PewDiePie (an iconic Youtuber) has recently reached his ultimate peak after getting married, gaining 100 million subscribers, and reaching the end of his Minecraft series. Of course, he started as a small channel like anyone else, but how did he become so successful?
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, is a Swedish Youtuber that made his debut as the most subscribed channel since 2013 at the age of 23. With his channel going through several phases, it’s amazing to see how he’s kept a growing fanbase. He started out with playing games such as Minecraft and Call of Duty, not the horror games many love him for. Kjellberg began playing Amnesia as the horror game trend just began rolling around Youtube, and that’s when his career skyrocketed. He began expanding his horizons to role playing games and fun free minigames posted on the internet.
Starting in 2017 however, PewDiePie began uploading vlogs, reactions to internet videos, challenges, and such. To explain his sudden change, he came out with a video admitting to not enjoying playing games anymore and turning to books for enjoyment instead. LWIAY (Last Week I Asked You) and Meme Review became a hallmark of his channel, amongst the occasional gaming video. These videos were accompanied by various types of vlogs, internet challenges, songs, montages, and etc. He even began a Youtube Red series, a platform where viewers would have to pay to watch videos made by other big Youtubers such as Joey Graceffa, Liza Koshy, and etc, named Scare PewDiePie.
During this time Felix Kjellberg also fell into a scandal, where even big news corporations such as the New York Times wrote about his “anti-Semitic” videos. During one of his videos, he was exploring the website Fiverr, a place where the user could pay a certain amount to have something done, such as holding up signs. Kjellberg wanted to express how anyone would do anything for money, thus paying two Sri Lankan men to hold a sign saying “Death to All Jews”. It was agreed that the joke was taken too far, but by the time he had uploaded an apology video, there were already drops in his subscriber count and a cancellation of a second season of Scare PewDiePie.
2017 wasn’t exactly the Youtuber’s best year, but throughout this time he had still managed to uphold the most subscribed Youtuber title for 4 consecutive years. His title was soon threatened by another Youtube channel in 2018, T-Series, a channel that uploaded pirated Indian music. Dubbed as the Great Subscriber War, this conflict brought a new wave of subscribers to PewDiePie’s channel in a cumulative effort to keep an original creator, rather than a huge corporation as the top channel of Youtube. Other Youtubers, such as Jacksepticeye, Markiplier, and Mr. Beast, joined this effort advertising PewDiePie’s channel with billboards and other extensive methods. Some even went to the lengths as hacking 50,000 printers to print a message to subscribe to the Swedish Youtuber. Of course loyal subscribers did their part, posting signs around their towns, urging people to join the cause.
He was passed multiple times during 2019, but eventually T-Series reached 100 million subscribers first on March 27, 2019 when the battle ended. PewDiePie had no hard feelings, simply returning to his videos with a final statement that the number of subscribers had never mattered to him. In fact, he requested fans to stop advertising after a German gunman had told people to subscribe to PewDiePie after killing and injuring over 100 people in a shooting at the New Zealand Christchurch. People were quick to point fingers at Kjellberg, claiming he had a role in this shooting.
In response to this, PewDiePie’s most recent announcement was to donate towards ADL, though some viewers criticized his choice. The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) is an organization whose purpose is to stop the defamation of Jewish people. Many thought the Youtuber was donating as an attempt to clear his name from the controversy. He responded by saying that he was simply not okay with his involvement in the shooting and wanted to take responsibility for it. In his “Unboxing 100 MIL YouTube AWARD!!", Kjellberg stated the shooting is “no longer just about me, it affected other people in a way...I've struggled to figure out how to do that [deal with the Christchurch shooting], but this was not the right way to go about it.” He further explains that he usually spends more time doing research and background checks about charities, however due to his wedding and honeymoon, Felix did not have the time. He rescinded his donation to the ADL and promises to donate to another organization that he will later research.
This wasn’t a novice mistake; PewDiePie has in fact done many charities ever since 2012. He used his growing fame and decided to donate to numerous charities such as the World Wildlife Fund, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Charity: Water, Save the Children, RED, Child Rights and You, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In total he has raised nearly 3 million dollars for these charities, not including his future donation of fifty thousand dollars and the money earned from his twelve hour Minecraft stream.
Despite these controversies and transitions within his channel, millions of subscribers have stayed with him until now. He’s grown with his channel and stayed true to himself. So what now? After reaching 100 (over 101 million actually) million subscribers, where is there to go?
The man, himself, doesn’t know, so whose to say anything. Let’s just hope he can keep his Minecraft dog, Sven, alive.
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, is a Swedish Youtuber that made his debut as the most subscribed channel since 2013 at the age of 23. With his channel going through several phases, it’s amazing to see how he’s kept a growing fanbase. He started out with playing games such as Minecraft and Call of Duty, not the horror games many love him for. Kjellberg began playing Amnesia as the horror game trend just began rolling around Youtube, and that’s when his career skyrocketed. He began expanding his horizons to role playing games and fun free minigames posted on the internet.
Starting in 2017 however, PewDiePie began uploading vlogs, reactions to internet videos, challenges, and such. To explain his sudden change, he came out with a video admitting to not enjoying playing games anymore and turning to books for enjoyment instead. LWIAY (Last Week I Asked You) and Meme Review became a hallmark of his channel, amongst the occasional gaming video. These videos were accompanied by various types of vlogs, internet challenges, songs, montages, and etc. He even began a Youtube Red series, a platform where viewers would have to pay to watch videos made by other big Youtubers such as Joey Graceffa, Liza Koshy, and etc, named Scare PewDiePie.
During this time Felix Kjellberg also fell into a scandal, where even big news corporations such as the New York Times wrote about his “anti-Semitic” videos. During one of his videos, he was exploring the website Fiverr, a place where the user could pay a certain amount to have something done, such as holding up signs. Kjellberg wanted to express how anyone would do anything for money, thus paying two Sri Lankan men to hold a sign saying “Death to All Jews”. It was agreed that the joke was taken too far, but by the time he had uploaded an apology video, there were already drops in his subscriber count and a cancellation of a second season of Scare PewDiePie.
2017 wasn’t exactly the Youtuber’s best year, but throughout this time he had still managed to uphold the most subscribed Youtuber title for 4 consecutive years. His title was soon threatened by another Youtube channel in 2018, T-Series, a channel that uploaded pirated Indian music. Dubbed as the Great Subscriber War, this conflict brought a new wave of subscribers to PewDiePie’s channel in a cumulative effort to keep an original creator, rather than a huge corporation as the top channel of Youtube. Other Youtubers, such as Jacksepticeye, Markiplier, and Mr. Beast, joined this effort advertising PewDiePie’s channel with billboards and other extensive methods. Some even went to the lengths as hacking 50,000 printers to print a message to subscribe to the Swedish Youtuber. Of course loyal subscribers did their part, posting signs around their towns, urging people to join the cause.
He was passed multiple times during 2019, but eventually T-Series reached 100 million subscribers first on March 27, 2019 when the battle ended. PewDiePie had no hard feelings, simply returning to his videos with a final statement that the number of subscribers had never mattered to him. In fact, he requested fans to stop advertising after a German gunman had told people to subscribe to PewDiePie after killing and injuring over 100 people in a shooting at the New Zealand Christchurch. People were quick to point fingers at Kjellberg, claiming he had a role in this shooting.
In response to this, PewDiePie’s most recent announcement was to donate towards ADL, though some viewers criticized his choice. The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) is an organization whose purpose is to stop the defamation of Jewish people. Many thought the Youtuber was donating as an attempt to clear his name from the controversy. He responded by saying that he was simply not okay with his involvement in the shooting and wanted to take responsibility for it. In his “Unboxing 100 MIL YouTube AWARD!!", Kjellberg stated the shooting is “no longer just about me, it affected other people in a way...I've struggled to figure out how to do that [deal with the Christchurch shooting], but this was not the right way to go about it.” He further explains that he usually spends more time doing research and background checks about charities, however due to his wedding and honeymoon, Felix did not have the time. He rescinded his donation to the ADL and promises to donate to another organization that he will later research.
This wasn’t a novice mistake; PewDiePie has in fact done many charities ever since 2012. He used his growing fame and decided to donate to numerous charities such as the World Wildlife Fund, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Charity: Water, Save the Children, RED, Child Rights and You, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In total he has raised nearly 3 million dollars for these charities, not including his future donation of fifty thousand dollars and the money earned from his twelve hour Minecraft stream.
Despite these controversies and transitions within his channel, millions of subscribers have stayed with him until now. He’s grown with his channel and stayed true to himself. So what now? After reaching 100 (over 101 million actually) million subscribers, where is there to go?
The man, himself, doesn’t know, so whose to say anything. Let’s just hope he can keep his Minecraft dog, Sven, alive.