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Real Name: Mark Edward Fischbach
Nickname(s): Markiplier
Age: 28
D.O.B.: June 28, 1989
Birthplace: Honolulu, Hawaii
Current Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Marital Status: Has a girlfriend
YouTube: Here
Twitch: Here
Twitter: Here
Facebook: Here
Instagram: Here
Previous Employment: University of Cincinnati biomedical engineering cooperative education position
Most people dream of being famous one day, of leaving their menial job to make millions doing something they love. However, few people have the drive, talent, and luck to accomplish that. Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach is one of those people.
Despite multiple hardships and problems early on in his career, Fischbach pushed through and now his Let’s Play channel is one of the top 30 most subscribed channels in all of YouTube.
Here’s everything you need to know about Markiplier’s age, Youtube success, and more:
1. Markiplier Is a College Dropout Turned Big Time YouTuber
To celebrate the release of 1,000 videos on his channel, Fischbach released a Draw My Life video to chronicle his life. Fischbach was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on June 28, 1989 at Tripler Army Medical Center. His father was a career army man for 24 years before he retired and he met his wife while stationed in Korea. They moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and his father became a layout artist for a book company. It was there where Mark fell in love with gaming, playing on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the computer with his brother, Thomas Jason Fischbach.
Fischbach’s father divorced his wife early in Mark’s childhood and he and his sons had to move to a new neighborhood. Mark lost pretty much all of his friends but quickly gained them after his friend Drew helped him out while he had a broken arm and introduced him to band class. Fischbach’s father remarried and Fischbach was very successful all throughout high school.
But then his father got cancer. He said that after his family received the news, he felt that everything was getting away from him. He was planning on creating video games for a living but then decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea and so he moved on to biomedical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. His father died at their home and as Mark was holding his hand, he said his last words “I love you, so much.”
After his father’s death, Fischbach was even more aimless than before and was working at a mind-numbing co-op job where he toiled away at a computer for eight hours of day to do two hours worth of work. He was kicked out of his mother’s house because she didn’t approve of the woman Fischbach was dating at the time and he was let go from the co-op. He then ended the relationship with the woman. He was then hospitalized for a swollen appendix and a fist-sized tumor in his adrenal gland.
He had a lot of time to think in the hospital and decided to become a creator of sketch comedy videos. So he used the money from his tax refund to buy a camera and started his YouTube channel. Mark’s very first Let’s Play video, a video on Amnesia: The Dark Descent, was uploaded on April 4, 2012. Soon his channel began to blow up in popularity after he posted a compilation of his reactions to Amnesia, according to fellow YouTuber FootofaFerret.
2. Mark Faced Difficulties in His Early YouTube Career But Quickly Overcame Them
In May 2012, Fischbach’s Google AdSense account was banned making his channel ineligible for a YouTube Partnership which meant that he couldn’t monetize his videos, according to FootofaFerret. He decided to start a new YouTube channel under the title MarkiplierGAME where he reuploaded all of his old content and eventually earned back his subscribers. He surpassed over 10,000 subscribers in September 2012.
He received 100,000 subscribers by 2013 and then jumped to a million by October of that year, according to FootofaFerret. This was thanks in part to huge changes to YouTube’s algorithms which rewarded retention time – or how long viewers watched a video before clicking away – over view count, which made it easier for the 15 minute long videos Markiplier and his contemporaries were known for to gain an audience.
His channel growth would only climb from there in 2014, with his first video on the cult classic phenomenon Five Nights at Freddy’s clocking in at over 66,000,000 views which is to this day Fischbach’s most viewed video. From then on his content would become heavily associated with the Five Nights franchise with him playing through all of the games and even the fan-created spin-offs.
3. He Has Over 20 Million Subscribers
At the time of writing, Fischbach has over 20,000,000 subscribers and over 9,200,000,000 views since starting his channel on May 26, 2012, according to YouTube analytics website Social Blade. That makes him the 29th most subscribed channel on YouTube alongside Nigahiga, Spinnin’ Records, Felipe Neto, and Bruno Mars. And the channel is still growing from there with over 315,000 new subscribers gained in the last 30 days according to Social Blade. His estimated monthly earnings according to the site are between $46,400 and $742,000 with his yearly earnings estimated at $556,500 and $8,900,000.
As for his Twitch channel, it is followed by over 714,000 people according to Twitch analytics site TwitchMetrics, making him the 73rd most followed streamer on the service. His average viewers are 2,797 per stream with his peak from last week at 4,209.
His Twitter is followed by over 11,500,000 people, his Facebook is followed by over 3,330,000 people, and his Instagram is followed by over 6,500,000 people.
He was nominated in the gaming category for the Streamy Awards and the Shorty Awards in 2016. He won the Best Streamer/Broadcaster award at the Golden Joystick Awards in 2017.
4. He Doesn’t Just Do Gaming Content
In 2015, Fischbach began experimenting with non-gaming related content such as reaction videos, sketch comedy videos, challenges, and more.
He has also appeared as a guest on other YouTube channels such as Game Grumps and PewDiePie. He also made an appearance in Smosh: The Movie.
In April 2016 he announced a collaboration with comic book publisher Red Giant Entertainment to produce his own series of comic books to be sold that summer. The series sees him collaborating with other Red Giant comic book characters as he travels through dimensions.
He began his first tour around the country and Europe in 2017, known as the You’re Welcome tour.
5. He & His Fans Contributed Millions to Charity
Fischbach started using his channel to raise money for charity back when he still had a few thousand subscribers, according to FootofaFerret. Since then, he and his viewers have raised over $1,100,000 for charity, according to Slickster Magazine. The charities he contributed to include Make-A-Wish America, St.Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Child’s Play, and more.
In 2016, he was awarded Celebrity of the Year at the Make-A-Wish Foundation Award Ceremony.
6. He Made an Appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Back in August 2015, Jimmy Kimmel lampooned the phenomenon of watching Let’s Plays on his show in response to the launch of YouTube Gaming. The jokes didn’t sit well with video game players and today the skit has a like/dislike ratio of 13,000 to 178,000 on YouTube. Kimmel subsequently reacted to negatives comments on two occasions on the show.
Kimmel later invited Fischbach and fellow YouTuber MissesMae to the show to help him understand the trend as well as react to more negative comments and watch him play Rocket League.
7. Sorry, Ladies, He’s Taken
Fischbach is dating Amy Nelson, 23, a graphic designer and illustrator. The couple reportedly started dating in late 2015 according to Earn the Necklace but they made their first public appearance together during Vidcon 2016 and Nelson shortly afterwards confirmed the relationship. While Nelson and Fischbach prefer to keep their relationship private, she has made a couple of appearances in Fischbach’s videos.
Nelson has her own YouTube channel where she posts vlog-style videos. She created the channel in February 24, 2017 and currently has over 65,000 subscribers and over 558,000 views. She also has her own website opening in summer 2018.
Prior to August 2015, Fischbach dated a woman by the name of Jess who had a YouTube channel known as SaucyCosplays. Fischbach said in a post on Facebook that Jess and him were together for a big part of his YouTube career. He said that many of his favorite videos were a direct result of her inspiration such as the Impossible Let’s Play series, Markiplier Highlights, and some sketch videos. However they decided to break up while still being friends. Fischbach took to social media to announce this because he didn’t want rumors to spread about him and Jess. “Bottom line is, she’s an incredibly talented person who deserves so much in life and I wish her nothing but the best,” he said.
8. Markiplier Hospitalized
In March 2015, Fischbach was hospitalized to remove a small bowel obstruction, or a blockage in his intestines, which formed from scar tissue from surgeries before his YouTube career. The operation was a success and he made a swift recovery. In an update video he took time to thank all of his fans for the condolences and well wishes that he read while recovering.
Later that year, he was hospitalized after a transient ischemic attack (TIA), or a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain according to the American Heart Association, while visiting his family and drinking a little bit every night. As he explained in a video, it turns out that he is deficient in a certain enzyme that allows him to break down alcohol. If he drinks alcohol, then a poison develops in his body. He has abstained from alcohol because of doctor’s orders. Because of that he had to cancel his Drunk Minecraft series.
9. He Had to Take a Hiatus After the Death of a Close Friend
Fischbach collaborated often with a YouTube channel known as Cyndago, a channel specializing in comedy sketches and music videos. After establishing the channel in December of 2012, creators Ryan Magee and Daniel Kyre contacted Fischbach saying that after watching many of his videos they thought that his voice would be perfect for narrating their horror/comedy sketch Danger in Fiction. After the collaboration, Fischbach drove down to meet with Magee and Kyre for a week.
“…during that trip I saw first-hand the endless enthusiasm and drive they had for creating,” Fischbach said in a Facebook post. “Most of the time it was raw and crude, but it was still burning with a fiery intensity… the fire they lit in my heart still burns strong today.”
In September 2015, Kyre passed away after an apparent suicide attempt. Fischbach took a short hiatus after the funeral service, as he announced in a Facebook post.
“An incredible musician. A perfectionist to the extreme. A great friend. Daniel, I miss you more than words can say and I never had the proper chance to tell you how much I enjoyed working with you. How much I enjoyed learning from you. How much I enjoyed spending time with you. I hope you knew,” said Fischbach.
Cyndago was retired in October of that year. The last video they uploaded was a tribute to Kyre.
Magee along with his partner Matt Watson later formed the gaming channel SuperMega in January 2016. The two are also the current editors of Game Grumps.
10. Here Are His Thoughts on Gun Control
In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018 that left 17 students dead and 15 wounded, Fischbach posted an unmonetized video to share his thoughts on gun control.
He first applauded the students protesting for gun control. He then said that while he doesn’t like to get involved with political issues he felt he had to say something after the shooting because some of his fans were affected by it and some are out there demonstrating.
Fischbach’s father was a veteran and a member of the NRA who built muzzleloader rifles as a hobby and taught him about how to use and respect guns from an early age. Fischbach shot many kinds of weapons at the shooting range. Fischbach said that first and foremost people shouldn’t be allowed to access assault rifles. They exist solely to kill multiple people more so than other guns and have no purpose in hunting. While others will say that tighter gun laws will not prevent shootings, “…why not do everything in our power to try to protect our kids, or our people, or countrymen, or neighbors?” he said.
Fischbach also called for people to stop stigmatizing mental health and stop treating it as a problem that people need to bear alone.
He respects those who want to bear arms as he came from a family that did the same, but at the same time he wants some measure of control.
“Why do we require more licensing and registration for cars than we do for guns?” he said. “Now is not the time for talk. Now is not the time for empty promises. Now is the time to do something for the people who are suffering most from this.”
He ended the video by saying that the young demonstrators are an inspiration. “You are the future of the world,” he said.
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