Who is Tobuscus and what happened to him? Toby Turner is one of the foundational YouTubers but now struggles with views and followers.
Turner has grown to become a popular personality on YouTube, achieving his early notability through his Tobuscus channel, and later through his secondary vlogging channel, as well as his gaming channel.
Dating back to the original VidCon days, Toby Turner (or Tobuscus) was a popular creator who once had millions of fans watching across his three channels.
The once-YouTube icon now struggles with views as he has faced several controversies in his career. But what happened to him, and where is he now? Here’s everything we know about the internet personality, now his videos rake in meager views. What happened to his influence?
Who is Tobuscus?
Tobuscus (real name: Tobias Joseph Turner aka Toby Turner) is an American YouTuber, actor, comedian, musician, gamer, and vlogger.
On his website, he is described as a “viral marketer … [and] consultant for viral video and social media platforms”.
He was born on March 3, 1985, in Osborn, Mississippi, United States.
His parents are Jackie Turner (mother) and William Turner (father) and he has two siblings, a sister named Angie Turner, and a brother called William Turner. They sometimes appear in his vlogs.
He is 1.79 m tall and has Aries as his zodiac sign.
Growing up in Niceville, Florida, Toby would take piano lessons in school up until he was 14, but would soon learn more instruments, such as the guitar.
He attended the University of Florida, and having an interest in filmmaking, graduated with a degree in telecommunication production.
Turner’s mother later took out a loan and bought him a video camera, an act he appreciated, as it helped begin his YouTube career.
Tobuscus has had an impressive career
Tobuscus is best known for his comedy sketch series, parodic music videos, and let’s plays. Toby’s popularity could be attributed to his skill at rapid-fire improv comedy and his musical talent.
Having begun his video-making career in Niceville, Turner moved to Los Angeles in 2008
Turner’s style of content is often extroverted, rambling, and energetic, but he always avoids using severe profanity and censors any explicit content due to his target audience.
He created his first YouTube channel on May 14, 2006, although he didn’t use YouTube around this time as he would use another hosting website called MetaCafe. However, Toby gained much more attention on YouTube, which led him to abandon his MetaCafe account.
He has three YouTube channels; Tobuscus, TobyGames, and TobyTurner, which all boast an impressive number of subscribers.
Within the first few years of his three channels running concurrently, Turner was considered one of the most popular YouTube personalities, later recognised as a “mainstay”, “pioneer”, and “one of the site’s greatest innovators.”
Toby refers to his fans as the Audience. In his vlogs, he starts by saying ‘Audience?! What are you doing…’
Tobuscus also occasionally collaborates with other YouTubers, such as his friends and fellow YouTubers Jacksfilms, Olga Kay, PewDiePie, and Sean Klitzner.
He formerly streamed on Twitch and uploads edited VODs onto his Tobuscus channel.
Aside from video production and other entertainment, Toby Turner has worked with some major companies on advertising campaigns, including NBC, Disney, and others. Among his online commercial credits are adverts for the Fox crime drama series Lie to Me, footwear manufacturer and retailer Timberland, snack food product Pop-Tarts, and social network aggregation website Ouibox.
He has also hosted events and series including reporting on the Toshiba “Set Me Free Tour” for MTV in August 2009 and presenting holiday special web shows for Comedy Central, Spike, and VH1.
In December 2012, Turner was nominated for the award of Best Host at the 2013 Streamy Awards, although eventually lost out to KassemG.
Toby starred in the 2012 horror movie “Smiley” and also appeared on Cartoon Network’s “Annoying Orange” as Nerville.
He has a dog named “Gryphon” (AKA Falcor) who frequently appears in his vlogs, and more recently in his Tobuscus videos.
Turner has speculated that he may have ADHD and some have similarly made this assumption due to his boisterous and sometimes inappropriate behavior.
What happened to Tobuscus? He was accused of sexual assault by his exes.
It seems that the downfall of the once-loved YouTuber can be traced back to 2016, when his ex-girlfriend April Fletcher accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting her. This led many of his other ex-girlfriends to come forward with similar allegations, though Toby denied the claims. Other former partners of Toby’s came forward with their own stories, either in support or against the creator, though it seems this was the last time the creator was consistently active online.
All that said, that’s not the only reason it seems that his followers drifted away. According to a Redditor answering another user’s question about what happened to the formerly popular channel, it seems Toby had taken a hiatus from posting just before the controversy struck.
“The main reason most of his audience stopped watching his videos is because he spent a long time without almost any upload whatsoever in his gaming channel and even less on his main channel,” the comment reads. “It was almost as if he had abandoned it, basically, and by the time he got back to uploading, people were mostly over it. Then came controversy, and it didn’t help, but it wasn’t the main reason for his views declining so much.”
Others chimed in, adding that a mobile game he claimed to be developing became the focus of his channel, though the game was never released.
“He kept on talking about how his mobile game was coming along and I was so excited for it, but either it took way too long or never happened because I never got it,” a user said. “I don’t remember exactly when this was but that’s the most vivid memory of the last time I watched him (other than him saying he didn’t rape the girls).”
Where is Toby Turner now?
Despite the fall from grace, Toby still makes content regularly on his various YouTube channels. His main channel, Tobuscus, still has more than 6 million subscribers attached to it, but each of his new uploads only brings in a small fraction of views compared to his subscriber count. His most-watched video in 2023 has only 186,000 views — and this is a high number compared to some of his other uploads.
Like many other content creators, Toby also has a Patreon where his dedicated followers can support him for additional content. Though it may look as though he has millions of supporters, only 17 people are paid subscribers to his Patreon. Tiers for his Patreon range from $1 a month to $15,000 (though the last one seems to be a joke), but it seems that the most commonly subscribed tier is $5 a month.
Toby has also participated in various film and video game projects, voicing Ant-Man in Marvel Avengers Academy, Nerville in The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange, and various other guest appearances. It seems Toby’s acting work has also dwindled in recent years, as he has not been a part of a film or voice-acting project since 2017.
Occasionally, Toby also works on music, though many of the projects are parodies. These are also often posted to YouTube in addition to various streaming platforms once they’re completed.
Though Toby was once known as one of the preeminent creators of YouTube, it seems that his popularity has subsided following the various allegations.
