Karl Jacobs, a digital creator and streamer known for his close collaborations with internet superstar MrBeast, is set to make his debut as a featured creator at VidCon Anaheim 2023. As part of his programming, Jacobs will record a live episode of his podcast “Banter” with co-hosts Sapnap and GeorgeNotFound, in addition to doing a meet and greet during the four-day convention, which runs from June 21-24 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Jacobs currently boasts a following of over 28 million across Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Twitch. Besides his prominence in MrBeast’s content, Jacobs creates Minecraft videos that have racked up over 157 million views on YouTube and his content on TikTok has generated 129.2 million likes. His podcast premiered in 2021 and beat Joe Rogan’s “The Joe Rogan Experience,” reaching the top spot on Spotify in the United States. More recently, he announced an upcoming comic book series produced in collaboration with Dark Horse Comics.
Now, Jacob looks to expand his content empire, innovating new ways to engage fans both virtually and in person. In an interview with PvNew, Jacobs spoke about his upcoming plans at VidCon and what his audience can expect from the upcoming relaunches of his YouTube channel and podcast.
What made you decide that this was the year to make your debut as a featured creator at VidCon?
I was always obsessed with conventions growing up. I never really got the opportunity to go to them too much. But in the past year or so, especially since COVID has died down a little bit, it’s much easier to engage with your community that you’ve been building up for years. There’s so many opportunities to get to interact with fans at VidCon, so that’s a no-brainer decision to me.
What’s the most significant fan interaction that you’ve had in real life?
These two girls came up to me and said that they actually met from watching my stream, and now they had been dating for six months. They were super happy, and they were planning on moving closer to each other, which is such a crazy thing to hear —especially because I just play video games and hang out with them. It’d be awkward if they weren’t together now, but at least it was a cool story when it happened.
What sort of programming will you be doing at VidCon?
For the first time ever, we’re going to be doing an in-person episode of our podcast “Banter” with me, George and Sapnap. We’ve been re-working what that podcast is; we’re from-the-ground-up shifting it into a really cool direction. By the time VidCon’s happening, it’ll be full steam ahead, people will know what they’re about to get into. In addition to that, I’m doing another fun meet and greet, because I just can’t help myself. It’s such a cool opportunity to meet cool people and hang out with everybody.
In what direction do you see your podcast and your YouTube channel headed?
I’m having growing pains on my YouTube channel. I’m really trying to redirect into a super cool direction, where I’m trying to find live-action meets gaming. So, for instance, my last video that has come out is “I Beat Minecraft in Antarctica,” where I was in the middle of the snow, it was -20 [degrees] on the ground. Every 10 minutes, I had to take off an article of clothing. Then, if I beat Minecraft, I’m allowed to get out in the snow. That’s the type of stuff I want to capture with my channel. This is a niche that doesn’t really seem to have been figured out to its full extent yet — merging IRL with gaming. So I really want to try to find the sweet spot for that. But, obviously, with that comes growing pains.
