Let's just say the Game Grumps fandom can't agree with anything - even in the old days.
- The grumps had a three-way battle amongst the fandom regarding their New Super Mario Bros. Wii playthrough. On the one hand, you got fans who wish they would stop comparing it to older games and just enjoy it for what it is. On the other hand, you got fans who say that Arin and Jon are entitled to their opinion and that they can criticize whatever games they want. On the third hand, you've got fans who don't mind the criticism of the game but wish they'd make some jokes while playing.
- JonTron was a huge base breaker among members of the fandom. There were those who thought he was genuinely funny and entertaining, those who felt he was annoying and took away from Arin's entertainment value, and those who felt that he was funny on his own show but terrible in Game Grumps. And then Jon left and was replaced by Dan, which caused another debate: was he a good replacement for Jon or not? It doesn't help that people who complained about Jon being on the show suddenly started complaining about him leaving. Thankfully, this debate had died down significantly.
- Steam Train. Some fans loved it, some hate it, and some like it but think it should be kept to a separate channel. It doesn't help that it began around the same time that Danny became the new "Not-So-Grump". This debate has stopped, however, thanks to the series getting unofficially canceled.
- Any time the Grumps have difficulty figuring out various aspects of a game. Fans are divided over whether they should just be having fun and enjoying the game at their own pace, or if they should learn to actually play the game instead of wasting everyone's time. The Grumps themselves tend to lampshade this by joking about how they struggled during moments that were obvious in hindsight.
- Arin's Beat Boxing. He tends to use the exact same beat every time he does it and is notoriously bad at it. This means you either find it funny as hell or cringe at the garbage being spat into the microphone. Pretty much the only thing fans universally agree upon is that it's better than his Grubba voice, which was so universally hated that the grumps actually mentioned all the angry comments in a later episode... and then kept doing the voice.
- For a while, there were fans who dismissed the series due to a long-standing Fandom Rivalry between Reddit and 4chan. Jon has used a couple of Reddit memes in his work and has mentioned the site a few times in Game Grumps, as has Arin. However, most fans find the whole situation ridiculous. Jon and Arin specifically mention this Broken Base at the start of their Secret of Mana playthrough and also find it to be ridiculous. This has died down a lot in recent years, though it occasionally pops up.
- Jon and Arin ignoring hints in Sonic '06. Some fans think it causes some of the funniest moments in the series, while others find it infuriating due to contributing to Arc Fatigue.
- In episode one of their Naughty Bear playthrough, Jon and Arin stumbled through the first section, ignoring hints and dialogues, and then complained they didn't know what to do. Frustration at the episode led to a debate as to whether Jon and Arin talking or the quality of the actual playthrough was more important. This debate persists even after Jon was replaced by Dan, and this kind of thing tends to get the YouTube commenters up in arms.
- Their Seinfeldian Conversations. Some people think they should talk about the game and funny events in the game (ex: in Sonic '06, they missed Shadow's kick to the back of Silver's head four times). Other people either don't care or argue that their completely random conversations make the show what it is.
- There's also a pretty big divide among the fans as to who was right in the "Guts" argument: if one player figures out how a game mechanic works after starting a competition, are they obligated to tell the other player what they found out so both are on even footing, or can they keep it to themselves since learning this mechanic could be considered a fair competitive advancement, much like gaining points or devising a new strategy?
- In some of the later Sonic '06 episodes, Jon mentioned that he hated the original BioShock and Arin seems to have mixed feelings about BioShock Infinite before Arin starts talking about how much he hates the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. Jon tried to subdue this by constantly complimenting BioShock: Infinite and kept trying to get Arin to shut up about Tomb Raider (since Jon does like it). This caused another rift among Grump fans, with some fans thinking that Arin was coming off as rather pretentious about his ideas regarding game design while others don't mind it. Additionally, there are Grump fans who argue whether or not some groups of fans are blindly agreeing with Jon and/or Arin's opinions, or on the other side of the coin if some fans are just being rude to Jon and Arin's opinions. There does not seem to be much of an in-between.
- This is lampshaded when they play Contra III: The Alien Wars, as Arin reveals his hatred of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time because it's "boring as fuck". Jon cautions him:
- "Hey! Wanna see a Game Grumps video with a giant half dislike bar?"
- Their playthrough of Wind Waker HD attracted this, particularly Episode 25, which is colloquially known as "the episode where Arin doesn't press ZR." The outcry was less to do with Arin's incompetence as much as his constant problem of blaming the game for his own lack of skill. On the flip side, the series also had a very heartwarming and widely praised episode where Danny talks about his struggles with depression and OCD when he was younger. Supporters say they should give the Grumps a break because they produce quality episodes like that in spite of all their flaws, while the other side says it doesn't excuse the frustrating lack of skill and Arin's dickbaggery towards the game's design.
- Sonic Boom, for various reasons. First, the expected debate over whether this game or Sonic 2006 is worse. Second, the less expected argument over whether or not Arin should be abusing the "Knuckles infinite jump glitch" so much, since later on (specifically in episode 20) it became clear that using the glitch led to skipping triggers and caused the game to glitch out in ways that would not have happened if they hadn't broken sequence - with Arin either being completely oblivious to this or wanting to see how far he could take it.
- Super Mario 64 lost a good deal of fans when Arin abruptly became obsessed with 100% completing it, leading to multiple episodes with negligible forward progress despite some of them pushing 20 minutes. Similar to their Wind Waker run, he's quite prone to forgetting some of Mario's moves (usually the Ground Pound) and yelling at the game over it. There's also his insistence that his early statements about loving the game were just Pandering to the Base, when many fans noted that he seemed to be enjoying it before the harder levels started kicking his ass. On the plus side, he did acknowledge that the problem is likely just how bad he is at it, including spotting a sign out in the open that explained how to kill ghosts, which he'd been complaining about for a while.
- The playthrough of Sonic Adventure (the first 3D Sonic game they've done on the show that isn't hated among Sonic fans) spawned inevitable arguments between fans of the 3D Sonic series and those who agree with Arin that the 3D Sonic games have always sucked. In addition, many people who have played Sonic Adventure have accused Arin of intentionally triggering the bugs he finds while pretending he's just naturally encountering them to make the game seem way more unplayable than it actually is (namely when he managed to lose all of his lives by clipping through the first loop in episode 1), while other fans either don't believe he'd do that or are taking the position that even if he is doing it on purpose, the mere existence of the glitches for him to exploit is still a damning black mark on the game itself. For what it's worth, when ExoParadigmGamer tested that first loop glitch in multiple versions
, he found that he really had to go out of his way to trigger it and concluded that Arin was likely doing it on purpose.- In general, quite a few Sonic fans have gotten tired of Arin's complaints regarding the series. Not that the franchise doesn't warrant criticism from time to time, but the frequent passive-aggressive rants can become obnoxious. On the other hand, fans that hate Sonic naturally like the commentary. However, this became less "broken base" and more "universally derided" during their playthrough of Sonic 1 thanks to almost all of Arin's complaints towards the game amounting to him blindly charging through the level, constantly getting hit and/or dying, and then complaining because he can't "go fast".
- Arin admitting that he intentionally chooses inferior versions of Sonic games soured the experience further, as well as him not wanting to play Sonic games unless they're "glitchy, broken messes." This game to a head with the Sonic Colors series, where Arin refused to engage with the game outside of hoping for glitches. Sonic fans were more accepting of this during games such as Sonic 06 or Sonic Boom, but after that hating on the games started to feel forced.
- The The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds playthrough, mainly due to Dan's trouble playing the game, namely due to the playthrough being the first time he's even held a 3DS. He complains frequently about his huge thumbs screwing with the controls and constantly asks Arin where to go and what to do without exploring the game himself. In short, he's had so much trouble with a game based on one he loved in the past that it caused some rumbling among the fans.
- The Grumps playing the Bloodborne DLC. People either think this is great since it opens up the possibility of continuing other games that have had DLC, or those that think that the series was long enough already and they should have just played a different game and forget about Bloodborne.
- The Undertale Genocide run, despite being highly requested, divided the fanbase neatly. One camp was still happy they're doing it, with some of them seeing it as payback for Ross' sadistic Mario Maker levels and general antics. The second camp didn't want them to do it because it's clear the two of them like the world of Undertale and don't want to destroy it but think they have no choice because of fan demand. These camps tend to argue back and forth, with many of the latter wanting them to prematurely end the playthrough. This started leaning more towards the latter camp when it became clear that the genocide run was genuinely distressing (see: Ross storming out of the room crying when they killed Papyrus), causing a lot of fans who started out enjoying it wanted them to back out.
- The Super Mario Maker series has likewise split the fans into two camps: the camp that genuinely enjoys the series, particularly Arin's reactions to all of the Troll levels he plays through, and the camp that believes the series has worn out its welcome and is taking time and effort that could be devoted to finishing some of the games that the Grumps have abandoned, like FireRed.
- The Shovel Knight co-op playthrough has fans split, not because of annoyance over them revisiting the game, but because some fans had hoped that they would play the Plague of Shadows expansion instead. Others are excited to see Dan get to join in on the adventure this time.
- Dan and Arin's co-op playthrough of Portal 2 has had mixed reactions from fans. Some were glad to see the game revisited after Arin and Jon's playthrough ended abruptly, while others were turned off by Arin's incessant Ho Yay throughout most of the series, the repetition of certain jokes well past the point of being funny (most prominently Arin repeating the word "goop" over and over again in the final set of chambers), their overreliance on walkthroughs (usually resulting from them missing something obvious), and/or Dan generally being The Load throughout the playthrough.
- The The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time playthrough has proven to be divisive, in part due to Arin's controversial Sequelitis video of the game. The videos of the Water Temple, in particular, garnered this reaction when Arin used a walkthrough to quickly complete it. It also didn't help matters when Arin put on the Hover Boots and refused to take them off: this is either hilarious or annoying, depending on who you ask.
- As shown on this page, Arin has taken to using walkthroughs much more frequently in recent years. While many fans are perfectly fine with this, since most of the more complex games almost require the use of a cheat guide, there are others who don't like the Grumps not giving the games an honest try without the guides, especially when they seem to give up and default to using them very quickly (sometimes even having a guide available before they start playing).
- The playthrough of INSIDE (2016) started with both Arin and Danny going into the game blind, but around episode 8 Arin reveals that he "knows more about the game than he led on" and occasionally gives Dan the solutions to puzzles. Some fans don't mind this, as it prevents many minutes of aimless wandering around trying to figure out what to do, while other fans argue that Arin giving Dan the answers takes all the fun out of the game. It came to a head in episode 12, where Arin gives away the first twist of the game ("You can swim and breathe underwater now!") a good 15 seconds before the twist becomes apparent.
- Arin genuinely believes that there is no inherent reason to like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, claiming on multiple occasions that the only reason people "pretend to like it" is because it has Zelda in the name. This has gotten him heat from almost all sides, even from people who don't like Skyward Sword, because Arin is openly dismissive of their tastes and opinions. It got even worse when he claimed that Skyward Sword is worse than Sonic '06 and The Legend Of Zelda C Di Games, despite Skyward Sword at least being functioning and the other two bordering on unplayable. Also not helping his case is Arin admitting to barely even playing Skyward Sword before giving up on it altogether, specifically just starting in the second area which requires the use of bomb bowling.
- In 2018, Arin began a playthrough of Skyward Sword on the channel, and the trope is back in full force. Though the videos have consistently positive like-to-dislike ratios, the comments overwhelmingly criticize Arin for forcing his negative opinions on the game, and blaming the game for his own mistakes and failures at paying attention.
- The playthrough of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has rapidly become this after an initially warm reception. While Danny on the controller should have alleviated the usual backlash against Arin's deliberate lack of skill and focus, it soon became clear that neither was paying great attention, causing Dan to miss the instructions for critical gameplay features (he messes up simple attacks constantly, he has no idea how leveling up or using Shine Sprites works, and it takes until well into Chapter 2 for him to realize he can switch out partners), skip past instructions on what his goals are, and waste time on things he either doesn't need to do or can't currently do. Compounding this is the fact that Arin has a guide, but instead of glancing at it whenever they're stuck, he alternates between intentionally ignoring it in favor of giving Dan bad advice (causing Dan to waste an entire episode pointlessly backtracking) and reading from it point-by-point & intentionally spoiling things that are coming up for Dan, such as explaining the entire subquest on how to enter Glitzville before Dan knows he has to go there. Some find their playthrough to be enjoyable and want to see them react to the story, while others hate the playthrough due to the reasons above.
- Also, their refusal to extend most episodes past the usual ten-minute mark has caused a decent bit of controversy. Considering that it took them 73 parts to beat Wind Waker HD, and it takes them over half of that just to get through this game's second chapter, many were not optimistic, assuming they would either drag it out until they stop having fun or add it onto the pile of canceled playthroughs (they did complete the game... in 132 episodes, rivaling Mario Maker in longevity).
- The Pokemon Sun and Moon playthrough has divided people. Fans who hate the playthrough dislike the short episodes done in spite of the tutorial being infamously long and Arin getting Pokemon types wrong, while fans who enjoy it are excited for Danny to see the Alolan Forms and the humor that the game brings.
- As a smaller example, the Grumpcade playthrough of Miitopia. When the group finds that their party members were spirited away by the Dark Lord, Jimmy Whetzel tells Ross and the others that party members taken by the Dark Lord never come back (Which for the record: Is not true at all), and so they end up making exact copies of their previous party members. While some fans of the series find this humorous on the principle that clones are funny, many others were upset at Jimmy for providing false information and that doing so would create continuity issues for lategame. Which, considering the game they're playing, is actually quite impressive.
- Given their already base-breaking nature, Dan and Arin effectively taking over the Game Grumps channel and putting everyone else on a busnote has split the fan base right down the middle. Some think it's perfectly justified, since the channel's supposed to focus on the Grumps and the other series, like Steam Train and Grumpcade, were intended to be extras anyway. Others hate the direction the show has taken since then, accusing the Grumps of locking everyone else on the team out of the channel because they don't agree with the direction Arin wants to take it (namely only playing games that he can make fun of easily or play terribly and then rage at).
- The Grumps have left several playthroughs unfinished (most notably Trauma Center), with reasons ranging from the game becoming too difficult to the Grumps simply losing interest. Fans are split on this trend. On the one hand, watching the Grumps play a game they don't want to play would likely lead to Arc Fatigue and overall cause Dan and Arin to become annoyed and not have fun. On the other hand, Arin and Dan cutting a playthrough short out of boredom instead of giving it a chance is very annoying to some, especially for story-based games that some wanted to see Arin and Dan react to. This debate tends to flare up when a playthrough is unfinished despite Arin and Dan clearly having a fun time playing the game.
- In 2019, the debate saw a considerable flare up due to the Grumps not finishing a single playthrough via episodes since 2017, since their finished playthroughs (such as Detroit: Become Human, Kitty Love, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword) were completed via streams. This also sparked another debate: should the grumps keep doing their streams, or should they finish playthroughs via normal episodes? Some enjoy the more laid-back style of the streams, the Grumps being accompanied by their friends, and the games seeing proper completion. Others dislike the streams due to the Grumps often getting off-topic, the aforementioned company as opposed to the Dan-and-Arin duo, and (as is the nature of streaming) long periods of break and inactivity due to thanking donors.
- Their Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc playthrough was quite divisive in the fanbase, largely due to the long, story-driven nature of the game. Some fans enjoyed the Running Gags and seeing the Grumps react to the story, and wanted the Grumps to upload Danganronpa episodes over any other game. Other fans wanted anything but Danganronpa, finding the game to be full of Padding and getting frustrated with how the Grumps miss helpful details and thus take more time during the trials. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair was just as divisive a playthrough if not more so; it took up so much time on the channel that the Grumps eventually limited Danganronpa uploads to weekends, making the upload schedule clear for those who liked the series while adding variety for those who did not.
