Yesterday morning, Phil Lester tweeted a mysterious invitation calling all the internet to join him and Dan Howell on YouTube that evening. Phan theories instantly ran wild.
And they had a good reason to.
DanAndPhilGAMES is officially back.
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For those who weren’t around for that particular chapter of YouTube history, here’s the tl;dr: Beginning in 2018, Howell and Lester regularly uploaded videos to their shared gaming channel. Many of the 279 uploads focused on their Sims game, where their digital child Dil had extensive lore and a rich, often chaotic life. The channel spawned a major fanbase and racked up hundreds of millions of views.
Then, in December 2018, DanAndPhilGAMES went silent. Both Howell and Lester took a creative break, with Howell especially quiet through June 2019, when he posted a video on his personal channel coming out as “basically” gay. (Lester followed with his own coming out video a month later.)
Through the years since DanAndPhilGAMES’s last upload, fans have kept up hope that maybe, just maybe, one day, it would be back.
That day is here. In a three-minute upload guest-starring Father Jacksepticeye, Howell and Lester gather to hold a funeral for DanAndPhilGAMES, only to have Dil burst from the channel’s coffin. The video ends with a promise: “DanAndPhilGAMES IS BACK FROM THE DEAD.”
The reveal instantly got “Dan and Phil” trending on Twitter as longtime fans awoke to the call like sleeper agents. Howell responded to some of their comments, telling one, “let this be a message to always hold on to hope.”
let this be a message to always hold on to hope
— Daniel Howell (@danielhowell) October 15, 2023
We don’t know exactly when DanAndPhilGAMES uploads will resume, but it’s clear when they do, they’ll get a very warm reception.
