Can you believe 2016 is TEN YEARS AGO?! Ten years ago, on April 11th, 2016, the Pickyman (now shortened to Picky) YouTube channel was created. The channel all began with an upload titled "My dog Duke!" From there, the first Pickyman series was created, which was dubbed "Life." The Life series consisted of ten short videos featuring Duke the dog, Stanley the cat, and Pickyman's nephew HmanTheGamer (HmanTG).

Fast forward to 2017, and a new series on the channel begins: Pickyman News! At the end of 2016, we began season 2 of the Pickyman Series, with episode 2, "Break," releasing in March 2017. Rip my leg hairs lol; IFKYK. In 2017, I made a video complaining about YouTube and wanted to "quit" uploading videos. Ironically, it became the most popular video at the time, and I ultimately returned eleven days later.

Later in the year, HmanTheGamer (shortened to HmanTG) and I released "Life Orb," the season 2 finale of the Pickyman Series. This episode remains the most "current" episode of the series. We have done some work on producing Season 3, but it remains incomplete at this time.

To top off 2017, I dropped an absolute banger diss track with HmanTG. We were dissing Hypixel's new at the time MVP++ subscription rank.

What's up, my Jake and Logan Paulers! In 2018, my daily vlogs came, which were the meta at the time. But before we started vlogging we released Andy, a two-part short horror film following a cursed doll. The year 2018 featured various vlogs, skits, and an Assassin's Creed short film.

Jumping to 2019, which only had 10 uploads during the year. After a hiatus from the Assassin's Creed short film, I came back with a vlog and a couple of Minecraft SMP videos. I announced a new channel logo, which is still in use today and is the core branding of everything Pickyman!

HmanTG and I decided the original Pickyman Series episodes were poor quality, unexplained story, endless loops, and overall needed to be reimagined. We began the Pickyman Series REMAKE process in 2019, with the Attack of Creepy Noah (REMAKE) releasing on August 12th, 2019.

Following the release of the remake, I went on a hiatus for the remainder of the year until December 15th, 2019. The return was a video titled "Pickyman 2020," which was a new campaign for the upcoming year 2020. It was a year-long initiative aimed at expanding the channel's content production. The primary goals for the campaign were to develop new films, such as Death Island and Season 3 of the Pickyman Series. It also opened the door for audience collaboration with the "Movie Idea Form," allowing subscribers to submit their own film concepts for a chance to have them produced by us. Pickyman 2020 also featured monthly update videos to keep the audience informed about current projects and channel news.

Under the Pickyman 2020 campaign, I released monthly updates for the entire year. Speaking of 2020, something else, rather a lot of things happened in 2020, which made the year very unique and really warped the perception of time to this day. Mojang was cooking with Minecraft 1.16, and because of the global pandemic, I started a daily Nether Survival series. The goal of the series was to survive and live in the Nether as it was being updated with Minecraft 1.16 snapshots. Despite the chaos of 2020, this year really gave the channel a firmer structure, especially with improvements to video editing, thumbnails, and overall creative ideas.

At the end of 2020, I began the Pickyman's Winter Wonderland series.

2021 began with daily weekday uploads throughout January. I celebrated 190 subscribers in January 2021. Furthermore, celebrated 5 years of Pickyman on April 11th, 2021.

Unlike 2020 (which had an entire campaign dedicated to producing more films), in 2021, we released four major short film projects: three episodes (3-5) of season 1 of the Pickyman Series and the Twin short horror.

2022 was really the beginning of the modern era of the Pickyman YouTube channel.

Uploads consisted of Pickyman's Winter Wonderland: Season 2, Fortnite clip compilations, season 5 of Pickyman News, and Minecraft videos. This year, video editing, thumbnails, and ideas started to take off.

Everything changed on October 5th, 2022, when I published "Minecraft is dying. Can it be saved?" The video took off, reaching 3,000 views in 10 days (metrics never seen in the channel's history). That video was then followed up with "Why the Sniffer will WIN the 2022 Mob Vote," which broke 19,000 views in 10 days. These two videos single-handedly and systematically changed the Pickyman channel forever. It was the first major outlier I had ever uploaded to the platform. Immediately capitalized on the opportunity and pushed similarly styled videos. 

By November, I reached 1,000 subscribers.

In the new year, I tried to keep Pickyman's Winter Wonderland going, but the videos outperformed compared to the recently successful Minecraft commentaries. That is when I decided to drop PWW and Pickyman News from the main channel.

The year 2023 was dominated by Minecraft commentaries and video essays. I experimented with non-Minecraft topics like YouTube and other games, but found the most success in the Minecraft videos. You can literally see the transformation in quality between the "Minecraft is dying. Can it be saved?" video and the later 2023 videos.

In June 2023, I paid a freelance editor to edit a video. That video, "Did Mojang just reveal 1.21?" exploded in viewership. The video gained 32k views in 10 days and cracked 100k in 67 days (no way 😭). This video alone fulfilled the requirements for YouTube monetization.

Pickyman Studios released the short horror film, The Street Light. It is the most popular film ever released.

2024 had a dry spell in the first few months. Despite some underperforming projects, in 2024 I sought a video editor to improve video quality and increase overall video production. After testing out a few candidates, we landed on Wikkz, who arguably 10x the video quality. From April to August, we collaborated and created absolute bangers. Unfortunately, Wikkz had leveled up, and we went our separate ways after August 2024. I'm extremely proud of the work we did together and wish bro the best ♥️

I genuinely thought we were going to get the End Update after 1.21, so I capitalized on what I thought were legitimate hints toward that update. The "Mojang Dropped a HUGH Update Hint" pulled in 25k views in the first 10 days and now rests near 100k.

With Wikkz, I experimented with different topics and video styles. One that was quite successful was the "Most Loved VS Hated Minecraft YouTubers." We also delved into the MrBeast drama that was hot at the time.

Then came college in August, and frequency dropped off a cliff. The MrBeast video was uploaded on August 31st, then a pre-Minecraft Live video in September, then nothing until the end-of-year video. 

Last year, 2025, there was a whopping five long-form videos. I'm not proud of that. 

The most notable videos were the Minecraft Live content leak just before the March show (which the leak turned out to be totally fabricated) and the end-of-year video that bluntly addressed the failure of my 2025 goals.

Recognizing that 2026 marks the 10-year anniversary of the channel, I wanted to directly address my workflow flaws and strive for a much better year.

I made these goals for 2026:

1. Limit doom scrolling

2. Back to YouTube - Long & Short Form

   1. Longer long-form content

   2. Slower-paced videos

3. Active on other PM Channels

It's 2026, aka the new 2016! It is time to execute on my goals and make this a year to remember. Whether you're a friend who has followed the journey since 2016 or just subscribed, this channel continues to develop and grow into something special. From making random, unedited videos to producing quality commentaries and building an engaged community, I am excited for what another 10 years will bring!

Thank you for watching and supporting me (you're a goat if you read all this whole timeline) 💙