YouTuber Karl Jobst loses $350K defamation trial to Donkey Kong champion Billy Mitchell: Timeline and details explored

Australian YouTuber Karl Jobst has lost in court to American video gamer and Donkey Kong champion Billy Mitchell. Numerous news reports say that the judge in the defamation trial slammed Jobst for his remarks in one of his videos, and ruled in Michell's favor.

The legal battle between the two began in 2020 after Karl Jobst made a video criticizing Billy Mitchell's Guinness World Records stats after the latter sent a "concerns notice." Mitchell's legal team would go on to send more notices for subsequent remarks Karl made before the defamation trial started.

The videos in particular that led to the defamation lawsuit against the Australian YouTuber had to do with American YouTuber Apollo Legend, who had taken his own life in 2020. In the videos released in 2021, which have since been taken down, Karl Jobst supposedly linked Apollo Legend's death to legal action taken against him by Billy Mitchell. Mitchell had won a lawsuit against Apollo Legend earlier that year.

Mitchell would go on to criticize Karl Jobst, claiming he was being defamed due to the alleged insinuation that he had somehow caused the YouTuber's death. Billy would also threaten Karl with legal action, and the latter would end up revising his earlier video and providing corrections in subsequent commentary videos.

This was the main charge of the lawsuit filed against Jobst in September 2021, asking for $450K in damages. The two parties went to trial in September 2024. The verdict was announced on March 31, 2025.

The Brisbane District Court judge awarded Billy Mitchell $350K plus interest (additional $34,668.50) in the trial, finding Karl Jobst's allegations against the video gamer defamatory. Jobst was also reportedly chastised for his remarks about Mitchell allegedly driving Apollo Legend to suicide due to past legal action.

---

Judge reportedly slams Karl Jobst for his remarks against Billy Mitchell in defamation case

Brisbane Times reports that Judge Ken Barlowe shared many words of criticism against Karl Jobst while delivering the verdict in the defamation case. The judge reported called Jobst's actions "reckless" and noted that his allegations regarding Apollo Legend "were based on fallacy":

"He was reckless in making the allegations. His assertions were based on a fallacy, that Apollo Legend had paid a large sum of money to Mr Mitchell. That was simply wrong, and he had no reasonable basis for asserting it."

According to the report, Judge Barlowe also slammed Jobst for repeatedly uploading videos about the topic, stating that he saw himself as a crusader against Billy Mitchell:

"He seems to see himself as a crusader against Mr Mitchell – one of the last people sued by Mr Mitchell and the only one who has not backed down."

In the verdict, Judge Barlowe noted that Billy Mitchell had suffered significant damages, both professionally and personally, due to Karl Jobst's conduct:

"I have found that all of this conduct has caused Mr Mitchell additional personal harm and additional harm to his reputation. It was severely aggravating conduct that merits an award of aggravated damages."

As mentioned, Karl Jobst will have to fork out roughly $385K with Billy Mitchell having won the defamation lawsuit in Brisbane.