David Dobrik is vlogging on YouTube again

David Dobrik has returned to the YouTube channel that bears his name. Dobrik, whose iconic status was tarnished by numerous scandals and controversies, has ended a vlogging hiatus that lasted nearly three years.

Dobrik, an innovator in YouTube’s vlogging community, rounded up some of his usual suspects for his return to his namesake channel. He traveled the world alongside pals like Ilya Fedorovich 

and Natalie Noel while also making a wager with the biggest star on YouTube. MrBeast challenged Dobrik to reshape his body through a year of physical training, and the mop-haired former “it boy” actually pulled it off.

Dobrik’s fans have been waiting a long time for his return to YouTube. In the second half of the 2010s, Dobrik rocketed to internet stardom with help from his ex-girlfriend Liza Koshy, his buddy Jason Nash, and other members of the so-called “Vlog Squad.” For a time, Dobrik was on cloud nine: He lived in luxury in his $9.5 million mansion, hosted specials, and made bank from creator products.

But Dobrik’s world went sour in the early 2020s. That’s when sexual assault allegations against Vlog Squad members caused Dobrik to lose his sponsorships, his ad revenue, and his position at the photo-oriented social media platform Dispo. Around the same time, Dobrik had a bitter falling out with former Vlog Squad member Jeff Wittek, who held Dobrik responsible for an eye injury he suffered during the filming of a video.

By the time 2024 rolled around, Dobrik was facing legal action from Wittek and lamenting the shelving of a Casey Neistat documentary about his life. But at the same time, the 28-year-old lightning rod demonstrated that he still has some popular appeal. His pizza parlor Doughbrik’s drew four-hour lines at its grand opening, and his Snapchat content made him one of the top draws on the app. Now, he’s testing the waters on a hub that reaches more than 17 million subscribers.

Even before Dobrik was enshrouded in controversy, he seemed to be losing interest in his vlog, so subscribers shouldn’t expect him to post with the same frequency he once did. “Sometimes it feels like it gets to the point where you’re checking things off in a vlog,” Dobrik told Nash on the VIEWS podcast.

Dobrik and his friends certainly checked off a lot in 2024. They pranked one another, visited the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, and — in Dobrik’s case — underwent a stunning body transformation. In many ways, Dobrik’s 2024 vlog resembles the content he put out in his hard-partying heyday. His style is as polished and innovative as it ever was, but the man behind the camera has changed.

Now that Dobrik has broken his vlogging hiatus, his fans are eager to see what he’ll do next. Will it take him another year to construct his next YouTube upload, or will he return to some semblance of scheduled programming on the channel that led him to fame and fortune? Dobrik has made no clear indications about the future of his vlog, but the current phase of his career is best summed up by a song he used in his return video. I’ll let Joan Jett take it from here:

I don’t give a damn ’bout my reputation
Living in the past, it’s a new generation
A girl can do what she wants to do and that’s what I’m gonna do