YouTuber Alex Wassabi announces break from platform after 15 years

After fifteen years on the platform, Alex Wassabi, the face of popular YouTube channel Wassabi Productions, has announced in a new video that he plans to take an extended break from the channel in order to focus on himself and re-evaluate the direction of the channel. 

29-year-old Alex admitted that the reason for his break was that he was feeling burnt out. “I feel less creative,” he explained. “I don’t have the same urge to create that I used to.”

He continued: “I want to take a break to just be myself and figure out who I am and what I want to do with this channel… and even if I want to be a YouTube creator anymore.”

Admitting that he had felt “scared” to take a break throughout his fifteen-year YouTube career, Wassabi explained that he always felt the urge to keep going because he felt like people depended on him.

“But now that I’m older I’ve realised that I can’t spend my life trying to make people happy,” Wassabi said. “It’s what I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid but that’s not mentally healthy.”

The video then shifted to a series of old clips showing just how far Wasabi Productions has come since it’s conception in January 2006, with several clips showing early videos involving Alex and the channel’s original founder, Roi Fabbito.

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Wassabi Productions as fans know it was created in January 2006, with Alex Burris comingon board as a co-creator for the channel around that time. It was then that Wassabi Productions born with Roi and Alex charming millions of viewers with sketches and challenges every week with their popular Wassabi Wednesdays segment.

When Roi decided to leave the channel in 2016 for undisclosed reasons, Alex continued to run Wassabi Productions solo, with various guest stars moving to replace Roi. The channel as it stands has 11.5 million subscribers and over 4 billion combined views.

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Breaking down in tears, Burris ended the video on an emotional but positive note, saying that he was “excited” for his break and that it was “long overdue”.

He then signed off with the slogan fans had grown to love, noting that it “might be the last time” he ever says it: “Until next time, do me a favor and don’t forget to remember: if you’re not smiling, you’re doing it wrong.”