Jacksepticeye Interview Highlights: Burnout, Breaks and Bloodborne

Jacksepticeye built one of YouTube’s biggest gaming channels by shouting at video games in an Irish accent, twice a day, for years. What makes his interviews worth reading is what came next: he was one of the first big YouTubers to say on camera that he was burnt out, and his answers since have been less about how to grow than how to last.

This post is for creators who want a long career without the daily grind, for brands sizing up a gaming creator with a long-standing audience, and for fans curious how a lonely kid from County Offaly ended up producing a Bloodborne film. It covers his start, persona, process, burnout, mistakes, advice, businesses, Thankmas and what he is doing as of October 2026.

Who is Jacksepticeye?

Jacksepticeye is the online name of Seán William McLoughlin, an Irish YouTuber born on February 7, 1990, who built one of YouTube’s biggest gaming channels on Let’s Plays: videos of a game being played with the player’s commentary running over it.

He grew up in Cloghan, County Offaly, and started uploading in December 2012. According to Wikipedia, a mention in a PewDiePie video in 2013 took his channel from 2,500 subscribers to 15,000 in four days; he went full-time by May 2014, passed a million subscribers that August and had 31.2 million as of September 8, 2026. Several outlets have called it Ireland’s most-subscribed channel. He moved to Brighton, England, in 2017.

How did Jacksepticeye get started?

“I just wasn’t really doing anything else with my time back then … I was pretty miserable, so I wanted to do something with my time and my life, and I didn’t have the motivation to do anything.”

— Jacksepticeye, Business Insider, February 2020

He was studying sound engineering at Limerick Institute of Technology and wanted to learn video editing, he told the Irish Examiner in 2015, so filming himself playing games combined his interests. Business Insider reported that he made around $10 every couple of months at first; he said it took about a year and a half to earn money he could rely on.

“I always say that PewDiePie[’s shoutout] was turning on the engine and I was the one who hit the accelerator … I made that ball keep on rolling and if you’re consistent and you’re frequent, they latch onto you. They saw that I was commenting and talking to people a lot so they felt more at home on my channel.”

— Jacksepticeye, TheJournal.ie, October 2014

His channel was one of ten picked out of thousands in a PewDiePie shoutout competition, TheJournal.ie reported. Our PewDiePie interview covers the creator who gave him that push. The lesson is the second half of his quote: a shoutout brings visitors for a few days, but frequent uploads and replies turn them into an audience.

Why does Jacksepticeye play up being Irish?

“I decided to drive home the fact that I was Irish so I put on a Paddy cap and made myself loud, energetic, and stereotypically Irish. There are very few Irish people on YouTube and I wanted to show that we can do it and that we are doing it. I wanted to put us on the YouTube map.”

— Jacksepticeye, Irish Examiner, March 2015

He had tried to speak clearly at first, and viewers took him for an American, he told the Irish Examiner. He told TheJournal.ie in 2014 that the cap and greeting were a conscious stereotype, so viewers knew within seconds they were watching a loud Irish guy. By 2023 he used the catchphrase more sparingly, according to Wikipedia.

Your version doesn’t need an accent. It needs a signal a new viewer understands in the first five seconds: a greeting, a look or a clear promise about the video.

How does Jacksepticeye make a video?

“I guess the thing most people don’t realise is that it’s hard work. I work 12-hour days. I put up two videos a day at the same time every day, so that’s 14 a week.”

— Jacksepticeye, at YouTube’s Irish Creators Day, as reported by the Irish Examiner, February 2015

TheJournal.ie described the routine in 2014: about two hours of play in the evening, editing in the morning and three to four hours a day answering comments. His commentary is improvised rather than scripted, according to Wikipedia, and Polygon noted in 2021 that the videos are heavily edited, with dramatic cuts and constant commentary.

He told Inverse in 2022 that after five years of two videos a day, he hired an editor, raised the quality and cut the quantity. Volume built the audience; help and fewer uploads let him keep it.

How does Jacksepticeye decide what to make next?

“You can chase that all the time — try and adapt to the algorithm, adapt to the trends that are happening. I probably could have ridden a much bigger wave if I tried, but it’s just not my style. I’m much more about organic creativity and spontaneity than any of that kind of stuff.”

— Jacksepticeye, Inverse, March 2022

The algorithm here means the system YouTube uses to choose which videos to recommend to each viewer. He told Inverse he keeps questioning what he’s supposed to upload and lets conversations with his audience point the way.

In July 2021, after weeks away from gaming videos, he posted 15 MONTHS, a short film Polygon called a moody, atmospheric exploration of his time during the pandemic. Characters from his videos later became a comic series, Altrverse, published by Bad Egg from late 2023. If your channel rests on one format, try something adjacent now and then and watch how regular viewers react.

How does Jacksepticeye handle burnout and breaks?

“My mental health has not been in the best place recently … So the reason I’ve been taking more time off is because I have to. I need to take the time off to get my brain back in order, to just get that energy and that motivation back, to record the videos.”

— Jacksepticeye, in a YouTube video, as quoted by Polygon, July 2018

That video announced his first break from daily uploads in four to five years, Polygon reported. He said he hadn’t left his house in two weeks and that doing the same videos over and over weighs you down. Business Insider reported in 2020 that therapy helped him realize he was working himself to the bone.

“For a lot of people, whatever you’re passionate about, as soon as you start not liking what you’re doing, and as soon as you’re just doing it for the sake of doing it, it’s probably time to figure out you’re burnt out.”

— Jacksepticeye, Business Insider, February 2020

In July 2020 he stepped away for over a month, and on his return said, “I don’t think I’m going to be a daily YouTuber anymore. It’s just very unfulfilling,” the Westmeath Independent reported. He paused again in 2021, after his father died.

“You do what you do and then people [say], ‘Well, he’s loud, he swears, he has an accent and he’s energetic’. And then I’m like, ‘Okay, those are my four pillars’. At some point, I kind of became a caricature and it was me playing Jacksepticeye rather than just being myself. That’s where the burnout happens.”

— Jacksepticeye, The Irish Times, February 2022

Burnout is the exhaustion and loss of motivation that come from long-term overwork. His test is practical: you keep making videos only for the sake of making them. Our Pokimane interview has a streamer’s answers to the same problem.

What mistakes does Jacksepticeye say he made early on?

“I think it wasn’t my conversation to have … Felix was my friend in private and I should have just talked to him in private. It’s okay to not give your opinion on absolutely everything publicly.”

— Jacksepticeye, The Irish Times, February 2022

He was looking back at 2017, when his friend Felix Kjellberg, PewDiePie, was criticized over a video with an anti-Semitic sign, and McLoughlin posted a video saying he didn’t approve of all of his friend’s videos, The Irish Times reported.

His other regrets are sharing too much and taking on too much. He told The Irish Times he left Ireland after fans turned up at his door, which made him realize he was sharing too much about himself, and in 2023 he told ComicBook.com he had once taken on so much, half of it work he didn’t want, that he burnt out. Deciding what you won’t do is part of the job.

What advice does Jacksepticeye give new creators?

“I think I’ve gotten very good at pumping the brakes whenever I feel like I need to, and that I think not being afraid of your audience is one thing, and not being afraid of disappearing … When you do start off, it’s really easy to think, ‘I’m just going to work all the time because I have the time and I have the energy,’ and that’s great, but you will burn yourself out eventually, so you need to prepare for that or get some barriers in place so you can kind of stem the flow of it a little bit.”

— Jacksepticeye, ComicBook.com, October 2023

He was answering a question about advice for creators who have already had success. He acknowledged that his channel was already huge when he started taking breaks, and that not everyone can afford to. For him, he said, recovery meant time off, therapy and getting anxiety, depression and ADHD “figured out and medicated.”

“I’ve always promoted going to actual therapy and not divulging everything to your audience … Keep some stuff for yourself. Be a person outside of your numbers and make sure that you’re happy and content.”

— Jacksepticeye, The Irish Times, February 2022

His 2014 advice to TheJournal.ie was simpler: make fun the priority, make videos for yourself and be prepared for the work.

What does Jacksepticeye say about working with brands?

“I think people celebrate that now instead of looking down on it … Instead it’s like, we can go do this thing together, and we can be on this journey together and have fun with it, and it doesn’t all have to be about money all the time.”

— Jacksepticeye, Passionfruit, April 2023

He was talking about merch and sponsorships, which he remembered being seen as a bad thing in YouTube’s early days, Passionfruit reported. In 2018 he co-founded Cloak, a clothing brand for gamers, with Markiplier; Pokimane joined as a partner in 2020, and he left in 2023, according to Wikipedia.

He launched Top of the Mornin’ Coffee, named after his catchphrase, in June 2020 because he wanted to try something he knew nothing about, he told Passionfruit. By late 2025 he said on a stream that he no longer sold merch, Tubefilter reported.

Creators weighing sponsors can start with our guide to getting YouTube sponsorships. Brands can use our checklist for vetting a YouTube creator to check fit before signing.

Why does Jacksepticeye run Thankmas?

Thankmas is his annual December charity livestream, which Make-A-Wish dates to 2017. He told The Irish Times in 2022 that he grew up with very little, and that meeting people with disabilities at conventions made him want to do more than talk about himself. The 2022 stream raised more than $10 million for World Central Kitchen in a single day, according to a Shore Fire Media press release.

“You should be doing charity stuff because you have a vested interest in the charity you’re doing or you just want to rally your community. You shouldn’t be doing charity just for the sake of it.”

— Jacksepticeye, on a livestream, as quoted by Tubefilter, November 2025

Moments later he added that doing charity at all is a good thing overall. He skipped Thankmas in 2025, saying he was burnt out and that his viewers were struggling financially; after a year of promoting comics and coffee, he didn’t want to ask them for donations, Tubefilter reported.

In July 2026 he announced its return for Make-A-Wish, with a six-month campaign called Wishmas leading to a Thankmas livestream on his YouTube channel on December 5, 2026. The Publish Press reported a $3 million goal, with Make-A-Wish matching the first $500,000. Knowing when not to ask your audience for money protects the trust the next ask depends on.

What does Jacksepticeye say about YouTube now?

“I’ve gotten to a point where now I feel like comfortable enough to shift gears whenever I need to, and I’m not really worried about the grind, and I’m not really worried about the relevancy of what I’m doing. And not everything has to be about bigger numbers all the time, and I think that that’s an important shift that is going on on YouTube right now.”

— Jacksepticeye, Variety, December 2024

Earlier in 2024 he had posted a video saying he might have two years left on YouTube. He told Variety he had been burnt out, that putting a timer on it was silly, and that he would probably keep going for a while.

In 2023, asked on a fellow YouTuber’s lie-detector video whether MrBeast had ruined YouTube and why, he said, “Because it became more about views, money, and popularity than it did about having fun,” Passionfruit reported. MrBeast called the clip disrespectful in a since-deleted post, then said a few hours later that they had messaged and were fine. Compare our MrBeast interview, and see our guide to how the YouTube algorithm works for the system both react to.

What is Jacksepticeye working on now?

As of October 2026, his highest-profile project is a film. On April 13, 2026, Sony Pictures announced an R-rated animated adaptation of the PlayStation game Bloodborne, co-produced by PlayStation Productions, Lyrical Animation and McLoughlin, Variety reported. Its writer and director had not been announced, Tubefilter reported.

“This is literally the dream project that I’ve always wanted to be able to work on, and I never thought that it would actually happen.”

— Jacksepticeye, in a YouTube video, as quoted by Tubefilter, April 2026

He is also an executive producer of Godmother, an independent horror film written by John Veron and Alanah Pearce. TheWrap reported in August 2026 that he personally financed principal photography and that the film was heading for a festival premiere.

“I think directing has always been a goal of mine. I have lots of ideas for what I would like to make and I love the creative process involved in movie making.”

— Jacksepticeye, TheWrap, August 2026

He voices a character in the James Bond game 007 First Light, PCGamesN reported in May 2026. He still posts to YouTube, where he announced the Bloodborne film in April.

What creators can learn from Jacksepticeye

Sources

• This Irish YouTuber went from 2,500 to 1.5 million subs in the space of a year, TheJournal.ie, October 2014
• Top Irish YouTuber details rise to stardom, Irish Examiner, February 2015
• Ireland’s most popular YouTuber plays a mean game, Irish Examiner, March 2015
• Jacksepticeye takes first YouTube break, details mental health, burnout, Polygon, July 2018
• How Jacksepticeye, a gaming YouTuber with 23 million subscribers, handles the pressure while staying connected to his followers, Business Insider, February 2020
• Local YouTube star trending on his return after internet break, Westmeath Independent, August 2020
• Jacksepticeye on when he’ll start making gaming YouTube videos again, Polygon, August 2021
• Jacksepticeye, the millionaire YouTuber from Offaly, The Irish Times, February 2022
• How JackSepticEye went from a “lonely” kid to a YouTube pioneer, Inverse, March 2022
• Jacksepticeye Hosts Record-Breaking Single-Day Livestream, Raising More Than $10 Million for World Central Kitchen During Fifth Annual Thankmas Livestream Event, Shore Fire Media, December 2022
• Coffee, Comics, and Content: YouTuber Jacksepticeye on Turning Passions Into Serious Business, Passionfruit, April 2023
• An Online Squabble Asks: Did MrBeast and His Copycats ‘Ruin’ YouTube’s Culture?, Passionfruit, September 2023
• Jacksepticeye Talks New Comic Book, YouTube Landscape, and More, ComicBook.com, October 2023
• YouTube Star Jacksepticeye on Thankmas 2024, His New Video Game, Breaking Into TV and Film and What ‘Retiring’ Would Even Look Like, Variety, December 2024
• No Thankmas 2025: Jacksepticeye says he’s noticed fans’ financial struggles, plus wants to restructure for 2026 event, Tubefilter, November 2025
• ‘Bloodborne’ Video Game Getting R-Rated Animated Movie Adaptation From Sony, Variety, April 2026
• Jacksepticeye is making a Bloodborne movie, Tubefilter, April 2026
• 007 First Light features both Jacksepticeye and Shroud, for some reason, PCGamesN, May 2026
• “Jacksepticeye” Announces Thankmas in partnership with Make-A-Wish to Grant Life-Changing Wishes for Children with Critical Illnesses, Make-A-Wish, July 2026
• Jacksepticeye’s Thankmas Is Back, The Publish Press, July 2026
• Jacksepticeye and Alanah Pearce’s Horror Movie ‘Godmother’ Gets First Look, TheWrap, August 2026
• Jacksepticeye, Wikipedia, October 2026

What to do next

If Jacksepticeye’s story changes how you judge creators, look past subscriber totals to whether their audience still shows up years later. Our methodology explains how we check creators before they go on a list.

For more answers to the same questions, browse our creator interviews; PewDiePie and Pokimane are the closest comparisons, and our Markiplier interview covers his Cloak co-founder.