UPDATE (03/23/2021): Dan Avidan has released a statement branding the claims made against him to be “simply untrue,” saying that the relationship was between “consenting adults” and denying allegations of grooming, exploitative, or illegal actions. Read the full statement here.
UPDATE (03/23/2021): The Facebook message that reportedly depicted Dan Avidan sending the fan a “happy birthday” message on her 18th birthday was allegedly not sent by Dan. This new information reportedly comes from a user who claims to have contacted u/NotBlarg, the user who first posted the message in r/RantGrumps including the accusations made by the anonymous woman. According to the Reddit user, u/NotBlarg said that the birthday message was “not from Dan but from a friend,” and was intended to establish the age of the accuser. A screenshot of the alleged conversation can be viewed here.
Additionally, Twitter user @Ryuupastel — who was not involved in the publishing of the accusations, but whose tweet containing the allegations of grooming went viral — has reportedly walked back their involvement in circulating the belief that Dan’s behavior was evidence of grooming. In a now-deleted series of tweets, the user is said to have noted that they had deleted their original viral tweet regarding the accusations of Dan given the lack of evidence.
Kati Schwartz, the woman who branded Dan a “predator” and “dangerous man,” reposted an Instagram Story from a follower saying that there is “proof out there and people need to hold [Dan] accountable.” However, no verifiable proof of legal wrongdoing on Avidan’s behalf has yet to be published.
UPDATE (03/22/2021): In a post on the r/GameGrumps subreddit compiling the allegations against Dan Avidan and the subsequent fallout, it is said that a woman claiming to be the individual behind the accusations commented on the original RantGrumps post to clarify her position. According to the r/GameGrumps post, the account claiming to be the woman clarified in a series of now-deleted posts that she didn’t believe she had been groomed, but that it was an “abuse of power … especially leading some of us (if not all of us) on.” The fan allegedly commented that the grooming accusations were made by viewers of the original post and amid the subsequent backlash, but that she did not perceive it as such.
A video capture of a conversation with the alleged fan has been shared to social media and can be viewed below:
Here is a video too to show it’s not fake pic.twitter.com/Y4M7ckhr6w
— glace (@gracd81439127) March 22, 2021
ORIGINAL STORY: Popular YouTube channel Game Grumps‘ Dan Avidan has been accused of “grooming” a female fan, with text exchanges and a video being shared to the RantGrumps subreddit claiming that the 42-year-old pursued a sexual relationship with a woman he first came into contact with when she was under 18. Dan, who co-hosts Game Grumps’ videos alongside Arin Hanson, has yet to address the allegations.
Game Grumps’ Dan Avidan allegations emerge
The messages reportedly show that Dan had first been in contact with the unnamed woman in 2013 when she was 17, after she privately contacted him and the pair discussed him planning to “do some shows in early 2014.” Another screenshot alleges that Dan sent her a happy birthday message on Facebook on her 18th birthday.
Both messages are platonic in nature, though a later video received by the woman in 2017 appears to show Dan suggesting that the pair have sex in his hotel’s hot tub. This was then allegedly followed by a further message from Dan, in which he requested the woman send him “a little video saying that you’d like to f*** me in that tub,” if she felt “comfortable with the idea” of doing so.
The above messages were sent when the woman was 22 years old, so above the legal age of consent in every U.S. state. The allegations posted to RantGrumps do not include any sexual messages posted by either Dan or the accuser before she had turned 18. Dan and the accuser reportedly engaged in sexual activity backstage at a Game Grumps live show, though this was also when she was above the age of consent.
Following these allegations, Dan’s former friend and playwright Kati Schwartz has claimed that he is a “dangerous man” and a “predator,” suggesting that a character in her play ‘Bad People’ was based on him. According to a master thread of accusations against Dan posted in 2019, a character by the name of John is depicted as regularly “ghosting” women he’s sleeping with and being manipulative.
Update: Kati Schwartz confirmed that "Bad People" was about Dan from the Game Grumps, calls Dan a predator: pic.twitter.com/8JNtdyJkbl
— Nice Stories (@stories_nice) March 22, 2021
None of the allegations made against Dan indicate any criminal wrongdoing. However, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, the public is now more wary and critical than ever of the power imbalance present between a celebrity and their fans, particularly given that Dan’s contact with the woman allegedly began before she had turned 18. As a result, ‘Game Grumps’ and ‘Dan Avidan’ began trending on Twitter with many fans expressing their shock and disappointment at the allegations.
However, the poster of the allegations’ motives have also been called into question. As its name suggests, RantGrumps is a subreddit predominantly populated by former fans of the Game Grumps which focuses on criticizing the channel and its hosts. The poster of the allegations’ posting history is dedicated to compiling exhaustive lists of the channel’s “controversies,” many of which are as benign as criticisms of their video editing or thumbnails.
Dan has yet to respond to the accusations while the Game Grumps channel and co-host Arin Hanson have also yet to release a public statement. We have reached out to Game Grumps and will update this story if we receive a response.
