Jacksepticeye is one of the top 100 YouTubers in the world with over 23 million subscribers and 12 billion 61 million views. Most people could only dream of reaching where he’s gotten, but as it turns out, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows as they say.
The Irish game streamer posted a video on January 14th titled “Answering REALLY Personal Questions” that he solicited on Twitter. After getting deep into his struggles with depression and anxiety, he addressed a question about whether he’s considered quitting YouTube. He responded with a resounding “Yup, I’ve thought about that a lot,” he said. “Doing YouTube, I absolutely love it, it’s the best job I’ve ever had and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. But it is the most stressed and the most anxious I’ve ever been in my life.”
He cited stress factors like pressure and expectations from fans, worrying about an algorithm he doesn’t understand and being his own boss and working alone. He also said that he’s considering uploading videos with less frequency, after being committed to daily uploads for seven years. “I’m getting to the point where I’d rather work when creativity and motivation strike me most, rather than just doing it for the sake of doing it. I just don’t know if uploading every single day is really worth it.”
‘I’m just tired of YouTube’s algorithms and trying to fight a system that I have no idea how it works,” he added.
Many other high profile YouTubers have increased their production value over the years and hired more people to offload some of the work associated. PewDiePie for example works with two editors and his wife sometimes helps too. Others, like LinusTechTips, have a much larger crew of about 20 people. While the latter approach does reduce the on-screen time of the main person, it certainly offloads much of the work load and allows them to operate and grow more sustainably than someone like Jacksepticeye.
