PewDiePie is one of the most followed YouTubers in the world, reaching 110 million subscribers on his main channel. Until a few years ago, he was the most followed content creator on the platform, but MrBeast’s channel surpassed him at the end of 2022.
Currently, PewDiePie remains part of YouTube’s elite, even after having taken a temporary break from the platform at the end of 2019. The creator now shares the tenth spot among the most followed YouTube channels worldwide with 김프로KIMPRO and maintains a fairly regular posting schedule, averaging around two videos per month.
PewDiePie’s real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg and he was born in Gothenburg, Sweden on October 24th, 1989. His first account was registered on YouTube in 2006 and was named “PewDie”. He combined the word “Pew“, alluding to the sound of guns firing, and “Die“, which means to die in English. However, who hasn’t forgotten their password at some point? Unable to remember his login information, he created a new account to which he added the word “Pie”, his favorite dessert. And thus, the channel we know today as PewDiePie was born.
He has been interested in video games and art since he was very young. This is what led him to upload his first video to YouTube in 2010, after discovering that he could record video games while commenting on them at the same time (the Let’s Play format).
After finishing high school, he enrolled in university to study Industrial Economics and Technology Management, but he dropped out a year later in 2011. At that time, YouTube did not generate enough income for him to live solely from his videos, so he made a living by working at a hot dog stand and selling the art he made in Photoshop.
Not long after, his gameplays on horror video games, such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent, began to boost the channel along with weekly videos of a more personal nature in vlog format, called “Fridays with PewDiePie“. In this way, he reached sixty thousand subscribers by the end of 2011.
In November 2013, the YouTuber was already the most followed on the platform and the first channel to reach 15 million subscribers, obtaining a certificate from the Guinness Book of Records. It was from here that his content diversified even more. In addition to uploading video game content, he also did so on current news, memes, or his personal life, always with the irony that characterizes him.
His popularity has continued to grow, allowing him to carry out large fundraisers and donations for various causes throughout his career. Winning the “Web Game King” award from an online competition allowed him to donate that money to WWF.
Around 2015, PewDiePie’s content shifted toward a more mischievous style: he made viral videos, criticized other YouTubers, and started reviewing memes (something he continues to do to this day). As he has mentioned on more than one occasion, this change in style was a result of his immaturity and the fear that his channel would become stagnant.
Over the following years, all content creators on YouTube experienced a decline in subscribers, which in Kjellberg’s case, ended up frustrating him. When the YouTuber was close to reaching 50 million subscribers, he announced that he would delete his channel once he achieved this milestone. This garnered significant media attention and thus he became the first YouTube channel to reach that number. And of course, he did not delete his main channel but rather a smaller one he had recently created at that time.
Until 2019, PewDiePie sat on the throne of the platform, but the Bollywood production company T-Series began to approach at lightning speed. In this way, Kjellberg made a video in August 2018 in which he called on his fans to start a “battle” with the company’s channel.
Other content creators like MrBeast joined to support the Swedish YouTuber, even wearing t-shirts with the text “Subscribe to PewDiePie” at the SuperBowl that year. Both T-Series and PewDiePie had 90 million subscribers at the start of the “battle,” and it was not until late April 2019 that the Bollywood production company overtook the channel that had been the most followed on YouTube for so many years.
Despite claiming on numerous occasions that this campaign created by the YouTuber himself was not intended to offend the community of the production company, the use of jokes and stereotypes of India throughout this media battle resulted in the blocking of PewDiePie’s videos in the country.
This was not the first time that the content creator faced accusations of using “compromised humor” in his videos that could sometimes offend certain groups. In these instances, Kjellberg has been able to apologize and reflect on these criticisms by moderating his content and tone used to this day.
At the end of 2019, the Swedish YouTuber announced his temporary retirement because “he was tired”. He always said that he started on YouTube out of boredom, not to become famous. Achieving this level of exposure, especially when he was once a completely anonymous person, can be a huge mental burden. And he is not the first one to experience this, as we saw in 2018 when the spanish youtuber, Rubius, retired from the platform for a few months due to the pressure and anxiety he was experiencing from uploading videos to YouTube.
After this temporary retirement, he is now focusing on creating content that he wants to create, whenever he wants, without neglecting his fans. Throughout his internet journey, he has not stopped creating content, publishing books, and even launching successful mobile video games.
In june 2024, Mr Beast became the youtube channel with the most subscribers in the world, even surpassing T-Series. As Jimmy Donaldson was really involved in the battle between T-Series and PewDiePie in 2019, he stated: “After 6 years we have finally avenged Pewdiepie”. This expresses his admiration for the swedish content creator and the belief that the most-followed channel on YouTube should be a content creator, not a multinational corporation. This belief stems from the fact that both Mr. Beast and PewDiePie have always thought that the platform was built by the creators who grew on it, not by the companies.
After 6 years we have finally avenged Pewdiepie pic.twitter.com/V1znbyqw27 — MrBeast (@MrBeast) June 2, 2024
After 6 years we have finally avenged Pewdiepie pic.twitter.com/V1znbyqw27
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) June 2, 2024
After moving to Japan with his wife Marzia, announcing the birth of their first child, Björn, the 11th July 2023, and watching his latest videos posted on YouTube and other social media, it is clear that Kjellberg currently prioritizes his peace of mind while remaining faithful to his fans or “Bro Army”, as he refers to them, without stopping doing what he loves.
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