Popular Call Of Duty YouTuber Reveals The Reason He Is Moving On

It appears that 2020 has one last surprise in it for gamers, with longtime Call of Duty and Fortnite YouTuber TheSmithPlays announcing on Dec. 28 that he is done producing video game content on his channel. TheSmithPlays is the YouTube channel for Patrick Smith, who cites burnout from the grind of making videos for the channel as a significant reason why he has decided to pursue other avenues of reaching fans.

TheSmithPlays has primarily produced content related to Call of Duty's Zombie mode, with his first-ever video showing the Shi No Numa level from 2008's Call of Duty: World at War. His Youtube channel has posted Zombies content almost continually for eight years and has over 3 million subscribers.

In his goodbye video, appropriately titled "The End," Smith explains that he has felt unstructured since completing high school and then college. Furthermore, he has grappled with how to use his newfound freedom as an adult best. Smith explains that while over the last four years he experimented with switching his channel from Call of Duty to Fortnite, he says that the battle royale game "didn't really satisfy me, and I got stuck in that."

Smith realized that he no longer felt the same level of engagement with content creation when he returned to cover the new Zombies mode for the recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War. After taking a break from producing videos, Smith returned to cover what he calls, "A really good game ... I think Cold War Zombies is fantastic." However, despite his enthusiasm for the new version, he found himself dreading the process of actually creating content for his channel. Smith says, "I sat down to record that first video, I wanted to make a retrospective or, you know, a review ... [but] I just couldn't."

Smith is leaving one of the largest Call of Duty Zombies streaming communities behind, with more subscribers than many other big names such as MrDalekJD, MrTLexify, and MrRoflWaffles. However, Smith says he has new ideas in the pipeline, such as exploring a new podcast concept and pursuing his music ambitions. He particularly highlights his interest in playing guitar, a passion he has always been heavily invested in.

Whatever is in store for Smith and TheSmithPlays, his fans are wishing him the best on Reddit and through other channels. His farewell video trended as high as 16th on Youtube, a testament to the strength of the community he built and his followers' high engagement level.