Jacksepticeye

Jacksepticeye (born Seán William McLoughlin; (1990-02-07)February 7, 1990) is an Irish YouTuber whose loud, joyful gaming videos made him one of the biggest creators in the world — and whose annual Thankmas charity streams have raised tens of millions of dollars for good causes. His channel has more than 31 million subscribers as of September 2026.

Jacksepticeye
Personal information
Born	Seán William McLoughlin (1990-02-07) February 7, 1990 Athlone, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	YouTuber
YouTube information
Channel	jacksepticeye
Also known as	Jacksepticeye
Years active	2012–present
Genre	Gaming
Subscribers	31 million+ (September 2026)
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 1,000,000 subscribers 10,000,000 subscribers

Early life and education

McLoughlin was born on 7 February 1990 in Athlone, Ireland, and grew up in the small village of Cloghan in County Offaly, about as far from the YouTube spotlight as it is possible to get. He studied at Athlone Institute of Technology and worked in hospitality jobs before the internet changed his life, eventually moving to Brighton, England, in 2017 as his career took off. Gaming had been his escape since childhood, and he has spoken openly about how his rural Irish upbringing shaped the high-energy, community-first style his fans would come to love.

Career

McLoughlin launched his channel in 2012, but his life changed in 2013 when PewDiePie — then the biggest YouTuber on the planet — gave him a shout-out in a subscriber competition. His subscriber count exploded practically overnight, and by 2014 he was able to quit his day job and make videos full time. His signature style — rapid-fire, profanity-peppered, relentlessly positive commentary over horror and indie games — turned him into one of YouTube's defining gaming voices of the 2010s. By 2019 Forbes estimated he had earned 11 million US dollars in a single year, naming him to its 30 Under 30 Europe list in Sports and Games — the first streamer ever to make it.

But gaming fame was only half the story. In 2017 he launched Thankmas, a holiday charity livestream, and it quietly became one of the most successful creator-led fundraisers in internet history. The numbers tell the tale: 4.6 million dollars in 2020, 7.6 million in 2021 — including a personal donation of 150,000 dollars from McLoughlin himself — and a record-shattering 10 million dollars in 2022 for World Central Kitchen, boosted by guests like Jack Black, Bella Poarch, Markiplier and Valkyrae and a last-minute 3.7 million dollar donation. Across seven Thankmas events the campaign raised more than 26 million dollars for causes including Red Nose Day, New Story and Crisis Text Line, later approaching 30 million.

In 2025 he surprised fans by skipping Thankmas, saying he had noticed his audience's own financial struggles and wanted to restructure the event for something bigger. The "something bigger" turned out to be Thankmas 2026: a six-month campaign in partnership with Make-A-Wish, aiming to grant 300 wishes for children with critical illnesses — with 90,000 dollars raised and nine wishes granted in its early days alone. Alongside YouTube he has built real businesses, co-founding the Cloak clothing brand with Markiplier and launching his own Top of the Mornin' Coffee company, and his journey was chronicled in the documentary How Did We Get Here. He has also been candid about his mental-health struggles, and the Associated Press has noted how his openness helped normalise those conversations among his young audience.

External links

• Jacksepticeye on YouTube
• Jacksepticeye on Instagram
• Jacksepticeye on X