A YouTuber saw his subscriber base explode in 18 months. He's stepping back partly because the attention got a 'bit overwhelming'

• Luke Nichols has been posting on his Outdoor Boys YouTube channel for nearly 10 years.
• Videos of Nichols camping in extreme conditions has amassed nearly 15 million subscribers.
• The creator said the fame can be "overwhelming" and that he plans to spend more time with family.

Luke Nichols, the creator behind the popular YouTube channel, Outdoor Boys, is saying farewell to the nearly 15 million followers he's garnered by posting videos of himself camping in desolate conditions.

The father of three said in a five-minute video published Saturday titled "Goodbye" that he's going to stop making content "for a little while" to spend more time with his family.

Part of the reason, he said, was because of the amount of attention he has received as a result of the followers and viewers he's gained just in the past year or so.

Nichols started Outdoor Boys in 2015 and has about 14.9 million subscribers.

The creator said in the video that 12 million of those subscribers came in just the past 18 months as his content amassed more than 6.8 billion views in total.

"The sheer volume of fans trying to contact me, trying to take pictures with me, or just trying to come up and talk to me in public can be a bit overwhelming at times," Nichols said. "And my wife and I, we both have real concerns about what this will do to our family if I keep growing my YouTube channel at this pace. And the time to stop is before this problem gets so out of hand that my family and I can't live normal lives."

Nichols said there are other reasons for his decision to step back from his channel.

The creator said he wants to spend more time with his children, including by helping his oldest son grow his outdoors YouTube channel, Outdoor Tom. He said he also wants to start helping other people, although he didn't specify how.

"I've spent so much time focusing on me and my family and growing my business, it's time to step back and focus on helping other people for a change and I'm excited to see where that takes me," he said.

Nichols said there is still a lot of unfinished videos and some extreme campaign trips that he has planned. He said if he decides to finish them or film them, he'll post the videos on his channel in "one big dump" at the end of the year.

Nichols couldn't be reached for comment.

The creator economy has seen rapid grown since the advent of YouTube in 2005. Goldman Sachs estimated in 2023 that the industry was worth about $250 billion and could grow to half a trillion by 2027.

Still, some people working in industry, amassing six to even seven figures from content creating, have reported experiencing creator burnout in part stemming from the pressure of having to constantly churn out content to remain relevant.

MrBeast, the number one YouTuber with more than 395 million subscribers, commended Nichols' decision in a response to an X post.

"Good for him, to know what matters to him and stick to it is admirable," he wrote. "People don't realize how draining it can be to constantly be stared at and take photos out in public."