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Goodbye to a Legend

Goodbye to a Legend

May 22, 2025

Outdoor Boys Signs Off…

If you've been living under a rock, you might not know that Luke from Outdoor Boys has announced his retirement from YouTube. This came as a shock to everyone, especially, considering that in the last 18 months, Luke’s channel has gained 12 million subscribers and is likely among the top five creators in U.S. watch time. He’s been making videos for 11 years across two different channels, totaling 16 million subscribers. While I’ll miss watching him survive in -20 degree weather and make honey butter bread, I appreciate his willingness to walk away from his channel while it’s at its peak.

Why Luke Stepping Away Is Unique

One of the main reasons he's retiring is because his family is receiving a lot of publicity due to how popular he became. Luke also lives in the middle of Alaska, and if he’s receiving a lot of attention there, I can only imagine what kind of scene he would cause if he was in a major city like Dallas or Chicago. I can't recall another creator retiring because they were becoming too famous.

That being said, I understand how hard it is to be a creator and how quickly people burn out. You're always on this hamster wheel of coming up with new video concepts, editing your videos, and beginning that whole process again to continually upload to your channel.

What’s interesting to me is how Outdoor Boys ended at the absolute peak of the channel. Creators have had many reasons for stepping away: Casey Neistat announced a soft retirement in 2020 to enjoy life, MatPat stepped down from Game Theorists to spend more time with his family, and Joji (Filthy Frank) turned making YouTube videos into a successful music career. More often than not, creators start to step away from their channels when they lose momentum. But for Luke, that wasn’t the case. His channel is the biggest it’s ever been at this moment. I don’t think Luke will be the last to retire this year.

Why Does Creator Burnout Happen?

The main reason that creators burn out is because they usually start out by doing everything. They’re producing, editing, directing, and being the on-screen talent in all of their videos. There usually isn’t a production team. Most creators start as a single-person production entity who has to do every part of the video each week. I’ve seen this happen a lot in my time working in the creator economy. Even on my own channel, I haven’t uploaded in three months. It isn’t easy to make content and run a company at the same time.

The second reason is creative block. Most creators get to a point where they start to have some creative fatigue. It becomes very challenging for them to have to continually come up with new video ideas, that either they’re proud of, or fit with what the algorithm wants in some way.

Even though creator burnout happens and people retire or upload very infrequently, many creators step away and return with a more manageable upload schedule. One of the best examples of this was when PewDiePie took a break after almost a decade of creating content, only to come back more focused and with a better work-life balance.

The Big Takeaway…

It’s sad to see the Outdoor Boys channel come to an end, especially when it seems like Luke has never been more popular than he is now. However, I understand why he’s leaving. He did mention he would upload infrequently and help his son Tommy grow his channel, which has gained almost 200,000 subscribers in the last month. I’m happy we all got to experience his adventures with him.

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