PewDiePie is the YouTube alias of Swedish creator Felix Kjellberg, whose shouted Let's Play videos made him the most-subscribed channel on the platform from August 2013 until Indian music label T-Series edged him out in April 2019. The rivalry produced the Great Subscriber War, one of the most closely watched follower races in internet history.
Origin
Felix Kjellberg opened the YouTube account 'PewDiePie' on April 29, 2010, after losing the password to an earlier account called 'Pewdie' that dated to December 19, 2006[3]. The earliest surviving upload was a short Minecraft playthrough featuring a zombie that had spawned inside a minecart[9]. He followed it with playthroughs of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Dead Space 2, which locked in the shouted Let's Play format the channel became known for[3].
Kjellberg later told fans in a video called 'Let's Talk About Money' that he had funded his early channel by working shifts at a hot-dog stand, treating YouTube as a hobby rather than a career plan until it took off[1]. The move from side project to full-time job happened fast: within roughly three years of that first Minecraft clip, PewDiePie was the biggest single channel on the platform.
- Platform: YouTube
- Creator: Felix Kjellberg
- Date: 2010
Overview
The PewDiePie channel is built around shouted, first-person commentary over video games, most famously horror titles like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, plus vlog skits, callback bits, and merch stunts that treated the audience as an inside-joke group[3]. Kjellberg's Swedish accent, his willingness to scream through jump scares, and a near-daily upload schedule turned single videos into serial content that fans followed like a sitcom. His face-cam-plus-gameplay layout became the default template for a whole generation of gaming vloggers who copied the confessional framing and reaction-heavy edits.
Alongside the gaming videos, the channel picked up recurring bits that became identifiers: the Bro Fist greeting, the Nine-Year-Old Army fan label, and later the Floor Gang gag riffed on in Urban Dictionary entries that half-describe him as a man on the floor shouting his own catchphrases[10]. Kjellberg often played into his own reputation, pinning a tongue-in-cheek Twitter bio that read, in broken English, 'Uploadan daily quality content since 1984'[11].
By the mid-2010s the channel was a business as much as a comedy act, with a Disney-backed network called Revelmode, mobile game tie-ins, and public financial filings that made his earnings a news topic[1][5]. That combination of scale, personality, and constant self-referential humor is what set PewDiePie apart from the many gaming creators who followed.
How It Spread
On August 15, 2013, PewDiePie became the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, briefly losing the position to the YouTube Spotlight house channel later that year before reclaiming it[3]. Earnings reporting in 2015 put the scale of the operation in front of a mainstream audience: a Swedish filing by his company PewDie Productions showed roughly $7.4 million in 2014 income, sparking a wave of 'you don't deserve it' comments that Kjellberg answered in the 'Let's Talk About Money' video[1]. His channel closed 2014 with more than 4 billion views and about 33 million subscribers[1].
Mainstream crossovers stacked up. South Park built two 2014 episodes around him, with the second ending on an in-cartoon PewDiePie saving the town from Cartman while Stan and Kyle admitted they still didn't get the appeal[2]. In August 2016 he teamed with Montreal studio Outermind on a free-to-play mobile game called Tuber Simulator, an isometric pixel game about grinding YouTube fame that followed his earlier title Legend of the Brofist[4][5]. By late 2016 he was publicly feuding with YouTube itself over subscription and view counts, threatening in a video that pulled more than 12 million views to delete his channel once it hit 50 million subscribers[7].
The most-watched chapter was the Great Subscriber War of 2018 and 2019, a fan campaign to hold off Indian music label T-Series. Supporters bought Times Square billboards, hijacked printers, and made 'Subscribe to PewDiePie' a running joke across YouTube itself. T-Series overtook him in subscribers in April 2019[3]. Smaller collabs kept him in headlines through the same window: in July 2018 Illinois teenager Billy 'FaZe Lampshade' Krankavitch spent months eating printed photos of Kjellberg's face until Kjellberg finally featured him and offered a paper-for-paper deal, ultimately eating one printed photo of Krankavitch in return for the fan's 100[6].
Frequently Asked Questions
What is PewDiePie?
PewDiePie is the YouTube channel of Swedish comedian and gamer Felix Kjellberg, best known for shouted Let's Play videos and horror-game playthroughs[3].
Where did PewDiePie come from?
Kjellberg started the PewDiePie account on April 29, 2010 after losing the password to an earlier account called 'Pewdie' that dated to December 19, 2006[3].
What does PewDiePie mean?
The name is a rework of Kjellberg's earlier YouTube handle 'Pewdie', with 'pew' as gun-sound onomatopoeia and 'die' tacked on; he adopted PewDiePie after losing access to the original account[3].
How do you use PewDiePie?
The channel itself is not a template, but fans still trade in-jokes from it: Bro Fist greetings, Nine-Year-Old Army self-labels, and 'Floor Gang' callbacks like the ones logged on Urban Dictionary[10].
Is PewDiePie still popular?
The channel is a classic of YouTube history rather than a trending property; T-Series overtook it in subscribers in April 2019, ending its long run at the top spot[3].
How much does PewDiePie earn?
A Swedish company filing by his firm PewDie Productions showed roughly $7.4 million in 2014 income, which Kjellberg addressed in a video called 'Let's Talk About Money'[1].
What was the Great Subscriber War?
It was the 2018 to 2019 fan campaign to keep PewDiePie ahead of Indian music label T-Series in YouTube subscribers, which T-Series won in April 2019[3].
Did PewDiePie appear on South Park?
Yes, South Park built two 2014 episodes around him, ending one storyline with an in-cartoon PewDiePie saving the town from Cartman[2].
What games has PewDiePie released?
He starred in Legend of the Brofist and the 2016 free-to-play mobile title Tuber Simulator, both from Montreal studio Outermind[4][5].
Why did PewDiePie threaten to delete his channel?
In a December 2016 video he said he would delete the channel at 50 million subscribers as a protest over YouTube unsubscribing viewers and pushing paid content in the trending tab[7].
