Final Fantasy XIV YouTuber JoCat retiring in light of ‘distressing’ harassment

After allegedly enduring harassment since 2021, the popular YouTuber and FFXIV content creator, JoCat, has announced he’ll be retiring from life in the public spotlight.

Even without knowing the creator by name, most Final Fantasy XIV fans are bound to have seen one of JoCat’s popular meme videos, which have been widely shared amongst the community.

But behind the scenes, the creator says he’s faced harassment which has led him to make the decision to step away from content creation entirely.

According to JoCat, the harassment stems from one of his videos, a parody of the song “Boys” by Lizzo titled “I Like Girls”.

He says it’s progressed from online threats to suspicious packages sent to his family home.

“I’ve always kept quiet about it because speaking out about it publicly, defending myself, any reaction to it would just encourage more… But if that’s the tradeoff to do something like share the things I make that I’m proud of on the internet… it’s probably an indicator that I’m just not cut out for it,” he said in his statement.

Many in the community were sad to see the creator forced to leave: “Of all people, they went for the most harmless one…” said one user on Reddit, while another expressed frustration “someone as good and creative as Jocat be hounded from the platform”.

JoCat started out posting his popular “a crap guide to series” — which went on to include guides for everything from D&D to trans rights — today his YouTube channel has 1.14 million subscribers.

The creator had also used his platform previously to raise money for charities, and he says he intends to wrap up all his charity projects before his official retirement.