YouTube: MKBHDMarques ‘MKBHD’ Brownlee’s wallpaper app, Panels, is shutting down just 15 months after it went live. The app immediately faced backlash for its costs and advertising model.
On September 23, 2024, mega-popular tech YouTuber MKBHD announced his own premium wallpaper application. This came after ‘years’ of comments asking where he sourced his various mobile wallpapers seen throughout his content.
The app launched with hundreds of wallpapers available for free, but they were limited in resolution, and you had to watch two video ads before being allowed to download the lower-quality versions. For the best wallpapers, you could purchase bundles at $8 USD a piece, or subscribe for $11.99 USD a month.
Instantly, the app was met with a wave of backlash, drawing out a swift response from Brownlee as he admitted he “dropped the ball.”
Now, just over a year later, the wallpaper app is shutting down. Brownlee confirmed the news in an unlisted YouTube video on December 1, 2025.
YouTube: Marques BrownleeMKBHD shutting down Panels wallpaper app
Brownlee was quick to make fundamental changes in light of initial criticism last year. In early October 2024, he labelled the launch a “misjudgement,” admitting it was “terribly communicated” and should have been “a free app.
“If I was reviewing this app, I wouldn’t have been very nice,” he said.
This led to the removal of certain ads, and allowed users to download full-quality versions of select wallpapers. There was still a premium subscription, though the price had dropped to $24 USD a year.
To date, the app led to over two million wallpaper downloads, according to a final blog post. However, his ultimately wasn’t enough to “sustain” the app, as the YouTuber said in his latest upload.
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“After a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided to sunset the Panels app,” he confirmed.
The application will no longer be available after December 31, 2025. Any wallpapers purchased or downloaded prior to that will be yours to keep forever. Refunds will also be handed out to any users with ongoing annual subscriptions.
Furthermore, Brownlee and his team are making the app’s code open source, meaning anyone else can see what they’ve done and use it to develop their own app.