Seán William McLoughlin

**Seán William McLoughlin** (born 7 February 1990), better known online as **Jacksepticeye** (or simply **Jack**), is an Irish YouTuber, known primarily for his comedic Let's Play series and vlogs. As of April 2019, his channel has over 10 billion views and over 22 million subscribers and is currently ranked the most-subscribed channel in Ireland. McLoughlin's large audience has allowed him to organize charity fundraisers that have raised over $1 million in total.

## Career

### YouTube channel format

McLoughlin uploads once a day to his YouTube channel, usually a Let's Play or vlog style of video. McLoughlin has claimed an inclusive community is an important part of the Jacksepticeye channel stating "one of the main things I wanted to do on YouTube is to keep people together".

#### Video style

McLoughlin calls himself the "most energetic video-game commentator on YouTube".McLoughlin has also described his content as an "assault on the senses" that people "either love or hate". In an interview with Irish Independent McLoughlin described the format of his videos as him playing and talking over video games, with a lot of swearing. He has cited his use of swearing as a key aspect to his success saying, "There’s lots of swearing. The more you swear the better. People react very positively to that apparently."

### History

#### 2012–2016: Start of YouTube career

McLoughlin joined YouTube on 24 February 2007 but didn't start uploading videos until November 2012 when he started to work on his channel under the name "jacksepticeye", posting gameplay videos. In 2013, McLoughlin was mentioned in a PewDiePie video, causing him to gain mass popularity; he went from 2,500 subscribers to 15,000 in four days.

During the month of July 2014, McLoughlin's channel gained over 57 million views. At the time, his channel had only 800,000 subscribers. By February 2015, the channel had reached one billion views and 3.2 million subscribers.

In January 2016, McLoughlin was one of the initial YouTubers signed under PewDiePie's network, Revelmode.

#### Early 2017: *Scare PewDiePie* controversy

Main article: PewDiePie § Controversial videos, network drop and streaming (2017)

McLoughlin co-starred as the antagonist of the second season of the YouTube Red show *Scare PewDiePie*. However, the season was canceled before its release due to the controversy surrounding PewDiePie. The series was planned to premiere on 9 March 2017.

On 18 February 2017, McLoughlin released a video called "Let's Talk!" to his YouTube channel which discussed PewDiePie being cut from Maker Studios for his use of anti-Semitic imagery. In it, he clarified that while he had tweeted in support of PewDiePie he did not condone his actions and believed he could have been more apologetic. Overall, McLoughlin states, "You can still be friends with someone but not agree with something they do. I don't think the world is that black-and-white."

However, the next day he tweeted that he regretted focusing on criticizing PewDiePie in the video saying that he had been "naive". In a Tumblr post, he said his main regret was not commenting on the mainstream media's reporting of the controversy stating, "there were some unethical practices at play with the media, a lot of misquoting and misrepresentation."

Following the controversy, it was confirmed that that the Revelmode network had been shut down by Disney. McLoughlin then signed to the Disney Digital Network.

#### Mid 2017–present: Other ventures and touring

In June 2017, Polaris, a division of The Walt Disney Company, announced that McLoughlin would be featured on *D | XP*, a television programming block on the channel Disney XD. The title of the series featuring McLoughlin is *Polaris: Player Select*. He and YouTuber Strawburry17 hosted the Level Up! games panel at the D23 Expo 2017. In July 2017, it was announced that McLoughlin would be a playable character in the strategic prison-escape game *The Escapists 2*. In September 2017, McLoughlin was featured on the RTÉ 2 Rich List in the "top 30 under 30" category.[8] McLoughlin toured throughout September-October 2017, in the US with the *How Did We Get Here* tour, and then returned to the UK and Europe to tour with the Game Grumps for the *Ready Player 3* tour.

In January 2018, it was announced McLoughlin would produce exclusive content for Twitch as part of a multi-year deal with Disney’s Digital Network. In February 2018, McLoughlin released dates for the US and Canada run of the *How Did We Get Here* tour. In April 2018, it was announced McLoughlin would be a part of the comedy line-up for the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival. In May 2018, McLoughlin uploaded a video of him and Ryan Reynolds playing the *Deadpool* video game.

## Criticism of YouTube

McLoughlin has been critical of the changing algorithms and policies at YouTube, voicing his dissatisfaction. In April 2018, McLoughlin responded to YouTube pulling ads from "unsuitable content" stating "This is people's careers. To completely switch how you do things and not tell anybody is a sh-ty [*sic*] thing to do." In May, McLoughlin responded to a surprise algorithm test from YouTube which changed the order of videos displayed in its subscription feed by stating that "People use the subscription tab to mainly avoid this sort of algorithmic behavior... Please keep that to the home page and recommendations."

## Philanthropy

In December 2016, McLoughlin was a part of the Revelmode charity holiday live stream #Cringemas, with PewDiePie, Markiplier, Emma Blackery , and PJ Liguori. The group raised over $1.3 million under the hashtag #EndAIDS, with matching donations from the Gates Foundation and YouTube.[27] In December 2017, McLoughlin hosted two charity streams to raise money for Save The Children, with Blackery and Liguori. In the second stream, Blackery revealed that over $260,000 had been raised for the charity.

Throughout 2018, McLoughlin hosted various charity live streams for charities such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, GameChanger, a charity with the stated aim of "[leveraging] technology and innovation to empower patients to play, learn, and socialize", AbleGamers, a charity which creates custom gaming setups for disabled gamers, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and Crisis Text Line raising a total of over $1 million for charities in 2018.

In January 2019, McLoughlin hosted a livestream which raised over $100,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

## Personal life

McLoughlin grew up in Athlone, Ireland where he was given the nickname Jacksepticeye. Whilst at college, McLoughlin was the drummer for the metal band, Raised to the Ground, with whom he released one EP, *Risen from the Ashes*, in 2009. He currently lives in Brighton, England. In October 2018, McLoughlin announced that he had split from his Danish vlogger girlfriend Signe Hansen, better known as "Wiishu". He posted on Twitter that it was "not an easy decision to make".

BTW do you have 90 minutes?