The date is February 17, 2017. In the new edition of the Academic Magnet High School Talon, an article is published about a gaming YouTuber, one in a sea of millions striving for success on the oversaturated platform. This one, however, was unique to AMHS, because it was Pack A Puncher: The Man, The Myth, The Legend, a former Academic Magnet student. Now, more than five years after that previous article, I seek to examine the rise, along with the unfortunate fall, of Pack A Puncher. 

Statistics:

Pack A Puncher joined YouTube on June 16, 2015. His first video was published on January 18, 2016, with the title of: “PACK A PUNCHER IS HERE!” (My First Video Ever). The video now boasts 32,418 views, not a small number, but nowhere near his peak. The article in 2017 included various statistics about Pack A Puncher, which, in the last five years, have changed dramatically. They include:

Subscribers:

2017: 70,332

2022: ~2,470,000

Channel Views:

2017: 2,558,513

2022: 170,855,799

(as of 10-27-22 @9:13 A.M.)

The Rise:

Pack A Puncher posted his first video on January 18, 2016:

The video features gameplay of Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies, and voiceover commentary about the future of his channel. Pack A Puncher talks about his change in channel name, along with his plans for future videos. He said he wanted to put quality over quantity, and to spark growth in his channel by making his videos more professional. Following his first upload, Pack A Puncher’s videos were all about Black Ops III Zombies. His videos include rankings, tutorials, and video game news. By the end of 2016, Pack A Puncher was getting consistent views in the tens of thousands on all of his videos. There remained a few outliers in the low thousands, but also some in the hundreds of thousands, with a video posted on November 16, 2016 reaching one million views for the first time on his channel. Pack A Puncher focused on Call of Duty Zombies for nearly two years, switching between games to focus on the most popular Call of Duty at the time. On December 30, 2017, Pack A Puncher posted his first video about Fortnite, perfectly in time with the games exponential rise in popularity, “THE OFFICIAL FORTNITE RAP!”. Boasting 147,071 views, this video marked Pack A Puncher’s major change in channel content, from Call of Duty to Fortnite. 

This change in focus ushered in unprecedented success for Pack A Puncher’s channel. Shortly following his first Fortnite video, an upload titled “How to WIN FORTNITE in 2019 EVERY TIME! – Fortnite Battle Royale! 10 Tips to WIN! (Fortnite )” (actually posted in January of 2018), which has since reached 1.6 million views (1,652,669), undoubtedly cemented this change in content, alerting Pack A Puncher to the untapped mine of viewers and subscribers that he could exploit, one of which was myself. In addition to his consistent Fortnite uploads, ranging from late 2017 to ~August 2020, arguably the main attraction of Pack A Puncher’s channel were his live streams. Consistently in the tens of thousands of active watchers, sometimes breaking the 100,000 viewer mark, Pack A Puncher entertained his sizable audience, raking in hundreds/thousands of dollars almost daily from viewer donations. As time passed, the saying “nothing lasts forever” unfortunately went into effect. Fortnite lost players and attention over time, as did Pack A Puncher’s Fortnite content.

“Pack A Puncher: The Man, The Myth, The Legend”

The Fall:

While a dedicated fan base continues to tune into his signature, albeit inconsistent Fortnite livestreams, several of Pack A Puncher’s other ventures have not reached his previous level of success during the prime of Fortnite. His most recent livestream, from October 18, 2022, drew 44,000 views, no small task for a livestream. However, Pack A Puncher’s YouTube uploads are inconsistent, now rarely breaking 100,000 views. His most recent video, a promotional trailer for a new season of Fortnite, posted on September 9, 2022, has only received 12,000 views. One year ago, on November 2, 2021, Pack A Puncher uploaded a video titled “Let’s Talk..”, in which he spoke on his plans for the future, as well as his expansion into a new platform, Facebook Gaming. This was a major milestone for Pack A Puncher, as he announced that he would be going back to his roots, posting daily Call of Duty Zombies videos on Facebook Gaming. This YouTube video, however, has about 35,000 views and his Facebook Gaming page has only 555 followers (as of November 2, 2022). His posts are almost daily, as he promised, but they seem to be getting very little reception. The vast majority of his uploads on Facebook Gaming have less than 10 likes, an unfortunate sight to see. 

Pack A Puncher may not be as relevant as he was during the peak years of Fortnite, but I give him credit for sticking with his dream. During those peak years, I watched Pack A Puncher regularly, and I am glad to see that he is still active on his platforms. I think it is safe to say that Pack A Puncher is the most famous YouTuber in Academic Magnet High School history, and that that record will stand for a long time to come.