The Game Theorists

The Game Theorists was the first YouTube channel of the Theorist group of channels, created by Matthew Patrick and his wife Stephanie Patrick on August 22, 2009. It is most known for the series Game Theory, but has hosted several other series and content creators over the years. However due to changes to the YouTube algorithm and various other life changes, the channel now only hosts Game Theory.
For Information on its title show, see Game Theory.
For the list of former content creators featured on The Game Theorists, see Former Channel Partners.
== History ==
The channel was launched on August 23, 2009 and was originally titled "MatthewPatrick13", when MatPat was an aspiring actor and director. He utilized the channel to upload videos to promote a possible career in acting. The videos mostly consisted of monologues, musical numbers, audition tapes, and recordings of plays he starred in. Patrick continued uploading such videos until Christmas 2010, when he uploaded a slightly modified version of the video he used to propose to Stephanie. The video was also the first Patrick spent a lot of time editing.
A few years after the launch of the channel, Patrick decided to leave the filming and acting industry. However, he was unable to find anyone willing to hire him, so he went to the internet for help. On April 14, 2011, Patrick uploaded a promotional trailer for his new show, Game Theory, inspired by the Escapist's show Extra Credits. A few days after the release of the promo, Patrick uploaded his first Game Theory, discussing how Chrono Trigger's time travel works. In addition to the channel, some early episodes of Game Theory were regularly featured on the main pages of GameTrailers and ScrewAttack.
Despite being successful on the other websites, by the release of the twenty-second episode, Patrick decided to solely upload on the YouTube channel. With this, Patrick also introduced two new shows on his channel: Game Exchange, hosted by Gaijin Goombah and focused more on history and culture rather than science and mathematics; and Digressing & Sidequesting, hosted by Ronnie Edwards. After these changes and additions to the channel, The Game Theorists slowly rose in popularity, with some of his most well-known episodes being uploaded around this time, such as his "Mario is Mental" two-parter and "Link Is Dead".
By September 2013, the channel had reached 500,000 subscribers, which Matthew celebrated with a "Draw My Life" special. The channel was growing in popularity so fast that after only a few months of the 500K milestone video, the channel had reached one million subscribers in December 2013. Before uploading a 1M milestone video, a new series was introduced on the channel titled Crossover, narrated by Drake McWhorter and featuring art by Kenny Landefeld, the show's main goal was to link together all gaming universes together into one.
In early 2014, Gaijin Goombah started another show on the channel titled Culture Shock, expanding on the idea of Game Exchange. In mid-2014, "Smash History" was started, going into depth about the origins of the moveset, etc. of each of the characters and stages of Super Smash Bros., starting with Mario. Also in mid-2014, The Game Theorists collaborated with FootofaFerret to make "A Brief History of The Game Theorists". By that point, that channel was rising to three million subscribers. A mini-playlist of theories was uploaded regarding the popular survival horror game series Five Nights at Freddy's.
In June 2015, the Theorist crew launched a new channel titled The Film Theorists, which covered film and television and its main series being Film Theory, Did You Know Movies, and Frame by Frame. The month after, a new show was launched, DeadLock, in which he and someone else debate/argue over various points in gaming history. In September, they started a third channel: GTLive, where they did live streams of various fan-suggested games. The first episode of GTLive was a discussion stream announced at the end of the Game Theory video, "FNAF, The Clue that SOLVES Five Nights at Freddy's!".
In April 2018, The Game Theorists hit ten million subscribers, as shown on GTLive: 10 Million Subscribers LIVE! + GT 7 Year Anniversary! | Candleman The Complete Journey. This is also the seventh year anniversary of the first offical episode of Game Theory.
On July 4, 2018, Ronnie Edwards committed suicide. The news of this event was formally announced on July 25, when a video named "Losing the Battle" was uploaded to The Game Theorists.
On May 29, 2020, The Food Theorists channel was launched alongside five launch episodes of Food Theory (not counting the channel's introduction video). Videos on Game Theory and Film Theory shortly after this time included promotions for the new channel, and encouragement to watch all five of the new episodes.
On December 20, 2022, Matthew revealed that he was selling the channel to a company called Lunar X.
Currently, the channel has over 15 million subscribers and roughly 3.3 billion views.
== Shows ==
* Game Theory
==Related Series==
*Deadlock
*Global gamer
*MatPat's GAME LAB
== Former Partner Shows ==
* Culture Shock
* Digressing & Sidequesting
* Game Exchange
* Smash History
* A Brief History
* DeadLock
* The SCIENCE!
* Chiptune Tuesday
Category:The Game Theorists
Category:Theorist Channels