CoryxKenshin
Personal information
Born
Cory DeVante Williams

(1992-11-09) November 9, 1992
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation
  • YouTuber - Actor
WebsiteOfficial website
YouTube information
Channel
LocationFarmington Hills, Michigan, U.S.
Years active2009–2023
Genres
Subscribers17.5 million[1]
Total views7,373,050,656[1]
(November 4, 2023)
100,000 subscribers2015
1,000,000 subscribers2016
10,000,000 subscribers2021

Cory DeVante Williams (born November 9, 1992),[2] better known online as CoryxKenshin, is an American YouTuber and actor. Williams joined YouTube on April 26, 2009. Known for his comedic playthroughs of horror games, Williams is ranked the fourth top creator in the United States in 2021.

Internet career

Williams began uploading videos to YouTube in 2009.[3][4] Although he originally created comedy sketches, Williams began to play popular horror games such as Five Nights at Freddy's (2014) and Bloodborne (2015) instead,[4] along with creating the "Spooky Scary Sunday" horror short film reaction series.[5][6] He also played video games of other genres and triple-A games such as Elden Ring (2022).[7][8] His video of the rhythm game Friday Night Funkin' (2020) became the fifth most-viewed video in the United States in 2021.[9] IGN Africa described the video as "part music video, part playthrough" and praised Williams' use of comedy in the video.[10] Besides his let's plays, Williams was known for his humor and energetic, light-hearted personality.[4][11]

Williams was ranked the fourth top creator in the United States in 2021 by subscriber growth[lower-alpha 1][9] and many of his videos have stayed on the YouTube trending tab for several days.[4] He has also been noted for frequently taking hiatuses from uploading videos, ranging from several days to months.[11] In 2018, he took a four-month break from YouTube; in 2019, Williams uploaded a video discussing his struggles with mental health due to the pressures of content creation, which was cited in an article from The Verge in the wake of YouTuber Etika's death.[12] He reached ten million subscribers despite his nine-month period of inactivity[7] and, as of June 2023, he remains active and his channel currently has roughly seven billion views and above 16.8 million subscribers.[4]

In 2023, Williams was in the Five Nights at Freddy's film adaptation as a cabbie. Williams uploaded a reaction to that video shortly afterwards.[13]

Controversy

Hateful calling-out - YouTube: Racism and Favoritism

External video
video icon YouTube: Racism and Favoritism
The video uploaded to Williams' YouTube channel on August 24, 2022.

On August 24, 2022, Williams uploaded a video onto his channel alleging that "racism and favoritism" may influence YouTube's review process. In the video, he recounted an incident where a reviewer age-restricted his video of the horror game The Mortuary Assistant (2022), thereby lessening his visibility and monetization. As many other videos featuring the same content were not subject to the same restrictions, Williams became confused and submitted an appeal, which was rejected. He sent a clip of an even more popular YouTuber, Markiplier, playing the same game to his partner program representative. Although he expected them to restrict Markiplier's video, YouTube instead unrestricted the video.

Feeling targeted that they had to use Markiplier's clip to confirm that he had not disobeyed the content policy, Williams again contacted his representative, who inquired to the policy team. The company then restricted every video on the platform of The Mortuary Assistant. This led Williams to conclude that the company's favoritism of larger creators—or even, possibly, racism—were factors in reviewers' decisions. He also was unsure if it was an automated or human reviewer who restricted his video in the first place.

Numerous other YouTubers, including Jacksepticeye, Ludwig, GothamChess, Phillip DeFranco, berleezy, Deestroying, and Cr1TiKaL voiced their support online. The video later peaked at No. 1 on the trending tab.[3][4]

Personal life

According to Distractify, Williams resides in Farmington Hills, Michigan.[11] He is a devout Christian.[14]

Williams was born with ectodermal dysplasia, a rare genetic disorder that caused him to lack a full set of teeth, and diminished hair growth on his arms and legs.[15] He revealed that he had been bullied in school as a result of the disorder.[15]

In 2020, Williams stopped uploading YouTube videos temporarily as a result of anxiety, burnout and depression. He described 2020 as "the worst year of [his] life", citing major events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.[16]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
2023 Five Nights at Freddy's Cabbie [13]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The number of subscribers the creator gained throughout the year; in-country.

References

  1. 1 2 "About CoryxKenshin". YouTube.
  2. ↑ @coryxkenshin (November 9, 2017). "You can say I turned 25 today.. or, I turned Twenty FIIIINE 😍 alright I'll stop #BirthdayBoy #birthday #coryxkenshin #HUEHUEHEH #NoRegerts" – via Instagram.
  3. 1 2 Gutelle, Sam (August 25, 2022). "Did CoryxKenshin catch YouTube's content moderation team playing favorites?". Tubefilter. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Winslow, Levi (August 26, 2022). "Black Horror Game YouTuber CoryxKenshin Has Everyone Debating Platform Racism, Favoritism". Kotaku. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  5. ↑ Clear, Gina (July 9, 2022). "Local boy meets favorite YouTube star through Make-A-Wish". The News-Enterprise. Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  6. ↑ Burkes, Dawn (January 18, 2022). "Are they not entertained? Here are 17 great ideas to break your kids' pandemic boredom". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  7. 1 2 Anderson, Zuri (February 18, 2022). "These Black YouTubers & TikTokers Are Blowing Up Right Now". Black Information Network. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  8. ↑ Sayyed, Rayan (August 3, 2022). "Elden Ring Was One of YouTube's Biggest Game Launches of All Time". IGN. Retrieved August 28, 2022. The most viewed launch videos for Elden Ring were by YouTube channels CoryxKenshin and AshesWolf, sitting at 6.2 million and 5.7 million views respectively.
  9. 1 2 See:
  10. ↑ Leston, Ryan (December 29, 2021). "YouTube's Top Trending Videos of 2021". IGN Africa. Retrieved September 3, 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 Gatollari, Mustafa (June 26, 2021). "Did YouTuber Coryxkenshin Really Just Throw 10 Million Followers in the Trash?". Distractify. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  12. ↑ Alexander, Julia (June 27, 2019). "YouTuber Etika's death spurs conversation about how viewers react to creators' mental health struggles". The Verge. Archived from the original on July 3, 2019. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  13. 1 2 Valdez, Jonah (June 27, 2023). "'Five Nights at Freddy's' trailer contains jump scares and a cameo rumored for weeks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  14. ↑ Moore, Camille (July 1, 2021). "10 Things You Didn't Know about Coryxkenshin". TVovermind. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  15. 1 2 Ectodermal Dysplasia (We need to talk.) [PLEASE WATCH TO END], retrieved July 21, 2023
  16. ↑ 2020 is the worst year of my life, retrieved July 21, 2023
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