Evan Fong (born July 31, 1992), known by his YouTube username VanossGaming, is primarily a Canadian video game commentator. His highly popular YouTube channel mainly consists of comedic gaming commentary. He has amassed nearly 22 million subscribers and over 8 billion total video views in just over 6 years. These numbers continue to grow daily, as Fong is currently gaining more than 5,000 subscribers and 6 million views per day, averaging 7.6 million views a video. Vanoss has been compared to the most subscribed YouTuber, PewDiePie, as they both have a similar style of gaming.
Every so often, Vanoss uploads an animation video to his channel which composes of funny sketches or previous humorous commentaries he has done with his friends.
Vanoss' channel logo consists of an owl head. He usually doesn't show his face unless it is for an important occasion. The first time Vanoss showed his face was for his one million subscribers thank you video in 2013 with the second time in 2014 when he took part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (in which he poured a mixture of iced tea, Smirnoff Ice, ice cream and so on instead of water). His owl head is the mask of his in-game character models for many of the games he plays including GMOD and GTA V.
He reached his peak in 2014 where he gained 6.6 million subscribers in that year alone, at one point gaining a million subscribers a month, more than any other channel except PewDiePie. In that year he would on occasion get more subscribers than any other YouTube channel.
For about a year, spanning from January 2015 to January 2016, he was the second most subscribed gaming channel behind PewDiePie but since dropped to fifth behind PewDiePie, elrubiusOMG, Fernanfloo, and JuegaGerman.
Vanoss also experienced one span as the most subscribed Canadian channel on YouTube from January 2015 to September 2015 before being surpassed by JustinBieberVEVO. He is now the second most subscribed channel from Canada.
Although other channels have gotten more momentum which along with his channel growing old has decreased his subscriber growth, he still remains one of most subscribed channels on YouTube, currently the 20th most subscribed channel and the 40th most viewed on the site.
Channel
Vanoss' content mainly includes funtages of him and his friends playing GTA V Online and Gmod. In fact, it is a rare occasion for him to post content without at least one of his friends in the video. His friends include but are not limited to: Moo Snuckel, I AM WILDCAT, Daithi De Nogla, Ohmwrecker, Lui Calibre,BasicallyIDoWrk, Mini Ladd, Terroriser, Mr Sark, fourzer0seven, BigJigglyPanda, and H2O Delirious, whom many say is Vanoss' best friend.
This group of people can be referred to as the "Vanoss Crew", the "Banana Bus Squad", or even "Team 6", after them parodying Jake Paul's "Team 10" group in his animation series.
The channel sits as one of YouTube's most abundant in views and subscribers, due to YouTube viewers relating and emphasizing to the channel's aura of casually playing games and having a good time with friends. It is also due to it's mix of comedic banter with his friends and having some of the most highly accliamed edited videos on YouTube.
An interesting thing to note about his channel is that unlike the fanbases of other big YouTube channels like PewDiePie or Smosh, who are known to have a rather rabid fanbases as well as intense arguments in the comment section between haters & fans alike, the VanossGaming fanbase is one of the most, if not the most, positive fanbases on YouTube. Vanoss' comment sections are filled with positive and friendly feedback and discussions, with arguments rarely breaking out. This is extraordinarily unusual for a YouTube channel exceeding 10 million subscribers, indicating that Vanoss does a good job of delivering a positive upbeat aura for his viewers as well as portraying an entertaining and mischievous character in his videos.
His humor is childish and inapproprate and he is much liked by children/teenagers and also adults as a result. This is one of the reasons why sometimes a joke he makes in a video trends. An example include a joke he made in 2015 by "Hoodini".
Before Vanoss and the Impact of PewDiePie
Before Vanoss began posting his content on YouTube, there were great channels like speedyw03 (AKA Vanoss' idol), and kilplixism, who was friends with Criken the Great. They mainly posted Left 4 Dead content because in 2010, Left 4 Dead was at the peak of it's popularity. StraightUpKnives was friends with Speedy, but unfortunately, they rarely play together anymore. However, when PewDiePie entered the scene, everything changed.
They are still active, of course, but they were some of the most popular channels to watch back in the day. These channels are past their prime now, with VanossGaming, since around the PewDiePie impact, being the most relevant and by far having the largest fanbase out of all of them.
The PewDiePie impact, otherwise known as his staggering rate of getting many more views and subscribers than any other YouTube channel that happened in the beginning of 2014 was the reason why the channels died or became less popular. The PewPiePie impact started the time PewDiePie and YouTube Spotlight were battling it out for the #1 spot. During this time, it brought most older channels to their knees as they tried to maintain their sub/view counts and gains. The newer channels that started to produce videos in or after 2010 like Markiplier or Vanoss weren't affected as much, which is obviously shown by the rate at which they grown.
They've helped to lessen PewDiePie's impact on YouTube, and now older channels aren't affected as much as they were meaning that PewDiePie has a lot of competition on YouTube.
Growth
According to SocialBlade, upon starting in September of 2011, Vanoss' channel didn't really start growing a fanbase until the start of 2012. By July of 2012, he was gaining approximately 18.9 thousand monthly subs. He started to become more and more popular, as approximately one year later, he was gaining around 361.3 thousand monthly subs. Vanoss' rapid growth didn't stop there, as he earned an incredible 1.1 million monthly subs by the start of 2014, the most subscribers he ever got in a single month, more than many channels like Smosh in January of 2014 as well. Vanoss hit his first billion views on July 19 of that year and hit his second billion views on January 28, the next year.
Around that time, when he was on his way to surpassing former most subscribed YouTuber, Ray William Johnson, him and his channel started to recieve much media attention, mostly positive, with commentators viewing and labeling him as a prominent part and example of the subculture of video game commentary. Many of them also say that Vanoss has revolutionised the subculture by making his videos more of movies than gameplays by his video style consisting of more of plannings on how to entertain his audience and to get them intrigued in the game, rather than spontaneous reactions trying to do the same.
His animations has also been well recepted by the media as being in great quality, entertainment and presentation wise which has garned even more fans as a subscriber to his channel.
Since, Vanoss evolved to become one of the biggest contenders to knock off PewDiePie long with HolaSoyGerman and the great Smosh. However 2015 was the year his growth started to slow down. More channels were starting to gain more subscribers and views than him and some started to surpass him towards the end of that year and so forth. He did however, receive his 3 billionth video view around this time on September 25.
Vanoss still gained many new fans in 2016 but not as quickly as before. Despite this, Vanoss still remains in one of the most subscribed YouTube channels of all time, although it seems as if he is exiting the the top 20, where he peaked at #12 in both 2015 and 2017. He also gained the most views he ever had in the past year, receiving 4 billion views on his YouTube channel on February 2, 2016, 5 billion on June 8, and 6 billion on October 25 of that year. In April 2017, his channel hit 7 billion total video views and reached 8 billion on September 20.
List Of Subscriber Milestones
Evan hit 1 Million Subscribers On July 14, 2013.
Evan hit 2 Million Subscribers On October 25, 2013.
Evan hit 3 Million Subscribers On December 7, 2013.
Evan hit 4 Million Subscribers On January 7, 2014.
Evan hit 5 Million Subscribers On February 5, 2014.
Evan hit 6 Million Subscribers On March 5, 2014.
Evan hit 7 Million Subscribers On May 11, 2014.
Evan hit 8 Million Subscribers On July 24, 2014.
Evan hit 9 Million Subscribers On September 25, 2014.
Evan hit 10 Million Subscribers On December 10, 2014.
Evan hit 11 Million Subscribers On February 7, 2015.
Evan hit 12 Million Subscribers On April 14, 2015.
Evan hit 13 Million Subscribers On June 28, 2015.
Evan hit 14 Million Subscribers On September 4, 2015.
Evan hit 15 Million Subscribers On December 1, 2015.
Evan hit 16 Million Subscribers On Feburary 5, 2016.
Evan hit 17 Million Subscribers On May 4, 2016.
Evan hit 18 Million Subscribres On July 23, 2016.
Evan hit 19 Million Subscribers On November 3, 2016.
Evan hit 20 Million Subscribers On February 13, 2017.
Evan hit 21 Million Subscribers On July 19, 2017.
List Of Video View Milestones
Evan hit 1 Billion Video Views On July 19, 2014.
Evan hit 2 Billion Video Views On January 28, 2015.
Evan hit 3 Billion Video Views On September 25, 2015.
Evan hit 4 Billion Video Views On February 2, 2016.
Evan hit 5 Billion Video Views On June 8, 2016.
Evan hit 6 Billion Video Views On October 25, 2016.
Evan hit 7 Billion Video Views In April 2017.
Evan hit 8 billion Video Views On September 20, 2017.
Quotes
- "Hey guys. Vanoss here." (Sometimes his intro if he wants to point something out before the video)
- "ALRIGHT!" (Starting of most of his newer videos)
- "♪Come on down to the Kame House and get your Dragon Balls♪" (Quote from Garry's Mod Guess Who)
- "What do you call a magic owl.... Hoodini" (Quote from GTA 5 Online Funny Moments - Comedy Club Fun!)
- "Come on down to the Olive Garden and get your free breadsticks!"
- "Hubbada!"
DEAD REALM
On July 25, 2015, Evan announced that he had been working on a game called Dead Realm with a few of his friends for "the last six or seven months" as a creative director. It seems to be similar to Gmod Hide-n-Seek, with the hiders being humans and the seeker being a ghost. If a hider gets caught, they become a spirit and help the ghost find the humans. If time runs out, the hiders win. If everyone is dead, the ghosts win. After six months working on the project as gaming directors, Vanoss, DaithiDeNogla, Moo Snuckel, Mini Ladd, Terroriser, TheSyndicateProject, and SeaNanners worked with 3BlackDot and released the Early Access version for PC on August 3, 2015. Patches were added to the game over time, adding new ghosts and maps. Four new game modes have been added since the game's release. Dead Realm officially left Early Access on May 24, 2017.
Personal life
Vanoss is half Korean and half Chinese and lives in Toronto, Canada, the town he was born and raised in. He has a love for hockey and used to play, stating that he wants to make quality hockey videos in the future. He also has an interest in playing the guitar. Vanoss only revealed his face in a few videos, but his GTA V character greatly resembles him in real life (though he mostly wears an owl mask). He is known to be a very calm guy as well as a great joker, but as much as he enjoys messing around, when Vanoss plays seriously, he is quite experienced.
He has recently helped create a game with other YouTubers called Dead Realm, much like Garry's Mod game mode hide and seek. Vanoss has been on a web cartoon series called "Paranormal Action Squad." He voices a character based on his owl mask wearing persona from Grand Theft Auto Online. Paranormal Action Squad can be found on YouTube Red.
He sometimes goes to events to either have fun or to interact with his fans, most of the time, to do both.
Trivia
- He didn't play video games often as a child as he wasn't introduced to it. The games he did play on occasion included popular children's adventure and puzzle games such as Freddi Fish and Pajama Sam.
- In one of his QnA videos, he explained that he adopted the name Vanoss from his father's PS3 account name Vanoss62. His father, in turn, got his account name from VANOS, a valve timing system produced by BMW.
- Vanoss entered the University of Pennsylvania where he studied economics and aimed at getting an athletic scholarship from the school for ice hockey. He dropped out in the second year to pursue his YouTube career with doubts and concerns by his parents. He however understood their train of thoughts about the situation at the time.
- He was Nominated for "Trending Gamer" in The Game Awards 2014.
- He was Nominated for "Tech and Innovation: Gaming" in the Streamy Awards 2016.
- He was featured in WatchMojo's "TopX" in the category of Top 10 Let's Play YouTube Channels taking the #2 spot, just beaten by PewDiePie.
- Vanoss has his own dragon in the popular game Dragon City, called the Vanoss Dragon.
- In late 2016, he surpassed former most subscribed channel nigahiga to become the most subscribed YouTuber of Asian decent.
- VanossGaming is considered identical to Ryan Higa by some fans, with some confusing the two.
- Without a YouTube network, Vanoss ranks at the fourth most subscribed channel, from 2014 to 2017, being the most subscribed person without a YouTube network. Also during that time period, his channel was the most subscribed gaming channel without a network until PewDiePie's well known contorversy with anti semetic jokes resulted in him being dropped by his network, Maker Studios in February 2017. His channel is now the second most subscribed gaming channel without a network.
- Some of his videos were deleted by Spam404, mostly old ones.
- His original Outro Song (Afterglow - Reaktor Productions) also caught attention after using it as an outro and the song is now the most famous Reaktor Productions track.