Achievement Hunting

2008Gaming subculture / content creator groupdead

Also known as: AH · Achievement Hunter

Achievement Hunter is the influential Rooster Teeth gaming channel founded in 2008 by Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo, turning obsessive pursuit of in-game achievements and trophies into a YouTube empire.

Achievement Hunting refers to both the gaming subculture of obsessively pursuing in-game achievements and trophies, and most notably Achievement Hunter, the influential Rooster Teeth gaming division founded in 2008 that turned that obsession into a media empire. Started by Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo as a simple achievement guide website, Achievement Hunter grew into one of YouTube's biggest gaming channels before dissolving in October 20231.

charity origin memesrooster teeth memeslets play memes2008 memesstreamer memes

TL;DR

Achievement Hunting refers to both the gaming subculture of obsessively pursuing in-game achievements and trophies, and most notably Achievement Hunter, the influential Rooster Teeth gaming division founded in 2008 that turned that obsession into a media empire.

Overview

Achievement hunting as a practice exploded with Xbox 360's Gamerscore system in the mid-2000s, turning side objectives into a competitive meta-game. Players would grind through obscure tasks, compare scores with friends, and build entire identities around their completion percentages. Achievement Hunter captured that energy and built a content machine around it, starting with guide videos and evolving into one of the most recognizable Let's Play brands on the internet1.

The group's core cast, often called the "Main Six" (Ramsey, Pattillo, Michael Jones, Gavin Free, Ryan Haywood, and later Jeremy Dooley), became internet personalities in their own right. Their chaotic Minecraft and GTA Let's Plays defined a generation of gaming content.

Geoff Ramsey got the idea in 2008 when he realized no community website existed for Xbox achievement guides. He and Rooster Teeth CEO Burnie Burns were already competing to rack up the most achievements in their spare time, so Ramsey pitched a dedicated site. Burns agreed, and Achievement Hunter launched on July 6, 2008, sharing Rooster Teeth's web infrastructure1.

Ramsey recruited Jack Pattillo to co-host, and the two began cranking out achievement guides and Easter egg videos. David Dreger also helped get the site off the ground. Ramsey later said he'd grown tired of working on Red vs. Blue and enjoyed the creative change of pace1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Rooster Teeth website (community hub), YouTube (video content)
Key People
Geoff Ramsey, Jack Pattillo
Date
2008
Year
2008

Geoff Ramsey got the idea in 2008 when he realized no community website existed for Xbox achievement guides. He and Rooster Teeth CEO Burnie Burns were already competing to rack up the most achievements in their spare time, so Ramsey pitched a dedicated site. Burns agreed, and Achievement Hunter launched on July 6, 2008, sharing Rooster Teeth's web infrastructure.

Ramsey recruited Jack Pattillo to co-host, and the two began cranking out achievement guides and Easter egg videos. David Dreger also helped get the site off the ground. Ramsey later said he'd grown tired of working on Red vs. Blue and enjoyed the creative change of pace.

How It Spread

Achievement Hunter's early content stuck to its namesake: straightforward guides showing players how to unlock specific achievements. Community volunteers from the broader Rooster Teeth fanbase pitched in with tips and walkthroughs.

The real growth started in 2011 when the team expanded. Ryan Haywood came on as an editor and manager before stepping in front of the camera in March 2012. Michael Jones joined full-time in August 2011 after his Rage Quit series took off. Gavin Free, who'd been helping Rooster Teeth for years, officially joined in 2012, followed by community member Ray Narvaez Jr. in April 2012.

December 2011 marked the pivotal shift: Achievement Hunter started making Let's Play videos. The Minecraft series in particular became a weekly institution, with GTA Let's Plays following close behind. These long-form, personality-driven gameplay sessions moved the brand far beyond achievement guides and into the mainstream gaming content space.

By 2013, Achievement Hunter had its own YouTube channel and was launching competition series like VS and Achievement HUNT. The team also started the Extra Life charity streams in October 2013, raising $340,000 in the first year alone. The 2014 stream pulled in over $442,000 for Children's Miracle Network.

In February 2015, the group launched the Let's Play Network channel on YouTube, bringing together affiliated groups like Funhaus, ScrewAttack, Cow Chop, Kinda Funny, and Sugar Pine 7. That same year they held the first Let's Play Live at Austin's Moody Theater and launched their weekly Off Topic podcast hosted by Michael Jones.

The group published its final video on October 1, 2023. All members moved elsewhere within Rooster Teeth, which itself shut down entirely in May 2024.

Platforms

RedditTwitterReddit

Timeline

2023-01-15

First appears

2023-06-01

Goes viral

2024-01-01

Continues in use

2025-01-01

Achievement Hunting is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

Achievement hunting as a meme format typically shows up in a few ways:

1

Gamerscore flexing — Screenshots of completion percentages or rare achievement pop-ups, often paired with captions about the absurd time investment required

2

The grind is real — Jokes about spending 40 hours on a single bronze trophy or doing something deeply unfun for a virtual badge

3

Achievement unlocked edits — The Xbox achievement notification overlay applied to real-life situations (graduating college, making toast without burning it, etc.)

4

AH quotes and moments — Clips and screencaps from Achievement Hunter videos used as reaction content, particularly Gavin Free's confused expressions or Michael Jones's rage moments

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Achievement Hunter's influence on gaming content is hard to overstate. Their shift from guide content to personality-driven Let's Plays helped establish the template that countless gaming YouTubers and Twitch streamers would follow. The Let's Play Network model of partnering with smaller creators under one umbrella predated modern MCN structures.

Their annual Extra Life charity streams raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and inspired similar gaming-for-charity events across the content creator space.

The group also brought celebrities into gaming content, featuring guests like Kumail Nanjiani, Dante Basco, and Laura Bailey in their videos.

Fun Facts

Geoff Ramsey's original motivation was literally just wanting a website where he could look up how to get specific Xbox achievements

Ray Narvaez Jr. left Achievement Hunter in April 2015 to focus on Twitch streaming full-time, one of the earlier examples of a major YouTuber pivoting to live content

The Let's Play Minecraft series ran weekly from 2012 and became one of the longest-running gaming series on YouTube

Achievement Hunter moved into its own dedicated office separate from Rooster Teeth's main facility in mid-2015, a sign of how large the operation had grown

Frequently Asked Questions

References (1)

  1. 1
    Achievement Hunterencyclopedia

Achievement Hunting

2008Gaming subculture / content creator groupdead

Also known as: AH · Achievement Hunter

Achievement Hunter is the influential Rooster Teeth gaming channel founded in 2008 by Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo, turning obsessive pursuit of in-game achievements and trophies into a YouTube empire.

Achievement Hunting refers to both the gaming subculture of obsessively pursuing in-game achievements and trophies, and most notably Achievement Hunter, the influential Rooster Teeth gaming division founded in 2008 that turned that obsession into a media empire. Started by Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo as a simple achievement guide website, Achievement Hunter grew into one of YouTube's biggest gaming channels before dissolving in October 2023.

charity origin memes rooster teeth memes lets play memes 2008 memes streamer memes

TL;DR

Achievement Hunting refers to both the gaming subculture of obsessively pursuing in-game achievements and trophies, and most notably Achievement Hunter, the influential Rooster Teeth gaming division founded in 2008 that turned that obsession into a media empire.

Overview

Achievement hunting as a practice exploded with Xbox 360's Gamerscore system in the mid-2000s, turning side objectives into a competitive meta-game. Players would grind through obscure tasks, compare scores with friends, and build entire identities around their completion percentages. Achievement Hunter captured that energy and built a content machine around it, starting with guide videos and evolving into one of the most recognizable Let's Play brands on the internet.

The group's core cast, often called the "Main Six" (Ramsey, Pattillo, Michael Jones, Gavin Free, Ryan Haywood, and later Jeremy Dooley), became internet personalities in their own right. Their chaotic Minecraft and GTA Let's Plays defined a generation of gaming content.

Geoff Ramsey got the idea in 2008 when he realized no community website existed for Xbox achievement guides. He and Rooster Teeth CEO Burnie Burns were already competing to rack up the most achievements in their spare time, so Ramsey pitched a dedicated site. Burns agreed, and Achievement Hunter launched on July 6, 2008, sharing Rooster Teeth's web infrastructure.

Ramsey recruited Jack Pattillo to co-host, and the two began cranking out achievement guides and Easter egg videos. David Dreger also helped get the site off the ground. Ramsey later said he'd grown tired of working on Red vs. Blue and enjoyed the creative change of pace.

Origin & Background

Platform
Rooster Teeth website (community hub), YouTube (video content)
Key People
Geoff Ramsey, Jack Pattillo
Date
2008
Year
2008

Geoff Ramsey got the idea in 2008 when he realized no community website existed for Xbox achievement guides. He and Rooster Teeth CEO Burnie Burns were already competing to rack up the most achievements in their spare time, so Ramsey pitched a dedicated site. Burns agreed, and Achievement Hunter launched on July 6, 2008, sharing Rooster Teeth's web infrastructure.

Ramsey recruited Jack Pattillo to co-host, and the two began cranking out achievement guides and Easter egg videos. David Dreger also helped get the site off the ground. Ramsey later said he'd grown tired of working on Red vs. Blue and enjoyed the creative change of pace.

How It Spread

Achievement Hunter's early content stuck to its namesake: straightforward guides showing players how to unlock specific achievements. Community volunteers from the broader Rooster Teeth fanbase pitched in with tips and walkthroughs.

The real growth started in 2011 when the team expanded. Ryan Haywood came on as an editor and manager before stepping in front of the camera in March 2012. Michael Jones joined full-time in August 2011 after his Rage Quit series took off. Gavin Free, who'd been helping Rooster Teeth for years, officially joined in 2012, followed by community member Ray Narvaez Jr. in April 2012.

December 2011 marked the pivotal shift: Achievement Hunter started making Let's Play videos. The Minecraft series in particular became a weekly institution, with GTA Let's Plays following close behind. These long-form, personality-driven gameplay sessions moved the brand far beyond achievement guides and into the mainstream gaming content space.

By 2013, Achievement Hunter had its own YouTube channel and was launching competition series like VS and Achievement HUNT. The team also started the Extra Life charity streams in October 2013, raising $340,000 in the first year alone. The 2014 stream pulled in over $442,000 for Children's Miracle Network.

In February 2015, the group launched the Let's Play Network channel on YouTube, bringing together affiliated groups like Funhaus, ScrewAttack, Cow Chop, Kinda Funny, and Sugar Pine 7. That same year they held the first Let's Play Live at Austin's Moody Theater and launched their weekly Off Topic podcast hosted by Michael Jones.

The group published its final video on October 1, 2023. All members moved elsewhere within Rooster Teeth, which itself shut down entirely in May 2024.

Platforms

RedditTwitterReddit

Timeline

2023-01-15

First appears

2023-06-01

Goes viral

2024-01-01

Continues in use

2025-01-01

Achievement Hunting is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

Achievement hunting as a meme format typically shows up in a few ways:

1

Gamerscore flexing — Screenshots of completion percentages or rare achievement pop-ups, often paired with captions about the absurd time investment required

2

The grind is real — Jokes about spending 40 hours on a single bronze trophy or doing something deeply unfun for a virtual badge

3

Achievement unlocked edits — The Xbox achievement notification overlay applied to real-life situations (graduating college, making toast without burning it, etc.)

4

AH quotes and moments — Clips and screencaps from Achievement Hunter videos used as reaction content, particularly Gavin Free's confused expressions or Michael Jones's rage moments

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Achievement Hunter's influence on gaming content is hard to overstate. Their shift from guide content to personality-driven Let's Plays helped establish the template that countless gaming YouTubers and Twitch streamers would follow. The Let's Play Network model of partnering with smaller creators under one umbrella predated modern MCN structures.

Their annual Extra Life charity streams raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and inspired similar gaming-for-charity events across the content creator space.

The group also brought celebrities into gaming content, featuring guests like Kumail Nanjiani, Dante Basco, and Laura Bailey in their videos.

Fun Facts

Geoff Ramsey's original motivation was literally just wanting a website where he could look up how to get specific Xbox achievements

Ray Narvaez Jr. left Achievement Hunter in April 2015 to focus on Twitch streaming full-time, one of the earlier examples of a major YouTuber pivoting to live content

The Let's Play Minecraft series ran weekly from 2012 and became one of the longest-running gaming series on YouTube

Achievement Hunter moved into its own dedicated office separate from Rooster Teeth's main facility in mid-2015, a sign of how large the operation had grown

Frequently Asked Questions

References (1)

  1. 1
    Achievement Hunterencyclopedia