Joseph Wilson, better known as ‘Mitten Squad,’ the creator of dozens of Fallout and Elder Scrolls challenge run videos on YouTube, has died at the age of 27. A legend among the Bethesda games community, Wilson made some of the greatest Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 3, and Elder Scrolls videos of all time, and completed incredible challenge runs for a variety of other games including Far Cry, Doom, BioShock, and GTA 5. Blending imagination, humor, and superlative gaming ability, Wilson accrued more than 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube. He was renowned for his deadpan narration and for creating obscure and inventive challenges, such as trying to complete the entirety of Fallout New Vegas without ever moving the in-game camera.
Between Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim, Fallout 4, and many others, Wilson’s videos covered the majority of Bethesda and Obsidian’s modern RPG games. In some cases, he created challenge runs that were designed to be intensely difficult, such as beating Fallout 4 without taking a single point of damage.
In other cases, the runs were more abstract and imaginative, such as completing both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas at the same time using one controller. Wilson also beat Fallout 3 by controlling the game exclusively using eye movement.
Wilson’s final video was posted on Thursday July 14, 2022, and has so far gained more than 1.2 million views. He shared occasional updates via his social media pages regarding struggles with his health and with alcohol use. “I will upload again, eventually,” Wilson wrote on Friday November 24, 2023. “Mitten Squad will return.”
On Monday December 18, Molnar Funeral Homes in Brownstown, Michigan, shared an obituary page for Wilson. He is survived by his mother and father, his brother, and his grandparents.