Roblox Stars and Chocolate Bars: YouTube’s Crazy Date in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — It was a recipe for chaos: a venue in downtown Salt Lake City, a mountain of 15,000 chocolate bars and an open invitation to millions of people.

“Nobody ever does anything cool in Utah, it’s kind of boring here,” said “Steak,” one of the YouTubers who organized the event. “We thought it would be interesting to spice things up a little bit.”

Steak is a Utah-based YouTuber who specializes in Roblox, livestreaming, and yelling into mics. On Monday, his 23rd birthday, he recruited friends and fellow YouTubers Lana’s Life, KreekCraft, and Mr. Booshot to host a meetup and giveaway of $25,000 worth of Feastables chocolate.

In total, these four sites have more than 16 million subscribers. About 40 people were queuing outside before the event began.

“It’s really awesome, honestly. I didn’t really expect so many people to come,” Steak said.

Some even came from out of state for the chance to see Roblox streamers in person. Cole Markin and his father Jerry Markin drove all the way from Los Angeles on Sunday “especially for this,” Jerry Markin said.

“Steak makes me laugh,” Cole Markin said.

It wasn’t just Steak and friends who drew people to the event: many people were excited about the Feastables chocolate bars, made by the world’s most popular YouTuber: MrBeast.

In a Willy Wonka-esque act of generosity, MrBeast dropped off a pallet of candy bars in Steak’s aisle. There was no way Steak could get that many candy bars through airport security, so there was nothing else to do but throw a party in his home state, he said.

Steak’s energy was infectious. He was screaming, singing, and making snow angels in the pile of candy bars. He hyped up his fans, mostly middle school boys, by encouraging them to stuff their T-shirts with as many candy bars as they could carry. And he live-streamed it all.

To an outside observer, Steak’s YouTube corner seems completely disconnected from the real world. Gen Z and Gen Alpha don’t seem to care.

His videos focus on Roblox, a gaming platform that allows users to create their own games and play others’ games. Roblox won “Favorite Video Game” at the 2024 Nickelodeon Teen Choice Awards: more than half of American kids under 16 play it.