News

Thank goodness: On Friday, gaming star and YouTube creator Seán William McLoughlin, better known as Jacksepticeye, debuted his latest edition of annual charity event Thankmas at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.

Filled with fellow online stars joining, the drive raises money for the nonprofit Crisis Text Line with the donations for the 2024 show having already crossed $280,333.54 of McLoughlin’s $1 million goal just over an hour and a half into the live stream.

Ahead of his biggest project of the year, McLoughlin spoke with Variety about his plans for the future of his YouTube channel, what more he wants to do with his Jacksepticeye brand, and if he’s still considering retirement in a couple years.

What are your goals for Thankmas this year?

Pretty similar to what we did last year. We’re keeping the same format of doing it live, but streamed at the same time, because that...

In his tenth year on YouTube, Jacksepticeye raised a cool 10 million during his annual charity stream. The Irish gamer, whose real name is Sean McLoughlin, welcomed entertainers like Jack Black, Bella Poarch, Mark ‘Markiplier’ Fischbach, and Rachell ‘Valkyrae’ Hofstetter as part of his 2022 Thankmas celebration.

McLoughlin has led five Thankmas events over the course of his career. In 2020, the star-studded stream resulted in a 4.6 million fundraising total, which supported Red Nose Day. A year later, McLoughlin ran it back with a Thankmas celebration that ultimately pulled in 7.6 million to benefit New Story.

The 2022 version of Thankmas featured a different charity at its center and a roster of high-profile guest stars. McLoughlin pulled out all the stops to deliver an eight-digit sum to the World Central Kitchen. Another famous Jack — Mr. Black — showed up to help the Thankmas host build a giant Jenga tower. Poarch and Valkyrae stopped by for a game of “reindeer ring toss.

Make-A-Wish America has awarded JoJo Siwa, Night, Patrick Mahomes, Roman Reigns, Seán McLoughlin, Shawn Mendes, the Texas Rangers, and T.J. Oshie with the Chris Greicius Celebrity Award for playing a pivotal role in furthering the Make-a-Wish mission.

These individuals and organizations provided their time, talent, and significant influence to grant wishes and drive fundraising results for the world’s largest wish granting organization, allowing more children to experience wishes that can help them deal with and overcome their critical illness.

JoJo Siwa: As an actress, singer, entrepreneur and dancer, JoJo has gained popularity with wish kids who admire her versatility and authenticity. Since her first wish in 2017, JoJo has gone on to grant 30 wishes – often making time for wish kids in the midst of filming TV shows and on tour. Last holiday season, she helped grant a wish in conjunction with the Macy’s Believe campaign, helping bring awareness...

Star YouTube gamer Jacksepticeye has signed with the William Morris Endeavor (Wme) talent agency for representation across all areas.

The YouTuber, whose real name is Seán McLoughlin, has 21.4 million subscribers and nets between 100 and 200 million monthly views on the platform. He’s known for his extensive and often humorous playthroughs of popular video games, from underwater survival game Subnautica to mythology-based God of War to character-driven android dystopia Detroit: Become Human.

McLoughlin’s signing with Wme is the latest in a string of career moves. Earlier this month, he announced a multi-year deal with Disney Digital Network (Ddn) and Twitch that will see him produce exclusive live and on-demand content for the livestreaming platform. In October, he and frequent collaborator Markiplier (who also recently signed a deal with Ddn and Twitch) launched their made-for-gamers clothing brand Cloak. And throughout 2018, McLoughlin traversed the U.S. and U.K. for How Did We Get Here?...

Top YouTube gamer Jacksepticeye, whose real name is Seán McLoughlin, announced on Twitter that he and longtime girlfriend Signe ‘Wiishu’ Hansen ended their relationship earlier this year. Hansen, a Danish influencer, also tweeted about the breakup, and urged fans to support both her and McLoughlin moving forward.

“It’s hard for me to say this, but a couple of months ago Signe and I went our separate ways,” McLoughlin said. He added that it wasn’t easy, but, “Sometimes people change and life moves on in different directions.”

Both McLoughlin and Hansen asked that fans not spread rumors, with Hansen adding, “Some people have even prematurely put the blame on me and used me as a scapegoat, which is unfair. I’ve been very supportive of Sean as well as the decision to break it off.”

Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.

By posting a video every day for the past five years (and almost never taking a day off along the way), Irish gamer Seán McLoughlin -- who the internet masses know as Jacksepticeye -- has become one of YouTube's top creators. On his channel, where he shares gameplay footage from titles like Garry's Mod, Subnautica, and Grand Theft Auto V, McLoughlin has received close to ten billion views while attracting nearly 20 million subscribers.

But the high-intensity grind that has allowed McLaughlin to post more than 3,800 YouTube videos has also taken a toll on his wellbeing. In a recent video, the creator announced his plan to take a short break from his channel while he travels to Los Angeles and clears his head for a few days.

In the video, McLaughlin explains that his mental health "has not been in the best place recently," and he needs some time to...

YouTube has been testing out a new option to let users sort their subscription feeds in an algorithm-fed, non-chronological order — and the move has many creators up in arms.

YouTube has actually been running the test with a small number of users since February 2018. The Google-owned video service publicly acknowledged the test in a tweet from the Team YouTube account late Tuesday evening, in response to a user’s complaint that videos weren’t showing up chronologically.

“We find that some viewers are able to more easily find the videos they want to watch when we order the subs feed in a personalized order vs always showing most recent video first,” the Team YouTube post said.

Reaction from the YouTube community has been overwhelmingly negative. Grace Helbig, a popular YouTube comedy creator, tweeted simply, “Please don’t do this,” in response to the Team YouTube post.

Colleen Ballinger, the...