Marques Brownlee‘s September is off to a busy start. The tech reviewer took a brief break from his MKBHD YouTube channel to participate in the 2024 World Ultimate Championship. After his team won the frisbee title, Brownlee returned to YouTube in time to cover the release of the new iPhone 16.
Brownlee’s detailed, honest tech reviews reach nearly 20 million subscribers, but YouTube videos are not his only passion. He’s also a lifelong ultimate player who picked up the sport while attending high school in Maplewood, New Jersey. (Fun fact: The first-ever game of ultimate was played at that school.)
Though Brownlee’s career on YouTube has flourished, he has always set aside time to compete in the professional ultimate scene. His club career with the New York Empire has resulted in three league championships and numerous highlight reels.
In 2024, Brownlee got a chance to earn an international accolade. After spending his “whole career” trying out for the U.S. national team, he finally cracked the mixed division roster for the 2024 World Ultimate Championship. To take advantage of the opportunity, he had to take a brief break from MKBHD duties, and he announced a temporary hiatus at the start of September.
That decision paid off. Brownlee’s team won the championship, and he even scored the winning point in the final. “World champs,” he wrote on X
. “Hasn’t hit me yet.”Brownlee didn’t have time to let that achievement sink in, because in his primary career, duty called. On September 9, Apple officially released the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, and Brownlee was quick to share his first impressions with his millions of subscribers. The resulting video needed just two days to earn more than seven million YouTube views.
Despite what some creators may think, YouTube has claimed that there’s no evidence to suggest that brief breaks cause channels to be deranked in the platform’s algorithm. Brownlee’s week off and subsequent return backs up YouTube’s argument, though not everyone can count on 19 million subscribers to welcome them back.
As popular as Brownlee’s reviews are, his sports career might be even more impressive. By his own admission, he has as much celebrity status in the ultimate world as he does among techies. “People who go to a game recognize all the players, but sometimes they also recognize me from that ‘other thing that I do,'” Brownlee told MSNBC earlier this year. “It’s funny. I’ll sign discs and stuff and people are like, ‘Oh, can you also sign my iPad?'”
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