====YT Battles====
*1,000 subscribers: April 18, 2019
*5,000 subscribers: June 8, 2019
*10,000 subscribers: June 24, 2019
*20,000 subscribers: January 1, 2020
*30,000 subscribers: June 4, 2020
*40,000 subscribers: August 19, 2020
*50,000 subscribers: August 27, 2020
*60,000 subscribers: August 29, 2020
*70,000 subscribers: September 8, 2020
*80,000 subscribers: November 3, 2020 
*90,000 subscribers: December 18, 2020
*100,000 subscribers: January 14, 2021
*200,000 subscribers: May 11, 2022
*300,000 subscribers: August 22, 2024
====pwnyy====
*1,000 subscribers: September 15, 2019
*2,000 subscribers: March 7, 2020
*3,000 subscribers: February 15, 2021
====YT Travels====
*100 subscribers: August 11, 2021
*200 subscribers: September 12, 2021
*300 subscribers: November 8, 2021
*400 subscribers: November 10, 2021
*500 subscribers: January 12, 2022
*600 subscribers: March 30, 2022
*700 subscribers: July 30, 2022
*800 subscribers: November 4, 2022
*900 subscribers: January 4, 2023
*1,000 subscribers: April 28, 2023
===Video view milestones===
====YT Battles====
*1 million views: May 27, 2019
*10 million views: May 22, 2021
*20 million views: August 25, 2021
====pwnyy====
*100,000 views: February 13, 2019
*200,000 views: September 23, 2019
*300,000 views: March 1, 2020
====YT Travels====
*1,000 views: September 18, 2021
*2,000 views: November 30, 2021
*3,000 views: February 21, 2022
*4,000 views: May 24, 2022
*5,000 views: August 1, 2022
*6,000 views: August 31, 2022
*7,000 views: September 13, 2022
*8,000 views: October 20, 2022
*9,000 views: November 16, 2022
*10,000 views: December 17, 2022
*11,000 views: January 21, 2023
*12,000 views: February 27, 2023
*13,000 views: March 31, 2023
==References==
Category:Commentary YouTubers
Category:Vlogging YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2012
Category:Verified YouTubers