VanossGaming

Early Life and Hockey Career

Evan Fong was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, and is of Korean and Chinese descent. His early gaming experiences were limited to children's titles like Freddi the Fish and Pajama Sam, with Duke Nukem 3D being his first exposure to more violent games, which he often played with cheat codes. He graduated from Richmond Hill High School and began studying economics at the University of Pennsylvania, but dropped out in his second year to pursue YouTube full time. He admitted his parents were concerned about this path, noting that starting a YouTube channel was not a guaranteed success despite its potential.

Before his online career, Fong was a competitive ice hockey player. Starting at age six, he played in the Ontario Junior Hockey League for four teams between 2009 and 2012, the Villanova Knights, Vaughan Vipers, Dixie Beehives, and Aurora Tigers. As a forward, he played 127 games, scoring 24 goals and 49 assists for a total of 73 points. During his youth hockey days in the Greater Toronto Hockey League, he competed against future NHL players Tyler Seguin and Jeff Skinner.

The Rise of VanossGaming

Fong created his YouTube channel on September 15, 2011. The name Vanoss was inspired by his father's PlayStation 3 alias, vanoss62, which itself came from the BMW VANOS engine technology. He signed with the multi-channel network Machinima early on and became their most viewed channel, a position he held as of December 2015. In April 2015, he announced a move to the network JETPAK, founded by former Machinima employees and YouTubers Adam Montoya and Tom Cassell.

His channel gained mainstream attention as it approached 11 million subscribers in 2015. Fong attributed his success to authentic content from regular people playing games, which viewers could relate to, suggesting his audience was tuning out of traditional TV. His channel's owl-themed logo, introduced in November 2015, was based on his Grand Theft Auto Online avatar, which also appeared as a playable character in Watch Dogs Legion.

Content Style and Format

VanossGaming videos are primarily fast-paced montages or compilations of highlights from gaming sessions with friends. This format eliminates what Fong calls downtime, creating quick and funny videos tailored for young audiences with short attention spans and busy lives. He stated this montage format is exciting the entire time, unlike longer let's play content. The editing process for a single video can take almost an entire day, with larger projects requiring nearly a week.

A typical video features Fong and a group of friends chatting and joking over gameplay from titles like Grand Theft Auto V or Call of Duty World at War. He also posts videos exploring user created content in Garry's Mod. Fong never shows his face, collaborating with others through voice. His content has been described as a form of improvisational comedy and a madcap approach to game commentary.

Popularity and Influence on YouTube Gaming

Between 2015 and 2017, VanossGaming was consistently one of the most subscribed channels on YouTube. At one point he was the 18th most subscribed channel overall and the 6th most subscribed non branded channel, behind only PewDiePie, HolaSoyGerman, Smosh, JennaMarbles and nigahiga. His channel, alongside PewDiePie and Sky Does Minecraft, was credited with driving the substantial growth of gaming content on YouTube in the 2010s, making it the platform's fourth most popular category by 2018.

His audience is predominantly male, with over 80 percent of viewership coming from boys and adolescents in 2018. The social impact of his content on this demographic has been analyzed in academic journals like New Media & Society. Fong explained that recording with friends makes the content funnier and more unusual, comparing it to watching a movie with friends versus alone. His specific group of coworkers, the Vanoss Crew, is what he believes makes his content distinct.

Forbes named him one of the gaming industry's top influencers in 2017. That year, he earned approximately 15.5 million dollars from his YouTube channel, making him the second highest paid YouTuber behind DanTDM. By 2022, his estimated net worth was 25 million dollars.

The Vanoss Crew and Collaborations

A defining feature of VanossGaming content is the frequent collaboration with a close knit group of friends and fellow creators. This Vanoss Crew includes recognizable YouTubers such as Nogla, Mini Ladd, Terroriser, H2ODelirious, I AM WILDCAT, BasicallyIDoWrk, Moo, and Fourzer0seven. The group collaborates on a selection of multiplayer games and has developed shared merchandise featuring their logos and catchphrases, becoming some of the most recognizable personalities in gaming commentary. Fong has appeared on panels at events like PAX East alongside several of these collaborators.

Business Ventures and 3Blackdot

In 2013, Fong co-founded the entertainment studio and marketing firm 3Blackdot with fellow YouTubers Tom Cassell and Adam Montoya. The company produced video games like Zombie Killer Squad and worked on films, TV programs, and literature, including co financing the drama Queen & Slim and creating IP for the New York Times best seller The Proudest Blue. It was sold to the French online media company Webedia in 2017 for several tens of millions of euros. Valued at 87 million dollars, it was sold again in 2022 to become one of the few black owned media companies in America.

Through 3Blackdot, Fong helped produce the horror multiplayer PC game Dead Field, released via Steam in 2015. While promoting the game on their channels, the creators initially failed to properly disclose their financial ties to the project. Fong's disclosure in a video description was deemed insufficient by FTC guidelines. Support for the game ended in 2020 when its servers were shut down.

Fong also partnered with developer Social Point and 3Blackdot between 2016 and 2017 to create the three part animated series The Magic Tomato to promote the mobile game Monster Legends. The series featured his collaborators and engaged a collective audience of over 40 million. It was later entered for a Shorty Award in the gaming category.

Acting in Animated Series

Fong has lent his voice to several animated projects. He starred as his owl headed neighbor in the eight episode 2016 YouTube Red series Paranormal Action Squad, which aired in November. A reviewer praised the voice acting but felt the show's premise was lost. In 2021, he produced and starred in the animated series Alpha Betas, which premiered on his YouTube channel. The show follows a CIA backed team of gamers and was created by Chris Bruno and David Howard Lee with production from 3Blackdot and Starburns Industries. It features voice work from John DiMaggio, Chris Parnell and Stephanie Beatriz. A Kickstarter campaign for the show raised more than 1.3 million dollars from over 8000 sponsors.

Music Career and Awards

Beyond gaming, Evan Fong is a musician who has released studio albums under the name Rynx. His albums are In Pieces, released in 2019, and Speed, released in 2026. He also co-founded the record label and management company Avant Garden Records.

His work has earned several award nominations. He was nominated for Trending Gamer at The Game Awards in 2014 and for best in Gaming at the 8th and 12th Shorty Awards. He was also nominated for Shorty Awards in Tech and Innovation under the Gaming category in 2016 and 2020, losing to Rooster Teeth's Let's Play and NoisyButters respectively. Forbes recognized him as one of the gaming industry's top influencers in 2017.