Matthew Patrick

Matthew Robert Patrick (born November 15, 1986), more commonly known as MatPat, is the CEO of Theorist Media and the co-creator of The Game Theorists, The Film Theorists, GTLive, The Food Theorists, The Style Theorists and LoreFi. MatPat is most known for his work as host of Game Theory and its Theorist spinoff channels, and is a well known and respected figure in the YouTube Content Creator community.Hello Retirement|MatPat's Legacy on YouTube-YouTube, posted Mar 8 2024. 
As of February 2024, the Theorist Channels have a combined total of over 43.15 million subscribers and more than 8.98 billion views. The Game Theorists channel, Game Theory, and spin off YouTube Red series MatPat's Game Lab have won five Streamy Awards for Gaming, Virtual Reality and 360, Editing, and Writing. Patrick's success on YouTube has led to many opportunities, both inside and outside of the digital space. These include hosting shows like The Runner and Game Lab, consulting for major tech and entertainment brands, interviewing notable figures such as Susan WojcickiGame Theory's UNCENSORED Interview with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki-Game Theory, posted Dec 7 2019. and Pope FrancisPope Francis meets the YouTubers -Posted Jun 3, 2016., and making a cameo in the 2023 Blumhouse production Five Nights at Freddy'sFive Nights at Freddy's-IMDB page, last viewed Jul 25 2024.. Theorist Media has also hosted multiple charities, their most famous being their trio of charity livestreams for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which collectively raised $5.9 million across three years. He is an outspoken supporter for content creator rights,They stole $1.7 million-Game Theory, posted January 24 2019. Game Theory: Why Everyone HATES YouTube Shorts… And You Should Too!-Game Theory, posted Dec 21, 2023.and has collaborated with many fellow YouTubers over the last decade. 
MatPat retired from his role as host of the four main Theorist channels on March 9th, 2024. He continues to serve as the CEO of Theorist Media and as a mentor for the four new hosts. He is creating new Theorist Media projects such as LoreFi and Creators in Fashion, and he has also taken on the role of political lobbyist by meeting with US legislators to teach them about the creator economy.MatPat, the first big YouTuber to successfully exit his company, is lobbying for creators on Capitol Hill-TechCrunch, posted July 28, 2024.
==Biography==
===Early life (1986-2011)===
====Early Childhood ====
Matthew Patrick was born on November 15, 1986 in Medina, Ohio as an only child to Robert and Linda Patrick. He came from a middle class background with his dad working as a lab tech at a powder paint factory and his mother as a bank teller.I Tried To Make MatPat Cry As He Reveals His Biggest Youtube Regret, New Dad Experiences, & More-A Conversation With, posted Aug 12 2020. He has also talked about a supportive grandmother who watches GTLive regularly and tries her best to follow the topics he covered on his many channels. One of his grandfathers was of Polish, Czech and Slovak descent.Food Theory: I Cooked 100 Year Old Family Recipes!-Food Theory, post Feb 25, 2024. MatPat enjoyed a strong relationship with his parents, stating that his parents spent quality time with him and heavily invested in his education. He has openly attributed his success to his "wonderful parents and wonderful teachers that inspired (him) to be curious about the world".MatPat Eats His Last Meal-Mythical Kitchen, posted April 16, 2024.
Over the years MatPat has revealed several core memories of his childhood that structured his adult identity. During a keynote speech at PAX East 2024, he stated that many of his most important moments in his life were tied to video games.Storytime with MatPat|PAX East 2024-PAX, posted Mar 21, 2024. His earliest childhood memories were of sitting on his basement floor playing the video game Castlevania with his father, and of his green Mario themed childhood bedroom. Draw My Life-Game Theory, MatPat and YOU!-The Game Theorists, posted Sep 24, 2013. GT Live: MatPat vs Mario Maker!-GTLive, streamed on Aug 27, 2015. He would eventually play through every single Castlevania game in the franchise in college.Castlevania, Dracula Spectacula-Game Theory, posted November 3 2011. Another game that was incredibly important to him was the Super Nintendo game The Illusion of Gaia. The game came packaged with a World Map that showed the connection between the game levels and the real world locations that inspired them. According to MatPat, it was the first time that he was understand that "video games and the real world can interact", a realization which he credits as the earliest inspiration for Game Theory. It was also the game that eventually led adult MatPat to his first ever Game Theory editor, Ronnie Edwards, as the other man was a huge fan of the game and contacted MatPat after he saw his GT episode, Illusion of Gaia, World Wonders. MatPat credits the game as inspiring his intellectual curiosity, "it inspired me to explore and learn more about the world around me."
Intellectual curiosity and lifelong learning were important values imparted on MatPat by his parents. At one point in his early childhood MatPat demonstrated his intelligence to his parents by reciting a specific text passage and the exact page number it was on from a multi-volume set of books. This inspired his parents to prioritize education for their young son. MatPat also showed an interest in psychology from a very early age. In middle school he once did a science fair project on social cliques, using his own classmates as his test subjects. According to Matt, he "moved from lunch table to lunch table to invade other cliques to see how they reacted" to his presence. He won a state level award for this experiment. Another science experiment involved interviewing students from his old elementary school to determine gender stereotypes in career choices.I'm BREAKING OUT!|Newgrounds Riddle School-GTLive, posted Aug 18 2021. He was a very active and engaged student, often taking extracurricular classes and attending summer school on college campuses.MatPat Answers the Web's Most Searched Questions|WIRED- Wired, posted May 3, 2024. He also developed a lifelong passion for live theater and stated that he wanted to be an actor since he was in preschool. In Kindergarten, he chose to be an actor for career day.Film Theory: This is Her FINAL Act! (Grey House)-Film Theory posted July 20 2023. 
==== Secondary Education====
In the 6th grade MatPat was given his moniker, which is a combination of the first three letters of his first and last name. He would continue to use the name thorughout the rest of his childhood and would later adopt it as his online screenname/alias for Game Theory. The GTLive ritual of the "Clap and a Half" also originated in middle school, when MatPat was in 7th grade. His Social Studies teacher used the "Clap and a Half" as a reward for good performance in her class, however MatPat had several negative associations with the action due to the teacher's lackluster teaching performance.Mario Maker: Your 7th Grade NIGHTMARE!-GTLive, Dec 4, 2015. In his adulthood he would reappropriate the clap as a positive action for his community.
For more information, please see the article Clap and a Half.
Throughout his elementary through high school years he got straight As in all of his classes. During this time MatPat also developed his lifelong passion for theater, and by middle and high school he had sung in five show choirs, played viola in the school orchestra and performed in six stage shows a year. In high school he was President of the Men's Chorus and Dance Captain. In particular, his role as President of the Men's Chorus would lead to a core event in his life. As President MatPat's main responsibility was to set up the rehearsal space for the rest of the students. In his sophomore (second) year of high school this responsibility led him to meet a drama student named Mark. Mark was a first year student who had faced constant bullying throughout his education. MatPat struck up a friendship with Mark, introducing him to other students in his social circle. However unbeknownst to MatPat, Mark was suicidal when they first met and the small act of befriending him before chorus practice kept the younger man from killing himself. MatPat would later explain the dramatic impact of his small act of kindness to an audience at VidCon 2018; "A conversation as simple as that at 6:15 in the morning [...] is the difference between Mark living and dying."The Confession-MatPat's Vid Con 2018 Speech, Game Theory, Apr 6, 2018. This event would significantly contribute to adult MatPat's view of himself as a role model to his young audience; years later MatPat told the YouTuber duo Sticks in 2024, "that was the moment I was like, 'oh I want the world to be made better because I was a part of it'."
Starting in middle and high school, MatPat would also struggle to define his fashion style, something that he has noted multiple times throughout his YouTuber career. He credited his high school and college friends and Steph for staging fashion "interventions", forcing him to shift from his more unconventional style choices.I Need An Intervention...|Power Wash Simulator-GTLive, posted Aug 20, 2021. But he gravitated towards large statement jackets and bright, holographic colors, and this influence would continue into his adulthood. This struggle with fashion would eventually help inspire his final Theory channel, Style Theory.I Hired a $20 Stylist to Dress Me | Style Theory-posted Feb 10, 2024. 
===Duke University===
MatPat graduated Medina High School as valedictorian, with a perfect score of 1600 in his SATs.I Tried To Make MatPat Cry As He Reveals His Biggest Youtube Regret, New Dad Experiences, & More-A Conversation With, posted Aug 12 2020. He received an academic scholarship to Duke University, where he double majored in Theater and Neuroscience.I regret selling my channel. WILL MATPAT? I spent a day with MATPAT-Anthony Padilla, posted Jan 27, 2023. Starting in his sophomore year of college, MatPat was a Resident Assistant (RA), a leadership role within undergraduate dorms in most US Universities. He also met his future wife Stephanie Cordato in his sophomore year when they both took a video game programing course. MatPat has said they both chose the course because it involved making video games and was said to be an "easy A" while also fulfilling a graduation requirement. For the course's culminating project, MatPat and Steph paired up to create a parody of a Zelda game, called "The Epic of Stew", the name being a combination of their two names. Patrick, Matthew (Dec 24, 2010). "Stephanie and Matthew: A Proposal" YouTube.Stephanie's work ethic and intelligence made a strong impression on MatPat. As he told YouTuber Phil DeFranco:
"It was the first time in my life that it wasn't me having to carry the entire group project. [..] Stephanie was the first person who was not only excited to [...]be a part of the group,(she) carried her own weight and also far surpassed anything we were planning."
This experience became the foundation of MatPat and Steph's relationship, even though it took them over a year to start datingGame Theory: MatPat, I STOLE Your Channel!-Game Theory, posted May 19, 2022.; in MatPat's words, "we've been doing group projects since the beginning of our relationship." They would begin dating on October 8, 2006.My Embarrassing Past EXPOSED! | MatPat REACTS to Old Videos-GTLive, posted October 22, 2021 (recorded October 8th, 2021).
As a theater major, MatPat performed in various student plays and musicals while continuing to be a Resident Assistant. He also took multiple dance classes (sometimes with Stephanie), covering ballet, jazz, Latin, African, modern and ballroom dancing.MATPAT HIRES SMOSH GAMES!-Smosh Games, posted Jun 9 2017. At one point in his college career, MatPat went auction for the show Urine Town at Duke's big rival university, The University of North Carolina (UNC). He did this because he was dissatisfied with the shows Duke was putting on that year. While working on Urine Town, he would meet UNC student Hailey Swindal, starting a friendship that would eventually lead to them working together to produce the Broadway show Grey House in 2023. During his time at Duke, MatPat would also befriend Michael Bergen, a future Team Theorist writer and huge supporter of early Game Theory. 
===Theater Career===
thumb|right|236 px|MatPat's second to last theater "Hairspray Audition: 'Without Love' Opening"
MatPat and Stephanie graduated from Duke University on December 28, 2009, right on the heels of the 2007-2008 economic crisis and in the middle of the Great Recession. While Steph went to graduate school, MatPat began to build a career in live theater. This required him to travel frequently and he lived in multiple states for several months at a time. In the summer of 2009 he was in multiple shows at the Mt. Washington Valley Theatre, in North Conway, NH, including performing as the narrator in the musical Blood Brothers and as ensemble/Chad's understudy in the stage adaption of High School Musical. Matthew Patrick-Duke University Department of Theater Studies. See also Archival Version. Film Theory: Disney LIED to You! (High School Musical)-Film Theory, posted Dec 30, 2017 It was during this time that MatPat created his YouTube Channel under the name MatthewPatrick13. His first upload was a scene from the Blood Brothers musical, and it was posted on August 23rd, 2009. MatPat would continue to upload scenes from his performances, as well as several performance reels for the next two years. Most notably, he performed as Jonathan Harker in an adaption of Bram Stocker's Dracula at the Jenny Wiley Theatre in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. He also played Edward Lyons in Blood Brothers, Barnaby Tucker from Hello Dolly and Damis from Moliere's Tartuffe. His final theater clip was uploaded to YouTube on September 26, 2010.Hairspray Audition: "It Takes Two" Ending-Game Theory, posted Sep 26 2010
Sometime in 2010 MatPat followed Stephanie to New York City, where Steph would pursue a Masters degree in Pharmacology at Cornell University. On November 17th, 2010, the 1500th day of them being a couple, MatPat proposed to Stephanie using a video he created of their time together. He also decorated their apartment with photos of them in order to create a "relationship museum"; the carefully decorated apartment shocked Steph so much she accidentally knocked a mirror off of the wall in surprise. MatPat would later post the proposal video onto his YouTube channel on December 24th 2010. Stephanie and Matthew: A Proposal (unlisted)-The Game Theorists, posted Dec 24, 2010. Although this proposal was carefully planned and executed, over the years, MatPat and Steph also also described a near perfect date that occurred several weeks before the proposal, where he almost proposed to Steph but instead gifted her a Tiffany clock.What's NEXT For Theorist and GTLive... | Goodbye Internet Meme Review-GTLive, posted Jan 10 2010.The Try Guys EGG MatPat! (St. Jude Charity Livestream)-GTLive, originally part of the St Jude Livestream, reposted on Dec 14, 2019. 
While living with Steph, MatPat would continue to pursue his theater career in New York City, taking jobs as an actor, director and lighting designer. Although he found some level of success in his theater career, this was still a time period of intense financial insecurity for both MatPat and Steph. MatPat made so little that there were years where he did not file taxes. Their financial situation got to a point where they were unable to afford Christmas presents for each other and the couple were forced to travel over an hour to find affordable groceries.We Surprised MatPat With His Own Movie-Sticks, posted Apr 26, 2024. Stephanie has said that MatPat went to hundreds of auditions in New York for roles he ultimately failed to get due to his ineligibility for the actor's union. This resulted in several years of joblessness for MatPat, where he was forced to "take dangerous jobs rigging lights in theaters and working as an outdoor street vendor where he almost got hypothermia". In MatPat's own words, he eventually found the life of a starving actor creatively, intellectually and emotionally unfulfilling. He told YouTube Anthony Padilla, "It was not a lifestyle that I wanted. I hated living out of a suitcase. I hated living paycheck to paycheck and every three months being out of a job, and that instability was devastating for me."Living out of a suitcase was lonely for MatPat and he missed Stephanie. He has also said that he became disillusioned with the state of professional theater and has highlighted the notorious multi million dollar theater flop Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark as one of the many reasons he ultimately chose to leave the his first career. The explosion of theater adaptations of popular movie franchises and movie and tv actors appearing on Broadway also made MatPat feel frustrated with the direction of the industry.
===The Beginning of Game Theory (2011-2013)===
MatPat's transition out of theater began one of the hardest times of his life (in his words "the lowest of lows"), as he went nearly two years without a permanent job.I asked MatPat how to grow in YouTube (40+ Susbscribers)-Jon Youshaei, posted Dec 13, 2021. He applied for different jobs in retail, television, film and Silicon Valley, only to receive no response or eventual rejection. Charity Livestream to End Child Slavery! (ft. MatPat & Steph)|Kati Morton -Kati Morton livestreamed on Nov 30 2018.It didn't help that he was unemployed during the "biggest economic downturn since the great depression," which made finding a job with his uncommon skillset mostly impossible.Wikipedia contributors. (2024, August 19). Great Recession. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:49, August 20, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Recession&oldid=1241137259 In his own words, 
"I went from the guy who breezed through life [who] fully believed he was cable of doing anything, to questioning my worth, my smarts, my reason for being." 
During this time, MatPat found himself watching episodes of Extra Credits, which is an educational web series covering a variety of topics, including video game development and education. He has gone on record and credited a particular episode about tangential learning, or learning through games, as one of the main inspirations for Game Theory as he liked the idea of developing a show that used video games specifically as a way to communicate educational topics. MatPat started working on Game Theory as "something to do in between sending out resumes" and as a showcase of his creative talent and research skills. He spent several weeks researching other gaming shows and popular gamers, "everything from their logos to their color schemes to their pacing and editing style". He received significant help from Stephanie with his research, and he also recruited her and a few college friends to read his first episode rough drafts. Stephanie was the one to give Game Theory it's name, as she was inspired by the work of her parents (both of whom hold PHD in Economics).The Game Theory 10th Anniversary Celebration!-Game Theory, posted April 30 2021 She was credited in every single early episode until MatPat dropped the use of credits in 2012. 
MatPat would publish the Game Theory promotional trailer on April 14, 2011. The first episode of the series, "Is Chrono Trigger's Time Travel Accurate?", was centered on one of MatPat's childhood favorite games and was uploaded to YouTube four days later on April 18, 2011. 
For more information on the development and history, see Game Theory. 
Because YouTube was not used as a discovery platform for videos in 2011, MatPat would also upload the first episode of Game Theory to the community area of popular gamer websites Screw Attack and GameTrailers. Matt's first episode caught the eye of a Screw Attack intern named Drake McWhorter. Drake was impressed by the episode and he decided to promote Game Theory to Screw Attack's front page.Why I Left Game Theory (Crossover/Smash History)-Comic Drake, posted May 16, 2019. This not only gave MatPat his first big break, but it also resulted in MatPat and Drake becoming good friends and later show collaborators. After MatPat's published his third Game Theory episode, Illusion of Gaia, World Wonders, he was contacted by Ronnie Edwards. Ronnie was so excited by MatPat's love for Illusion of Gaia that he invited MatPat on his podcast series Random Internet Encounters, posting their conversation together on April 1st, 2012. This was MatPat's first ever interview as a YouTuber; however, sadly the podcast is considered lost media as no existing recording of this interview i available online.Losing the Battle-Game Theory, posted July 25, 2018. Regardless, this would begin another crucial partnership for both MatPat and Game Theory; MatPat has called his friendship with Ronnie, "an instrumental, foundational person and relationship in my life". MatPat would continue to collaborate with Ronnie and Drake, taking their advice and suggestions, along with feedback from his early audience. 
By 2011, Stephanie had graduated with a degree in Pharmacology from Cornell. Sometime during the start of Game Theory she was hired by Campbell Alliance, which was a biotech consulting firm based in Los Angeles. By late May, Stephanie and MatPat moved to LA from New York City, as MatPat mentions being new to the area in the 4th Game Theory episode Frogger, Australian for Games. Meanwhile the show was steadily building a fanbase Screw Attack and GameTrailers. By the episode Viewer's Choice, Cyborgs, Fatalities and the Riddler, he added his first major fan contribution to the show, in the form of a new logo created by SpellingPhailer, a fan of MatPat's from Screw Attack who would later go on to create Game Theory's theme song. By August 17, 2011 MatPat was posting Game Theory on The Punk Effect and Reviewtopia websites. Science Blaster made its debut on August 31st 2011, along with the very first opening animation by Andrew, aka idiot9point0.
MatPat hit another significant milestone in September when he made his first ever live action appearance in the episode Can Dig Dug Pop a Human. He did so on the advice of Drake, who had heard from his supervisors at Screw Attack that they viewed Game Theory as more of a "slide show". This episode is also notable for the first time MatPat did an experiment on camera. He inflated multiple tomatoes with a bicycle air pump as an analog to the Pooka characters in Dig Dug. He wanted to see how many pumps it took to blow up a "pooka" and found it only took 1-2 pumps to destroy the vegetable. 
Game Theory continued to slowly gain followers, eventually becoming an affiliate show on Screw Attack, starting with the January 2012 episode, "Skyrim, On the Subject of Arrows and Knees". This started a brief moment in Game Theory history where episodes were featured on partner websites before being uploaded to YouTube. In particular, the partnership with Screw Attack was one of MatPat's first big breaks in his YouTube career. Screw Attack's influence in the 2011 gaming sphere was so massive, that it propelled the careers of multiple famous Gaming content creators, including the The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN), JonTron, ProJared, and the Deathbattle team. The site also hosted future Theorist writer, Bob Chipman aka MovieBob. Screw Attack Wiki, Affiliates page. Unknown date posted. Some of the creators also featured on Screw Attack would go on to become collaborators and friends with MatPat, including Jarard Khalil (The Completionist), Austin Hargrave aka PeanutButter Gamer, Nathan Barnett aka future DadFeels creator, and of course Drake. During this time, MatPat also struck up a friendship with Michael Sundman, aka Gaijin Goomba, when he was producing the show Gaijin Gamer. Gaijin Gamer was a very similar show to Game Theory, in that it focused on "teaching culture through the lens of gaming".I Miss The OLD Game Theory! | MatPat Reacts to the Game Theory Partner Shows-GTLive, posted Oct 28 2022. 
On May 19, 2012, MatPat married Stephanie Cordato, in North Carolina.Patrick, Matthew (May 12, 2012). "@2BitSpecialist Thanks! It's coming up next Saturday. With a new episode of GT set for that week, any wedding-themed theories come to mind?" Twitter. Archived on May 2, 2022.Patrick, Stephanie (May 19, 2021). "Ahh! Same anniversary! Same number of years!! Congrats, it was a good day.💕" Twitter. Archived on May 2, 2022. His best men were Michael Bergen and Kousha Navidar.Donkey Kong Country and America's Secret Banana War -Game Theory, posted May 17, 2012.
==== Early Partnerships and Big Frame ====
As Game Theory grew in popularity, MatPat still continued to look for work, taking on freelance jobs with g-Net and Reviewtopia.net.https://www.linkedin.com/in/matpat13/details/experience/ Concerned about the time it took for him to produce and publish episodes, MatPat decided to extend an invitation to Gaijin Goomba and Ronnie Edwards to partner with him on the Game Theorists channel. He reasoned that Gaijin and Ronnie both had shows focused on educational aspects on gaming and by partnering up on one channel, they could grow a larger audience together. On July 2, 2012, a video titled "Game Exchange: New Partner Show Coming This Thursday" was uploaded to The Game Theorists, launching Gaijin Goomba's new show Game Exchange (formerly Gaijin Gamer). The second video of the new series, by the name "Game Exchange: Japanese Culture in Kirby, Mario, and Zelda", was uploaded on July 5, 2012, three days after the first one. For more information, please see Game Exchange.
On August 30, 2012, Ronnie Edwards uploaded his own show, Digressing and Sidequesting. The first video on MatPat's channel was "Hit Points and Health Bars, Digressing and Sidequesting". This series included the infrastructure of creating a game and how they would function. In addition to running his show on MatPat's channel, Ronnie would also become Game Theory's first ever editor, starting with the episode, "How Much is Minecraft Diamond Armor Worth?", posted on December 22nd, 2012. Ronnie's impact on Game Theory cannot be overstated. Early Game Theory episodes would take MatPat about a month to create on his own, due to his own lack of editing knowledge. In his own words Ronnie's "[..] experience with animation and illustration was able to accomplish things that in two years of working on the series, I'd had never been able to do!" This began a new era, transforming the Game Theory channel, into The Game Theorists. MatPat would also continue to work with Drake, receiving feedback and episodes ideas from him while also supporting Drake with his own channel. But because Drake was working with Screw Attack at the time, he had a non compete clause that prevented his shows from being hosted on The Game Theorists until his contract ran out. MatPat would also briefly feature the work of SpellingPhailer and newcomer Carf Darko in a segment called "Chiptune Tuesday", which ran during October 2012. Another early viral vidoes during this time was How Fast is Sonic the Hedgehog?. MatPat has identified this episode, which was posted on December 1, 2012, as the episode that started to gain popularity for the show.MatPat of Game Theory on Facing His Fear of Flying|Behind Field Day-Field Day, May 14, 2015. 
While all this was going on, MatPat was still looking for full time paid work, as he had not yet monetized Game Theory and was earning nothing from the channel. In June 2012, an MCN called Big Frame took an interest in him, with MatPat saying the higher ups told him "we don't know what we want to do with you, but we see that you're smart, so you'll figure it out." Eventually MatPat would have two roles at Big Frame, first as a Senior Data Analyst and later, as Audience Development Lead. This would be a pivotal moment in MatPat's life, where he would fully immerse himself in YouTube analytics, business practices and culture. At the time, Big Frame worked with some of the biggest channels on 2013 YouTube, including Tyler Oakley, DeSTorm Power and Tay Zonay. At Big Frame MatPat would advise the company and content creators on best practices for optimizing their channels and would really dive into the algorithm of YouTube. He even had a brief appearance in Big Frame client Julian Smith's Lottery skit in October of 2012.What's Next for Style Theory?-GTLive
2013 was a significant year for Game Theory, as The Game Theorists would grow from 30,000 subscribers, to 100,000 by March,The Game Theorists: Announcement #1-The Game Theorists, posted March 23 2013. to 500,000 subs in September and a million by the end of 2013.The History Of The Game Theorists | A Brief History-FootofaFerret, originally posted to The Game Theorist channel on August 24, 2017, reposted on Dec 2 2017. It was also a year with some of the channel's earliest hits, including the episodes, Portal's Companion Cube as a Dark Secret, Why Mario is Mental and Is Link Dead in Majora's Mask?. MatPat would also post his first major "meta" theory about the inner workings of YouTube, in the episode "How PewDiePie Conquered YouTube". Big Frame: The MCN That Highly Curates Talent-TechCrunch, posted August 13, 2013. The infamous "Wario is ten feet tall" mistake came from the 2013 episode, "Fart Rocket Physics with the Wario Waft", where MatPat misinterpreted how tall Wario would be in real life. 
==== The Origin of PNG MatPat ====
On June 21st-23rd of 2013, MatPat, Ronnie and Goomba were invited speakers at the ScrewAttack Gaming Convention (SGC) at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dallas, Texas. This was the first time The Game Theorists were able to meet in person and MatPat's first video game conference. It was at this conference that MatPat, Ronnie and Gaijin took the now famous picture of them standing side by side in 'thinking' positions and the source of the original MatPat PNG stock image that has been used in Game Theory episodes since 2013.ALRIGHT INTERNET! Here's PROOF it's not photoshopped! We were all together in that room in 2013.-Gaijin Goomba, reposted online Sept 14 2024. MatPat, Ronnie and Gaijin were guests on the panel "Pro-Tips: Becoming a YouTube Gamer", alongside Bob Chipman, Jirad and Greg from The Completionist, Proton Jon and Andre of Black Nerd Comedy. MatPat and several other con guests would also do a dramatic reading of the picture book "Slowly Slowly Slowly Went the Sloth" by Eric Carle spontaneously in the lobby of the conference and would later post the footage to The Game Theorists channel on June 29, 2013.SGC 2013: A "Dramatic" Reading ft. MatPat, Jirard the Completionist, and The DEX-The Game Theorists, posted June 29 2013.
==== Alloy and Defy Media ====
Meanwhile, MatPat continued to work at Big Frame until July of 2013. According to Matt, at one point he was accidentally shared on a document that contained the salaries of everyone in the company, and he discovered he was "the most overworked employee [...]and at the bottom of the rung" salary wise. After he was denied a promotion he left to join Break Media. He became their Senior YouTube Channel Manager and later their Director of Content Strategy. The LORE of MatPat! | The GTLive Iceberg Explained-GTLive, posted April 29, 2024. At the end of 2013, Break Media merged with another MCN called Alloy Digital, to form the company, Defy Media. Alloy Digital was the owner of The Escapist and Smosh at the time, and the merger would start MatPat's working relationship with the Smosh team, as their "analytics guy". 
During the Break/Alloy merger, MatPat was charged with reviewing members from Alloy's digital department to determine if they were kept or made redundant and thus fired from the new company. During the interview process, Matt met future Team Theorist member Jason Parker, who was working as Smosh's content manager. MatPat was impressed by Jason's work and knowledge of the digital space, so he recommended Defy Media keep him on their staff. This critical decision began another lifelong partnership and friendship for MatPat. 
The Game Theorists channel continued to grow and added another partner show at the end of the year when MatPat finally brought on his friend Drake, as by that time he had finished his time with Screw Attack. On December 28, 2013, Drake and his partner Kenny Landefeld, launched a new show on The Game Theorists known as Crossover. Focusing on "the six degrees of separation", Crossover aimed to bridge the gaps of the gaming multiverse but moved on to focus on video game timelines. 
====One Million Subscribers====
At the end of 2013, The Game Theorists hit one million subscribers. To celebrate, MatPat created the episode "Why You Play Video Games", in which MatPat, Ronnie and Goomba discussed the psychological reasons why video games are satisfying to players. MatPat also described how creating Game Theory fulfilled his own needs during his unemployment, giving him confidence, autonomy and community.Why You Play Video Games (1 Million Subscriber Special!)-Game Theory, posted Dec 13, 2013.
At the one million subscribers milestone, MatPat and the other Theorists finally turned on monetization for their shared channel, with MatPat running the business side of the channel. He would create Theorist Media Inc by the end of 2013.
=== Game Theory's Middle Era: Explosive Growth ===
2014 was another landmark year for Theorist Media and for MatPat personally. His channel continued to gain subscribers at a steady pace, hitting 2 million around April 2024 and 3 million by October. 2014 also saw the start of brand sponsorships for the channel, with early partnerships with Hulu, and Nature Box. He would also create a short video series on animals for the Pet Collective YouTube Channel, called Pet-u-cation. The programming on The Game Theorists also rapidly expanded, with Gaijin Goomba starting a new spin off show called Culture Shock in April and Drake introducing Smash History in August. 
==== New Partnerships, Going Solo ====
thumb|MatPat's first interaction with Ryder Burgin
In May of 2014, a young content creator named FootofaFerret aka Ryder Burgin cold emailed MatPat to ask if he would be willing to collaborate with him on an upcoming episode of Ryder's YouTube show, A Brief History. MatPat responded to Ryder in June 2014, while he was attending VidCon.How I Joined Game Theory-FootofaFerret, posted May 9, 2019. He emailed a week later asking Ryder if he would be interested in becoming a partner channel on The Game Theorists, adding his show to their expanding roster. He also asked Ryder to edit an episode of Game Theory, as the workload for Game Theory was only increasing alongside their viewership. Ryder agreed and he became the second ever editor for Game Theory and a channel partner. Ryder's first episode as editor was Is Comic Con 2014 REALLY Worth the Wait? on July 20th, 2014, and the episode A Brief History of The Game Theorists aired on August 9th 2014. 
In August of 2014, MatPat recruited another person to help with Game Theory; Forrest Lee, or "Furst" as he was known at the time. In 2014, Lee was creating content on the Smash Bros series, and one of his friends sent one of his videos to MatPat on twitter. He was so impressed by Lee's skills that he contacted him on Twitter on August 26th:File:MatPat Lee first interaction .png, creating yet another years long partnership with a fellow content creator. With Lee on board, Game Theory was now up to three editors. 
While all this was happening, MatPat continued to work for Defy Media for the first half of the year. MatPat began appearing on Smosh Games and other Defy affiliated channels at this time, which helped to expand his popularity within and outside of YouTube. At Defy MatPat was overseeing other creators channels, breaking down their analytics and providing detailed Powerpoint presentations describing how they could optimize their work. But Matt discovered that a large portion of creators ignored his advice, which he found "devastating". He also stated that he had no work-life balance while at Defy, because he left for work at 6am, got home at 8pm and would start working on Game Theory in the evenings and on weekends. So as The Game Theorists neared 3 Million, MatPat decided to leave Defy and make Game Theory his full time job. He would leave Defy by August 2014, however MatPat would still continue to collaborate with Defy Media partners for several years and more crucially, would continue to use Defy as his MCN partner for The Game Theorists. Stephanie would follow MatPat in leaving her job and working fulltime on Game Theory several months later. 
MatPat himself entered a new era of popularity during this time, as he began to appear frequently in other content creators videos. Thanks to his connections through Defy, he was able to network with channels such as The Warp Zone and Smosh Games.CAPTAIN PLANET THEME SONG! (Ft. MatPat from GameTheory)-The Warp Zone, posted September 3 2014.SCIENCE OF PENIS-COPTERS WITH MATPAT OF GAME THEORY-Smosh Games, posted Jul 22, 2014. He also made his first appearance on YouTubers React in April 2014, the first of several appearances throughout the years.YOUTUBERS REACT TO SIR FEDORA-REACT, posted April 17 2014. This was particularly significant as it introduced MatPat to a new audience outside of the Gaming Sphere. However, his popularity would take another massive leap in the final quarter of 2014 with the introduction of Game Theory's most popular franchise. 
==== FNAF ====
On October 4th, MatPat posted a poll on his Twitter account, asking his Twitter followers to choose between two options for the topic of his Halloween episode of Game Theory. The choice was between Slender Man vs Five Night's at Freddy's (FNAF). FNAF was the clear winner and so on October 23rd 2014, MatPat posted "Five Nights at Freddy's SCARIEST Monster is You!", his first FNAF theory and his most successful Game Theory video to date. This first FNAF video had five million views within the first month, very quickly outpacing the channel's most popular video at the time, Is Link is Dead?. MatPat would follow this video up in December 2014, focusing on the second FNAF game in the episode, "FNAF 2, Gaming Scariest Story SOLVED!". The popularity and frequency of FNAF titles would dramatically change the direction of Game Theory, shifting it towards more lore driven episodes on indie game franchises. 
==== Game Theory Exposed ====
Throughout the later half of 2014, MatPat and Steph worked tirelessly on Game Theory; as Steph said in one interview, "we worked everyday, all day, from 7am-10pm, no weekends, nothing." This lack of work/life balance would reach an inflection point at the end of the year, when MatPat and Steph filmed the live action behind the scenes episode, Game Theory, Exposed, for twelve hours on Christmas Day. This experience was a turning point for the couple, and they vowed to never let work consume that much of their free time again.MatPat & Stephanie-Creative Disruption Podcast-Creative Disruption, April 18, 2018. Game Theory, Exposed was also significant for several other reasons, as it was the first time MatPat spoke about his creation process with his audience and it was one of the few Game Theory episodes to heavily feature live action Ronnie on screen. It was also Game Theory's 3 million subscriber milestone and was posted on December 28, 2014. 
==== 2015 ====
On May 12, 2015, MatPat created a new channel "filmtheorists" (later changed to The Film Theorists), This series was similar to Game Theory, except it conducted analysis and theory videos on movies and television shows rather than on video games. 12 episodes of this new series were already uploaded on the new channel by the time the announcement was made. However, working on both Game Theory and at Defy was taking a toil on MatPat.
On August 20, 2015, he uploaded the episode "The Assassin's Creed Shared Universe Conspiracy". At the end, he announced that he would begin live streaming for the first time ever on the channel on August 26 at 7:00 PM PST. On September 14, he created the channel GTLive and has continued to post live streams on that channel since October 9.
On May 6, 2016, MatPat announced an internet show on YouTube Red known as "Game Lab", in which over 50 people are gathered to show what video games would exactly be like in real life. The show is featured on YouTube Red and has been a huge success.
On March 12, 2018, he uploaded a video titled "The Most IMPORTANT Video I've Ever Made (NOT CLICKBAIT)" where he announced that him and Stephanie were pregnant with their first child. They later revealed on Instagram that their child is a boy, and the due date was July 4, 2018, but their son was born a few days later. Oliver Julian Patrick was on July 9, 2018. 
On May 29, 2020, MatPat created a new channel, "The Food Theorists". This series was similar to his previous channels, except it conducted analysis and theory on food and the food industry rather than on video games or on films/videos. 5 episodes of this new series were already uploaded on the new channel by the time the announcement was made.
On Feb 18, 2023, Matpat created a new channel, "The Style Theorists". This show was reminiscent of his previous channels, except it conducted analysis and theory on style and the fashion industry. 5 episodes of this new series were already uploaded on the new channel by the time the announcement was made.
On Jan 9, 2024, Matpat announced in a video titled "Goodbye Internet" that he would be "hosting my last theory episode", and essentially retire on March 9th. Stating that "I'll be handing off the [4] channels to someone else."
On March 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th, of 2024, exactly 2 months after he announced quitting he finally left his 4 channels in order being Style theory on the 6th, Food theory on the 7th, Film theory on the 8th, and Game theory on the 9th.
==Trivia==
==Nicknames and aliases ==
==References==
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