A YouTuber from Crosby has captured global attention with his latest video about the Isle of Man, which has already been watched more than 38,000 times in just over one week.
Max Quayle, known online as MQ Tate, is a 28-year-old theoretical chemistry PhD student who splits his time between his studies in Cardiff and creating educational and entertaining YouTube videos.
His newest upload, ‘How Pixel Art Destroyed a Nation’, once again shines a light on his home island, this time through a digital art experiment that’s both creative and deeply Manx.
The video explores WPlace.live, a collaborative online pixel-art platform where users across the world can add tiny coloured pixels to a vast, interactive map of the globe.
WPlace.live has become increasingly popular since its launch in July 2025 (WPlace.Live)
Each pixel corresponds to a real location, meaning players can effectively draw on countries and regions in real time.
‘I saw many creative works on my travels,’ Max narrates in the video.
‘Elaborate murals of fallen artists, flags that stretched across entire countries, and many, many Undertale and Deltarune sprites.’
But as he explored this virtual world, Max explained that he began to ‘long for the sweet shores of my homeland, the Isle of Man, the jewel of the Irish Sea.’
When he finally zoomed in on the island, he discovered something unexpected, the Isle of Man was surrounded by a red border, with familiar destinations such as Douglas, Peel, Bride and Rushen completely erased from the digital map.
Max Quayle, better known online as Max Tate (–)
In the video, Max illustrates and describes how he initially set out to save the island from being swallowed by this red mass.
But as the project unfolded, he realised he was part of something much bigger, a growing online movement of people working together to restore and celebrate their favourite places.
By the end of the video, the Isle of Man proudly displays a huge Three Legs of Man emblem, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Max and other online users.
‘It’s cool,’ he says, clearly delighted that others had joined in to give the island a fitting digital tribute.
Since its release on October 26, the video’s popularity has soared.
‘It broke more than 1,000 views in less than 12 hours,’ Max said.
‘I was hopeful it would get at least 10,000 by the end of the week.’
After tweaking the thumbnail, the view count shot up to more than 30,000, and it continues to climb.
In what he describes as a ‘huge win’. Max later found that others had added their own creations to the island, including a redrawn Smeargle (a Pokémon) and a refreshed depiction of the Moddey Dhoo, the mythical Manx black dog.
‘It’s like the island has a home in this digital world now,’ he said.
It’s not the first time Max has put the Isle of Man on the online map.
Max, who has around 12,000 subscribers, blends science, humour and local culture in his videos, often finding ways to connect his academic curiosity with his Manx roots.
