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Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (born 24 October 1989), better known as PewDiePie, is a Swedish
YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...
, best known for his gaming videos. Kjellberg's popularity on YouTube and extensive media coverage have made him one of the most noted online personalities and content creators. Media coverage of him has cited him as a figurehead for YouTube, especially in the gaming genre. Born and raised in
Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
, Kjellberg registered his YouTube channel "PewDiePie" in 2010, primarily posting
Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...
videos of horror and action video games. His channel gained a substantial following and was one of the fastest growing channels in 2012 and 2013, before becoming the most-subscribed on YouTube on 15 August 2013. From 29 December 2014 to 14 February 2017, Kjellberg's channel was also the most-viewed on the platform. During this period, his content shifted focus from Let's Plays and diversified to include
vlog A vlog (), also known as a video blog or video log, is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one ta ...
s, comedy shorts, formatted shows, and music videos. Kjellberg's content was already noted for its polarizing reception among general audiences online, but in the late 2010s, it became more controversial and attracted increased media scrutiny. In 2019, following a public competition with Indian record label T-Series, Kjellberg was overtaken as the most-subscribed YouTube channel. Kjellberg later became more reserved online, uploading less consistently and taking frequent breaks from Internet use. He eventually semi-retired from YouTube, choosing to upload less frequently for his enjoyment rather than as a career. Meanwhile, in his personal life, he moved to Japan with his wife, Italian Internet personality Marzia. With over 110 million subscribers and 29.4 billion views, his channel still ranks as one of the most-subscribed and viewed on YouTube. His popularity online has been noted to boost sales for the video games he plays, and has allowed him to stir support for charity fundraising drives. In 2016, ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine named him as one of the world's 100 most influential people.


Early life and education

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg was born on 24 October 1989 in
Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
, where he was also raised. * He was born to Lotta Kristine Johanna (
née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
Hellstrand, born 1958) and Ulf Christian Kjellberg (born 1957), and grew up with his older sister, Fanny. His mother, a former chief information officer (CIO), was named the 2010 CIO of the Year in Sweden. His father is a corporate executive. During his childhood, Kjellberg was interested in art and has detailed that he would draw popular video game characters such as
Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...
and
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...
, as well as play video games on his
Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...
, such as ''
Star Fox ''Star Fox'' is a rail shooter, space flight simulator, and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto and developed and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic a ...
'' and '' Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest''. During high school, he frequently played video games in his bedroom and would skip classes to go to an
Internet café An Internet café, also known as a cybercafé, is a Coffeehouse, café (or a convenience store or a fully dedicated Internet access business) that provides the use of computers with high bandwidth Internet access on the payment of a fee. Usage ...
with friends. During his last year of high school, he bought a computer with the money he made selling artwork through his grandmother's gallery. Kjellberg then went on to pursue a degree in
industrial engineering Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...
and management at
Chalmers University of Technology Chalmers University of Technology (, commonly referred to as Chalmers) is a private university, private research university located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Chalmers focuses on engineering and science, but more broadly it also conducts research ...
in Gothenburg, but left the university in 2011. While it has been reported that he left Chalmers to focus on his YouTube career, Kjellberg clarified in 2017 that he had left due to a lack of interest in his course of study. He further expressed that, in general, leaving university to pursue a YouTube career would be "fucking stupid". Kjellberg has also discussed an enjoyment of
Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...
, wanting to work on
photo manipulation Photograph manipulation involves the transformation or alteration of a photograph. Some photograph manipulations are considered to be skillful artwork, while others are considered to be unethical practices, especially when used to deceive. Mot ...
art using the program rather than be in school. Following this passion after he departed from Chalmers, he entered Photoshop contests and almost earned an apprenticeship at a prominent Scandinavian advertising agency. He was also interested in creating content on YouTube; after not earning the apprenticeship, he sold limited edition prints of his photoshopped images to purchase a computer to work on YouTube videos.


Internet career


2010–2012: Early years

Kjellberg originally registered a YouTube account under the name "Pewdie" in December 2006; he explained that "pew" represents the sound of
lasers A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...
and "die" refers to dying. After initially forgetting the password to this account, he registered the "PewDiePie" YouTube channel on 29 April 2010. Following his exit from Chalmers, his parents refused to financially support him, so he funded his early videos by working as a harbor captain, selling prints of his Photoshop art, and working at a hot dog stand. Kjellberg stated that the ability to make videos was more important to him than a prestigious career. Five years later, Kjellberg recalled, "I knew people were big at other types of videos, but there was no one big in gaming, and I didn't know you could make money out of it. It was never like a career that I could just quit college to pursue. It was just something I loved to do." In his early years as a YouTube creator, Kjellberg focused on video game commentaries, most notably of horror and action video games. Some of his earliest videos featured commentaries of mainstream video games including ''
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...
'' and ''
Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-of ...
'', although he was particularly noted for his
Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...
s of '' Amnesia: The Dark Descent'' and its related mods. On these videos, Kjellberg has stated "I was so shy back then," and added, "It was so weird to me, sitting alone in a room talking into a microphone. That was unheard of back at the time. No one really did it." Kjellberg's oldest video available for viewing is titled " Minecraft Multiplayer Fun". Uploaded on 2 October 2010, the video is noted for containing mainly Swedish commentary from Kjellberg, rather than the English language he would later employ in his videos. The video has amassed over 22 million video views as of April 2025. Starting on 2 September 2011, he also began posting weekly vlogs under the title of ''Fridays with PewDiePie''. The series was a weekly deviation from the Let's Play videos that formed most of his content output at the time, and often featured
vlog A vlog (), also known as a video blog or video log, is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one ta ...
s, and Kjellberg completing viewer requests. By December 2011, Kjellberg's channel had around 60,000 subscribers, before rapidly increasing in 2012. Around the time his channel earned 700,000 subscribers, Kjellberg spoke at Nonick Conference 2012. July 2012 saw his channel reaching 1 million subscribers, and it reached 2 million subscribers in September. In October, OpenSlate ranked Kjellberg's channel as the No. 1 YouTube channel. Kjellberg signed with Maker Studios in December, a multi-channel network (MCN) that drives the growth of the channels under it. Prior to his partnership with Maker, he was signed to
Machinima Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, ma ...
, which operates as a rival to Maker. Kjellberg expressed feeling neglected by Machinima, and frustrated with their treatment; he hired a lawyer to free him from his contract with the network. Early in his YouTube career, Kjellberg used jokes about
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
in his videos. A satirical video, created by Let's Play YouTuber Michael " Slowbeef" Sawyer, mocking Kjellberg's content highlighted his usage of such jokes. Shortly after, Kjellberg attracted criticism and controversy for the jokes, and in October 2012, he addressed the issue through a
Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...
post, writing, "I just wanted to make clear that I'm no longer making rape jokes, as I mentioned before I'm not looking to hurt anyone and I apologise if it ever did." ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' stated "''unlike'' many young gamers, he listened when fans and critics alike pointed out their harmful nature, and resolved to stop making rape jokes."


2013–2014: Becoming the most-subscribed user and continued growth

On 18 February 2013, Kjellberg's channel reached 5 million subscribers. In April, he was covered in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' after surpassing 6 million subscribers. In May 2013, at the inaugural Starcount Social Stars Awards in Singapore, Kjellberg won the award for "Swedish Social Star". Nominated alongside
Jenna Marbles Jenna Nicole Mourey (born September 15, 1986), better known as Jenna Marbles, is an American former YouTuber. Over the span of ten years, her YouTube channel has accumulated approximately 1.8 billion video views and, at its peak, over 20 million ...
, Smosh, and Toby Turner, he won the award for "Most Popular Social Show". In July 2013, he overtook Jenna Marbles to become the second most-subscribed YouTube user, and reached 10 million subscribers on 9 July 2013. In August, Kjellberg signed with Maker's gaming sub-network, Polaris. Polaris functioned as a relaunching of The Game Station, Maker's gaming network. Kjellberg's subscriber count surpassed that of the leading channel, Smosh, on 15 August. Kjellberg received a certificate from
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...
for becoming the most subscribed YouTuber. In November, YouTube's Spotlight channel overtook Kjellberg's as the most-subscribed. Later in the month, Kjellberg proclaimed his dislike of YouTube's new comment system, and disabled the comment section on all of his videos. On 23 December 2013, his channel overtook the YouTube Spotlight channel, to once again become the most-subscribed on YouTube. Throughout 2012 and 2013, Kjellberg's channel was one of the fastest-growing on YouTube, in terms of subscribers gained. ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' reported that the channel gained more subscribers than any other channel in 2013. In 2014, Kjellberg's commentaries, originally best known for featuring horror video games, began to feature games that interested him regardless of genre. ''
Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...
'' wrote: "Instead of limiting himself to horror games, Pewdiepie is now actively playing more things that interest him." In March 2014, he updated his video production output, announcing he would be scaling down the frequency of uploads. In August 2014, Maker Studios released an official PewDiePie app for the iPhone, allowing audiences to view his videos, create custom favourite video feeds, and share videos with others. Later in the month, Kjellberg uploaded a video, announcing he would permanently disable comments on his YouTube videos. He cited most comments being spam and self-advertising and was not what he wanted to see. After disabling comments, Kjellberg continued interacting with his audience through
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
and
Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
. On 13 October, he decided to allow comments on his videos once more, albeit only after approval. However, he expressed that he toggled his comment settings this way so that he could redirect viewers to instead comment on the forums of his Broarmy.net website. He stated in a later video that disabling comments made him happier. In the same year, Kjellberg began streaming videos of his co-hosted series, ''BroKen'', onto MLG.tv. He co-hosted the series with Kenneth Morrison, better known as CinnamonToastKen, who is also a video game commentator. In October 2014, Kjellberg hinted at the possibility that he would not renew his contract with Maker Studios upon its expiration in December 2014. He had expressed his frustrations with the studio's parent company, Disney. Kjellberg mulled the option of launching his own network. However, in light of news outlets reporting his disinterest with Maker, he tweeted, "I feel like I was misquoted in The ''WSJ'', and I'm really happy with the work that Maker has been doing for me." Kjellberg ultimately continued creating videos under Maker. His relationship with Maker saw the network launch an official PewDiePie website, app, and online store to sell merchandise, while Kjellberg promoted Maker's media interests, and gave the network a share of his YouTube ad revenue. In 2014 alone, Kjellberg's account amassed nearly 14 million new subscribers, and over 4.1 billion total views. Both figures were higher than any other user. According to Social Blade, Kjellberg's channel became the most-viewed channel on the website on 29 December 2014, having amassed over 7 billion views by that date.


2015–2017: YouTube Red, Revelmode, and style change

''The New York Times'' retrospectively noted that around 2015, Kjellberg's video content experienced a change in style: "He began to take more risks. He continued playing video games, but he started experimenting. He did viral challenges, made fun of other YouTubers, and reviewed meme submissions from his fans." Kjellberg has attributed his content around this time as a result of immaturity, boredom with playing video games, YouTube's platform incentives, and the belief that his channel's growth had plateaued. One video cited as being representative of this change featured Kjellberg reading erotic fan fiction about characters from the Disney film '' Frozen''. Then-CEO of
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
Bob Iger Robert Alan Iger (; born February 10, 1951) is an American media executive who is chief executive officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company. He previously was the president of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) between 1994 and 1995 and p ...
was reportedly angered by the video, putting Kjellberg's deal with Maker Studios, a Disney subsidiary, in jeopardy. On 6 September 2015, his YouTube account became the first to surpass 10 billion video views. Later in the month, Kjellberg teased about having a role in a web television series, stating that he was in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
for the show's shooting. Although not many details were revealed at the time, it was later announced that the series would be an original
YouTube Red YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals ...
series, titled '' Scare PewDiePie''. The series premiered the following February. In January 2016, Kjellberg announced a partnership with Maker Studios to produce Revelmode, a sub-network of Maker, that would showcase Kjellberg and his friends on YouTube in original series. After the deal, the head of Maker Studios, Courtney Holt, stated, "we're thrilled to be doubling down with Felix." Along with Kjellberg, eight other YouTubers signed to the network upon its creation: CinnamonToastKen, Marzia, Dodger,
Emma Blackery Emma Louise Blackery (born 11 November 1991) is an English singer-songwriter, YouTuber, Twitch streamer, and author. Active since 2012, Blackery has garnered over a million subscribers on her YouTube channel and released two studio albums ...
, Jacksepticeye, Jelly, Kwebbelkop, and Markiplier. Three YouTubers – Cryaotic, KickThePJ, and Slogoman – would later join the sub-network after its launch. Throughout 2016, Kjellberg's video style change became more apparent. While producing fewer Let's Play videos about horror games, his style of humour changed; he commented that he had shifted to drier humour, which was often not understood by younger viewers. He examined his older videos, and while noting the stylistic changes he had undergone, he expressed specific regret for his casual use of words like ''gay'' or ''retarded'' in a
derogatory A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility ...
sense. In December 2016, ''Kotaku''s Patricia Hernandez wrote about his stylistic changes, explaining that "over the last year, the PewDiePie channel has also had an underlying friction, as Kjellberg slowly distances himself from many of the things that made him famous. He's doing fewer Let's Plays of horror games like ''Amnesia''," and adding, "the PewDiePie of 2016 can still be immature, sure, but ..a defining aspect of recent PewDiePie videos is
existential angst Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...
, as he describes the bleak reality of making content for a machine he cannot fully control or understand." On 2 December 2016, he uploaded a video discussing his frustration with the issue of YouTube accounts experiencing an unexplained loss of subscribers and views. Kjellberg stated that many people working with YouTube "have no idea of the struggles that came with being a content creator." A Google representative issued a statement to ''
Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...
'', stating that no decreases in subscriber numbers were out of the ordinary. Kjellberg's video was uploaded as his channel approached 50 million subscribers, and he stated he would delete his channel once it reached the milestone. On 8 December, his channel reached 50 million subscribers, becoming the first YouTube channel to do so. He shortly thereafter received a custom Play Button from YouTube as a reward for reaching this milestone. Ultimately, Kjellberg did not delete his PewDiePie channel, and instead deleted a smaller second channel he had then-recently created. His threat to quit was also reported to be "in fact, a promotional stunt" for ''Scare PewDiePie''. Kjellberg nevertheless continued to express discontent with the platform, aiming further criticism at YouTube's changing algorithm negatively affecting viewership for content creators. The site's algorithm began to focus on watch time statistics and "favor videos that drew daily viewers, higher engagement (more likes and comments) and cleaner 'ad-friendly' fare." Kjellberg later recounted to ''The New York Times'' that the platform's boundaries were widely unknown to creators. He responded to the algorithm changes by uploading vlogs that "mixed earnest schmaltz ..with inanity." Additionally, he "enjoyed wading into the meme culture and edgelord humor that accompanied
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
's ascent". During this late 2016 and early 2017 period Kjellberg uploaded a string of videos addressing what Kjellberg saw as negative effects to content creator viewership caused by the new algorithm. As a satirical knock on the changing algorithms, Kjellberg made several videos asking viewers to help the video reach specific engagement milestones such as one million likes, dislikes, and comments. The videos were successful, promptly achieving the goal Kjellberg requested from viewers; the dislike video accumulated over 5 million dislikes before YouTube made such figures private in November 2021, becoming one of the most-disliked on the entire platform. *


2017–2018: Media controversies, streaming, and formatted shows

In a video posted in January 2017, Kjellberg featured two paid individuals on
Fiverr Fiverr is an Israeli multinational online marketplace for freelance services. Fiverr's connects freelancers to people or businesses looking for services. Fiverr takes its name from the $5 asking price attached to all tasks when the company was ...
, asked to hold a sign that read "Death to all
Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
". He alleged his intent was not against Jews, but to showcase how "crazy" the modern world and website were. The video received negative attention and caused a media backlash, with various publications writing critically of Kjellberg's defense of his controversial content as jokes taken out of context, and opining that his content helps normalise ideologies such as
fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
,
neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
, and
white supremacy White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
. ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' alleged that this was not the first time Kjellberg had used
antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
language and imagery in his videos. Kjellberg and the two individuals later apologised, but the event led Maker Studios to cut their ties with Kjellberg and Google to drop him from the Google Preferred advertising program and cancel the upcoming second season of the ''Scare PewDiePie'' YouTube Red series. Ultimately, Kjellberg apologised, but strongly rebuked media coverage of the event, with particular criticism aimed at ''The Wall Street Journal'' for how their reporting portrayed references to Nazis in some of his videos. ''The Wall Street Journal'' response referred to another video with a YouTuber going by the name Jesus Christ, stating "Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong," as well as Kjellberg's response to the Fiverr suspension of the Jesus Christ account. According to Social Blade, his channel's total view count was surpassed by the Indian record label T-Series at the top of YouTube's view rankings on 14 February. In April, while still continuing to upload new content onto YouTube, Kjellberg created Netglow, a
crowdsourced Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...
channel on the livestreaming service Twitch. On Netglow, he started streaming ''Best Club'', a weekly live stream show. ''Best Club'' premiered on 9 April, with its first episode featuring Brad Smith alongside Kjellberg. Kjellberg commented that his decision to create Netglow was in the works prior to the aforementioned allegations of antisemitic themes in his videos. ''
Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...
'' detailed that Kjellberg's first stream amassed around 60,000 viewers, and that Netglow had accumulated 93,000 subscribers to that point. In September, while Kjellberg was live-streaming gameplay of '' PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'' to his YouTube channel, he used the ethnic slur "
nigger In the English language, ''nigger'' is a racial slur directed at black people. Starting in the 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been increasingly replaced by the euphemistic contraction , notably in cases where ''nigger'' is Use–menti ...
" towards another player in the game. The video clip of the incident quickly went viral despite Kjellberg deleting it, and garnered widespread criticism across the internet. Kjellberg later apologised for the incident in a short video uploaded to his YouTube channel. As a response to the incident, Campo Santo co-founder Sean Vanaman referred to Kjellberg as "worse than a closeted racist", announced that Campo Santo would file copyright strikes against Kjellberg's videos featuring the studio's game ''
Firewatch ''Firewatch'' is an adventure game developed by Campo Santo (company), Campo Santo and published by the developer in partnership with Panic Inc., Panic. The game was released in February 2016 for Linux, OS X, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox ...
'', and encouraged other game developers to do the same. Amidst the controversy stirred up by the incident, it was brought to light that Kjellberg was following several prominent
far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
and
white supremacist White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
figures on Twitter, such as
Stefan Molyneux Stefan Basil Molyneux (; born September 24, 1966) is an Irish-born Canadian white nationalist podcaster and proponent of conspiracy theories, white supremacist, white supremacy, scientific racism, and the men's rights movement. He is the found ...
, Carl Benjamin and
Lauren Southern Lauren Cherie Southern (born 16 June 1995) is a Canadian alt-right YouTuber and political activist. In 2015, she ran as a Libertarian Party of Canada, Libertarian Party candidate in the 2015 Canadian federal election, Canadian federal election ...
. He later deactivated his Twitter account and unfollowed everyone he was previously following, stating "What I don't like is the constant posturing that goes on there. People just can't seem to help themselves from pointing out what is good and what is bad, or how others are bad and you are good." In 2018, Paul MacInnes of ''The Guardian'' wrote about Kjellberg's YouTube content; he noted that each week Kjellberg posted videos featuring one of three series formats, comparing this uploading pattern to television programming. The three series listed were ''You Laugh You Lose'', which features Kjellberg watching humorous video clips while trying to not laugh; ''Last Week I Asked You'' (''LWIAY''), having begun as a parody and homage to Jack Douglass' ''Yesterday I Asked You (YIAY)'', where he challenges his audience to create content and reviews the output; and ''Meme Review'', in which he reviews popular Internet memes. Kjellberg began a book club-styled series, with his own enjoyment with the series also being noted. Kjellberg began ''Pew News'', a satirical series where he presents and discusses recent news stories while in-character, often as fictional characters named after
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
hosts, such as
Gloria Borger Gloria Anne Borger (born September 22, 1952) is an American political pundit, journalist, and columnist. As a senior political analyst for CNN from 2007 to 2024, she appeared on a variety of their shows, including '' The Situation Room''. Borge ...
, Poppy Harlow, or Mary Katharine Ham and sometimes, an amalgamation of these names. ''Pew News'' parodies both mainstream news channels, such as CNN, and YouTube news channels, such as DramaAlert. Topics covered by Kjellberg on ''Pew News'' included
culture war A culture war is a form of cultural conflict (metaphorical " war") between different social groups who struggle to politically impose their own ideology (moral beliefs, humane virtues, and religious practices) upon mainstream society, or upon ...
topics he previously avoided. In May 2018, Kjellberg attracted controversy for using the term "Twitch thots" in a video that featured him watching a compilation of female Twitch streamers. Alinity, a streamer featured in the video, responded by making a copyright claim against his video, which she stated was later removed by CollabDRM, a company that strikes videos on behalf of creators. Alinity stated that her reaction was caused by "the rampant sexism in online communities", arguing that Kjellberg's comments degraded women; she refused to accept Kjellberg's apology. In July, Kjellberg posted a meme with singer
Demi Lovato Demetria Devonne "Demi" Lovato ( ; born August 20, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. After appearing on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004), she starred in the Disney Channel short series ...
's face; the meme jokingly referenced Lovato's struggles with
addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use can ...
. The meme was posted around the same time Lovato was hospitalized after suffering an opioid overdose. As a result, he received criticism from online users. Kjellberg later deleted the meme, and apologized for the incident. In a video uploaded in early December, Kjellberg promoted several small content creators on YouTube, recommending his viewers to subscribe to them. Among those creators was "E;R", whom Kjellberg highlighted for a video essay on
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
's ''
Death Note ''Death Note'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It was serialized in Shueisha's Shōnen manga, manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 2003 to ...
''. Shortly thereafter, ''
The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...
''s Julia Alexander noted that the video in question used imagery of the Charlottesville car attack to joke about the murder of Heather Hyer, and that E;R's channel included frequent use of racist, sexist, anti-semitic, and homophobic content. In December 2018, ''Vox'' reported that "E;R" also contained white supremacist messaging. After online criticism, he described his posting as an "oopsie" and asserted that he had posted it "recommending someone for their anime review", rather than any intention to promote antisemitism. Kjellberg said he was largely unaware of E;R's content apart from the ''Death Note'' video essay, revoked his recommendation of the channel, and edited his video to remove the reference. On 27 December 2018, Kjellberg uploaded "YouTube Rewind 2018 but it's actually good", in response to the generally negatively-received '' YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind'', which was originally uploaded by YouTube's Spotlight channel.


2018–2019: Subscriber competition with T-Series

In September 2018, Kjellberg uploaded a ''LWIAY'' video discussing Indian record label T-Series' YouTube channel being projected to surpass his in subscribers. On 5 October, Kjellberg uploaded a
diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (an abbreviation of ''disrespect'' or ''disparage'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feu ...
against the label titled "Tseries Diss Track", stylized in all caps and later renamed " Bitch Lasagna" in response to their YouTube channel being projected to surpass his in subscribers. The video went on to replace "A Funny Montage" as Kjellberg's most-viewed video. It included some lines mocking the Indian background of T-Series, which were described as racist in media publications. On the prospect of being surpassed by T-Series in terms of subscriber count, he stated he was not concerned about T-Series, but feared the consequences a corporate channel surpassing him would have for YouTube as a video-sharing platform. Online campaigns to "subscribe to PewDiePie" greatly assisted Kjellberg's subscriber growth; his channel gained 6.62 million subscribers in December 2018 alone, compared to the 7 million subscribers gained in all of 2017. On 12 March, Kjellberg uploaded an episode of his show ''Pew News'' in which he mentioned the 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack, where 40 Indian paramilitary troops were killed by a member of a Pakistan-based jihadist group. Following the attack, T-Series removed several songs by Pakistani artists on its YouTube channel after being pressurised by political party MNS to isolate Pakistani artists, a course of action that Kjellberg disagreed with. The outlet
Zee News Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language right-wing news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation. The channel has been involved in several controve ...
reported that Kjellberg "faced strong criticism for his comments on the heightened tension between Pakistan and India in heMarch 12 issue of ''Pew News''". Kjellberg issued a clarification on Twitter, expressing that he was not attempting to speak on the broader
India–Pakistan relations India and Pakistan have a complex and largely hostile relationship that is rooted in a multitude of historical and political events, most notably the Partition of India, partition of British India in August 1947. Two years after World War II, t ...
, but rather on the more specific context of T-Series removing artists' songs from its YouTube channel. On 15 March, the perpetrator of the live-streamed Christchurch mosque shootings said "remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie" before carrying out the attacks. In response, Kjellberg tweeted his disgust after having his name associated with the attack, and offered condolences to those affected by the tragedy. Various journalists covering the shooting reported that Kjellberg was not complicit with the shootings. ''The New York Times'' suggested that Kjellberg's mention in the shootings was a ploy for the
news media The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public. These include News agency, news agencies, newspapers, news magazines, News broadcasting, news channels etc. History Some of the fir ...
to attribute blame to Kjellberg, and to otherwise inflame political tensions. After briefly gaining the title several times in early 2019, on 27 March, T-Series surpassed Kjellberg in subscribers to become the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. On 31 March, Kjellberg posted another diss track
music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
video, titled "
Congratulations Congratulations may refer to: Film and television * Congratulations (2010 film), an Egyptian film * Congratulations (2023 film), a Gujarati drama film *'' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'', 2005 television programme ...
", sarcastically congratulating T-Series for obtaining the title. In the music video, Kjellberg mocked T-Series and its actions, alleging T-Series was founded to sell pirated songs and mocking them for sending him a
cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...
letter after "Bitch Lasagna". Following the video's release, Kjellberg temporarily regained the most-subscribed position over T-Series. On 9 April, Kjellberg announced that he would live-stream exclusively on streaming service DLive, as part of a deal with the company. On 11 April, T-Series started to seek court orders to remove Kjellberg's "diss tracks" from
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. The alleged court order was ruled in favor of T-Series. It was allegedly stated that the complaint against Kjellberg claimed that his songs were "defamatory, disparaging, insulting, and offensive", and noted that comments on the videos were "abusive, vulgar, and also racist in nature." Access to the music videos on YouTube was later blocked in India. The two parties were reported to have come to a settlement later that July, although Kjellberg's videos remained blocked in India. On 28 April, Kjellberg uploaded a video entitled "Ending the Subscribe to Pewdiepie Meme" in which he asked his followers to refrain from using the phrase "Subscribe to PewDiePie", due to incidents such as the phrase being graffitied on a war memorial, and its mention by the Christchurch mosque shooter. While live streaming the following day, Kjellberg showed a plane flying over
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
with a banner attached saying "Subscribe to PewDiePie", and called it "a nice little wrap up" to the meme.


2019–2020: ''Minecraft'' series, milestones, and bans

The remainder of 2019 saw further controversies for PewDiePie. In early June, Kjellberg uploaded a video on YouTube sponsored by social media application Nimses. The app spiked in popularity after he promoted it on his YouTube channel. Controversy ensued when Nimses' location features and privacy settings led fans of Kjellberg and fellow YouTubers to believe that he was promoting a privacy-invasive app, with some fans suspecting the app of being a
pyramid scheme A pyramid scheme is a business model which, rather than earning money (or providing Return on investment, returns on investments) by sale of legitimate product (business), products to an end consumer, mainly earns money by recruiting new members ...
due to a referral program in the app that offered more in-application currency. The Pirate Party Germany criticized his promotion of Nimses, warning that Kjellberg was promoting a potentially harmful app to a large audience. Andrey Boborykin, the head of marketing and communications at Nimses, published a blog post denying the allegations that the app is privacy-invasive. Kjellberg responded to the allegations in a video, dismissing them as "rumors", and claimed that Nimses was no more invasive than other social media apps. Despite being surpassed by T-Series and the aforementioned controversy, Kjellberg continued to achieve high viewership on the site, mainly propelled by a return to consistent gaming uploads. On 21 June, Kjellberg launched ''Gaming Week'', where he focused on uploading Let's Play videos every day, for the first time in several years. Among the games played was ''
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...
'', which he was openly surprised by how much he enjoyed it. Kjellberg largely centered his videos around ''Minecraft'' in the following months, with the content featured in his ''Meme Review'' and ''LWIAY'' series also becoming focused on the game. Although he had played ''Minecraft'' early in his YouTube career, he had very rarely played it in the following years due to his reluctance to join the trend of ''Minecraft'' YouTubers, who he felt only played the game because of its popularity rather than for their enjoyment. This lean into ''Minecraft'' was largely successful for Kjellberg, who received a large increase in views, achieving over 570 million views during the month of July, the most received by his channel in a single month since at least October 2016. His daily number of new subscribers grew from 25,000 to 45,000 during that month. Despite this success, Kjellberg insisted that he played the game for his enjoyment, and did not want to become solely a "''Minecraft'' YouTuber", stating, "If ''Minecraft'' gets boring, I can just move on to other things." On 25 August, Kjellberg became the first individual YouTuber to surpass 100 million subscribers. His channel was the second overall to reach the milestone, after T-Series, who passed the mark earlier in the year.
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
tweeted a congratulatory post to note the occurrence, and awarded him a Red Diamond Play Button. In October, Kjellberg stated in a video that his YouTube content, as well as content related to him on other websites such as Reddit, had been blocked in China. He explained that this was due to his comments about the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, and an image of Chinese president
Xi Jinping Xi Jinping, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...
being compared to Winnie the Pooh shown in a previous video. In November, ''Business Insider'' reported Kjellberg as a client of Re6l, a Toronto-based
influencer A social media influencer, or simply influencer (also known as an online influencer), is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates. This is done by using direct audience intera ...
media and
ecommerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile comm ...
company. Toward the end of the year, shortly after being acknowledged as the most-viewed creator of the year with more than 4 billion views in 2019, Kjellberg announced that he would take a break from YouTube the following year and deleted his Twitter account because of his dissatisfaction with the site. Kjellberg's hiatus ultimately proved to be brief, lasting a little over a month during early 2020. Taking short breaks from creating online content proved to become a behavior he would repeat throughout the following years. In his first video uploaded following his brief hiatus, Kjellberg made jokes about the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
and spoke in mock-Chinese phrases. After receiving criticism for these jokes, Kjellberg uploaded another video, defending his previous jokes and making further jokes about COVID-19. Kjellberg signed an exclusive deal to stream on YouTube in May, as the platform was enrolling high-profile streamers to rival competitors like Twitch and Mixer. At the time of signing with YouTube, Kjellberg had amassed over 800,000 followers on DLive, but due to his deal with the former, and not having streamed on the latter in four months, ''
Tubefilter Tubefilter, Inc. is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California, that operates media businesses focusing on the online entertainment industry. It publishes Tubefilter News, a blog targeted at the fans, creators, producers, influenc ...
'' noted that it was unclear if Kjellberg was still affiliated with DLive. Kjellberg's DLive channel was eventually deactivated. In October, Kjellberg's fans began to suspect his channel was shadowbanned, after noticing it and his recent uploads failed to appear in YouTube's search results. YouTube responded to the shadowban allegations on Twitter, claiming that the reason for the problems was due to search results being influenced by YouTube's system somehow flagging his recent uploads, and that due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, YouTube was taking longer to review videos, including Kjellberg's. YouTube apologized for the situation and stated they were "working on fixing the issue."


2020–present: Soft retirement and move to Japan

In November 2020, Kjellberg uploaded a Q&A video, reflecting on his YouTube career. During the video, he expressed that he views himself as "retired" from YouTube, having felt so internally since earlier in the year. He continued to upload videos fairly frequently on the platform afterwards, albeit, inconsistently. He also "committed to posting more unstructured content, like vlogs." In January 2021, Kjellberg signed a distribution deal with Jellysmack, a content creation company. The deal entails Jellysmack optimizing and then distributing Kjellberg's content for a
Facebook Watch Facebook Watch (currently rebranding to Facebook Video) is a video on demand service operated by American company Meta Platforms (previously named Facebook, Inc.). The company announced the service in August 2017 and it was available to all U.S. ...
audience. Although now having his content released onto the Facebook platform, Kjellberg continued to debut his content on YouTube. On 14 February, Kjellberg uploaded a diss track titled "Coco" about
Cocomelon Cocomelon (, stylized as CoComelon) is a children's YouTube channel operated by Candle Media-owned Moonbug Entertainment. The channel specializes in 3D animation videos of traditional nursery rhymes and original children's songs. As of June 2 ...
, a kids-oriented channel which had been rising in subscribers for several years, and was growing by nearly two million subscribers per month. Kjellberg clarified that the children appearing in the music video were provided with a clean version of the lyrics to
mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...
to while they were being filmed, and that their parents allowed them to participate in the video. The video was later taken down by YouTube who claimed that it violated their policies on
harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and ...
and
child safety Child protection (also called child welfare) is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, abandonment, and neglect. It involves identifying signs of potential harm. This includes responding to allegations or suspicions ...
. Kjellberg stated he " idn'tactually care about Cocomelon" and did not want the pretend-rivalry with the channel to "get out of control", as his rivalry with T-Series had previously. In May 2022, Kjellberg and his wife Marzia moved from England to Japan. Much of his content following the move consisted of "vlogs about daily life around Tokyo." In September, Kjellberg explained the shift his upload philosophy underwent when he announced his "retirement" from the platform: he opted to share videos for fun, as he did when he first began uploading videos. On 14 November 2022,
MrBeast James Stephen "Jimmy" Donaldson (born May 7, 1998), commonly known by his online alias MrBeast, is an American YouTuber, media personality, and businessman. His YouTube videos, where he often hosts elaborate challenges and philanthropic effor ...
surpassed Kjellberg as the most-subscribed individual creator on YouTube. The two have been noted as contemporaries and friends, with MrBeast having previously supported the 'Subscribe to PewDiePie' campaign during Kjellberg's competition with T-Series. Previously, Kjellberg answered a viewer question relating to whether MrBeast would surpass his subscriber count, replying "He definitely will ... He definitely deserves it, I hope he does it." After years of inactivity, Kjellberg's Twitch account began streaming episodes of the Canadian sitcom ''
Trailer Park Boys ''Trailer Park Boys'' is a Canadian mockumentary television sitcom created by Mike Clattenburg that began airing in 2001 as a continuation of his 1999 film bearing the same name. The show follows the misadventures of a group of trailer park resi ...
'' in March 2023. This was part of a test by the distribution and monetization service CoPilot Media, as they were on the verge of rolling out "PewDiePie Infinity", "essentially an endless loop of jellbergs videos." On 9 May, Kjellberg's Twitch account received a ban despite only streaming this previously aired content. Kjellberg's Twitch account has received further temporary bans in July 2023 and October 2024, for ambiguous reasons. On 29 June 2023, Kjellberg announced he would be taking an indefinite hiatus from YouTube due to his imminent fatherhood. He would shortly thereafter return to making videos in August. In May 2024, Kjellberg expressed discontent with what he described as an "infestation" of YouTubers visiting Japan to create "obnoxious" content for attention and "hate clicks". In November, Kjellberg uploaded a video detailing his progress after drawing everyday for a year.


YouTube content


Style

Early in his career, Kjellberg's content mainly consisted of
Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...
videos. His commentaries of horror games made up his best-known content during this early stage, although he eventually expanded into other genres. Unlike conventional walkthroughs, Kjellberg devoted his Let's Play videos to communicating more personally with his audience. '' Variety'' detailed that Kjellberg "acts like he's spending time with a friend. He begins each video introducing himself in a high-pitched, goofy voice, drawing out the vowels of his YouTube moniker, then delves into the videos." Known for his idiosyncratic sense of humor, the nature of his video content has been described by various outlets as goofy, energetic, and obnoxious, yet genuine and unfiltered. Lev Grossman of ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' noted that "he's totally unpolished, but at the same time his timing is consistently spot-on," adding that "most of the critical literature about PewDiePie focuses on the bad language and crude physical humor–and admittedly there are a lot of both–and the fact that he is, at the end of the day, just a guy playing video games and yelling." Rob Walker of
Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
wrote Kjellberg's "chosen mode of sharing his critique happens to be ribald entertainment, an unmediated stream of blurted jokes, startled yelps, goofy voices, politically incorrect comments, and pretty much nonstop profanity." Occasionally, Kjellberg resorts to just gameplay, resulting in silent or emotional commentary; his playthrough of '' The Last of Us'' was detailed to leave the usually vocal gamer speechless at its ending. With his channel's growth, Kjellberg's content has become more diverse; in addition to traditional Let's Play videos, he has uploaded content including vlogs, comedy shorts, and formatted shows. Toward the end of the 2010s, he began uploading much reaction-style content, such as his late 2018 and early 2019 videos reacting to various compilations of
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
videos. Kjellberg has also uploaded music onto his channel, often accompanied by animation, fan art, or live footage. Oftentimes, music videos uploaded onto his channel are collaborative in nature, as he has worked with artists such as The Gregory Brothers (also known as Schmoyoho),
Boyinaband David Paul Brown (born 24 August 1987), known professionally as Boyinaband, is an English musician, songwriter, rapper, and YouTuber. Brown is known for his song "Don't Stay in School" and collaborations with other YouTubers such as iDubbbz, ...
, Roomie, and Party In Backyard.


Production and output

During the early portion of his YouTube career, Kjellberg did not hire any editor or outside assistance to help with his video output, stating he wanted "YouTube to be YouTube." While his early videos would simply feature raw footage, he later began to dedicate time to edit his videos. Swedish magazine ''Icon'' noted his use of the
Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing application developed by Adobe Inc. and is distributed as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. It is primarily used for producing high-quality videos across various industries. History Original A ...
editing software. On separate occasions, he later sought an editor and a production assistant to help with his content creation. Although now having an editor for his videos, in a 2017 video, he maintained that "I'm just a guy. It's literally just me. There's not a producer out there ..there's no writer, there's no camera guy." In July of that same year, Kjellberg commented that a couple of months prior, he had an office and a limited number of employees assisting him with his content creation. Kjellberg has been noted by both himself and media outlets as prolific on the platform, having uploaded videos with a high frequency. By early 2017, he had uploaded almost 3,500 videos to his channel, around 400 of which have been made private. As a result, Kjellberg has made videos and statements expressing his feelings of burnout from frequently creating content for the platform and its effect on his mental health. In March 2017, Kjellberg commented that his channel was running on a daily output, stating, " here'sa lot of challenges in doing daily content, ..but I still really, really love the daily challenge—the daily grind—of just being like, 'hey, I'm gonna make a video today, no matter what.' And sometimes it really works, and sometimes it doesn't."


Subscribers and viewership

Media writers have noted that Kjellberg's content has been largely built up "methodically," as opposed to him having risen to fame through a
viral video Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...
. At the same time, the growth of Kjellberg's channel has been described as rapid by various sources; Douglas Holt of the ''
Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. ''HBR'' is published six times a year ...
'' commented that "the power of crowdculture propelled jellbergto global fame and influence in record time." Many close to Kjellberg have described him as "steadfastly loyal to his YouTube audience," with one calling him "a little spectrumy" in this regard. By December 2011, Kjellberg's channel had around 60,000 subscribers, and on 9 May 2012, it reached 500,000 subscribers. In March 2012, Swedish newspaper ''
Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...
'' reported that Kjellberg had uploaded at least one video per day for the seven months preceding their report. Additionally, the publication noted that Kjellberg's channel accumulated 71 million total video views to that point and 25 million video views in February 2012 alone. The channel reached 1 million subscribers in July 2012, and 2 million subscribers in September. Throughout 2012 and 2013, Kjellberg's channel was one of the fastest-growing on YouTube, in terms of subscribers gained. In 2013, the channel grew from 3.5 million to just under 19 million subscribers, and by the end of 2013, it was gaining a new subscriber every 1.037 seconds. ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' reported that the channel gained more subscribers than any other channel in 2013. In June 2013, ''
Tubefilter Tubefilter, Inc. is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California, that operates media businesses focusing on the online entertainment industry. It publishes Tubefilter News, a blog targeted at the fans, creators, producers, influenc ...
'' began a monthly listing of the most viewed YouTube channels. In 2013, Kjellberg was consistently toward the top of this listing, ranking #1 in June, July, August, October, and December of that year. * * * * Analyzing ''Tubefilter''s data, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' reported that Kjellberg's channel earned 1.3 billion video views in the second half of 2013. The channel had two of the ten most-viewed gaming videos in 2013: the sixth-part of his '' Mad Father'' Let's Play was the third-most viewed of the year, earning 27 million views, and an entry in his ''Funny Gaming Montage'' series ranked as the eight-most viewed gaming video of 2013. On 18 February 2013, Kjellberg's channel reached 5 million subscribers, and in April, he was covered in ''The New York Times'' after surpassing 6 million subscribers. Many of Kjellberg's most-viewed videos are highlight compilations of his Let's Play videos. One of these compilations, "A Funny Montage", was uploaded in June 2013, and spent a considerable amount of time as Kjellberg's most-viewed, with publications citing it as such through 2018. In July 2013, he overtook Jenna Marbles to become the second-most-subscribed YouTube user, and reached 10 million subscribers on 9 July. Kjellberg's subscriber count surpassed that of the leading channel, Smosh, on 15 August 2013. On 31 October 2013, his channel became the first to reach 15 million subscribers. Shortly after, PewDiePie was surpassed by YouTube's Spotlight channel in subscribers. After jostling for the top position during the next month, PewDiePie's channel took firm hold of the most-subscribed title on 23 December. * * * * On 9 January 2014, the channel reached the 20 million subscriber milestone. In 2014, Kjellberg's channel was the most-viewed in January, and then for seven consecutive months from March to September.* * In August 2014, ''Tubefilter'' reported that the channel surpassed the
Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, businesswoman, and actress. One of the List of music artists by net worth, wealthiest musicians in the world, List of awards and nominations received by Rihanna, her vario ...
VEVO Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...
channel on 19 July as the most-viewed on YouTube at around 5.2 billion video views. Data from Social Blade, however, shows that the channel still had less video views than the emimusic channel. According to their data, the channel surpassed emimusic on 29 December 2014, at over 7.2 billion views, to become the most-viewed channel on the website. According to ''Tubefilter'' and ''The Guardian'', the channel amassed nearly 14 million new subscribers and around 4.1 billion video views in 2014; both figures were higher than any other user. The latter figure was a reported 81% increase from the channel's video views in 2013; the channel was the most viewed in that year, as well. During July 2015, his videos were documented to receive over 300 million views per month. It eclipsed the 10 billion video view milestone on 6 September 2015, becoming the first channel to do so. At that time, "A Funny Montage" (then-titled "Funny Montage #1") was Kjellberg's most-viewed video, with approximately 68.8 million views; a partial reason it accumulated many views was due to its status as the PewDiePie channel trailer. In 2016, the channel experienced decreased viewership, which was similarly experienced by other content creators across the platform, due to changes in YouTube's algorithm. On 8 December, it reached 50 million subscribers, becoming the first YouTube channel to do so. Online campaigns to "subscribe to PewDiePie" greatly assisted Kjellberg's subscriber growth; his channel gained 6.62 million subscribers in December 2018 alone, compared to the 7 million subscribers gained in all of 2017. Renewed interest in Kjellberg's videos due to his subscriber competition with T-Series resulted in his channel earning over 500 million video views in December 2018, which was then the channel's single-highest monthly view count. After briefly gaining the title several times in early 2019, on 27 March, T-Series surpassed Kjellberg in subscribers to become the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. The day after "
Congratulations Congratulations may refer to: Film and television * Congratulations (2010 film), an Egyptian film * Congratulations (2023 film), a Gujarati drama film *'' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'', 2005 television programme ...
" was uploaded, Kjellberg temporarily regained his lead over T-Series as the most subscribed channel. In July 2019, in large part due to Kjellberg's ''Minecraft'' gameplay videos, his channel surged in video views. ''The Verge'' noted that it was Kjellberg's most successful month in years, in terms of viewership. Data from Social Blade shows the channel received 573 million video views, a then-single-month record amount of views for Kjellberg's channel. * Kjellberg was the most-viewed creator of 2019, with his channel receiving over 4 billion views during the year. Along with T-Series, the PewDiePie channel is one of only two on YouTube to receive all five tiers of
YouTube Creator Awards YouTube Creator Awards, commonly known as YouTube Play Buttons or YouTube Plaques, are a series of awards from the American video platform YouTube that aim to recognize its most popular channels. They are based on a channel's subscriber coun ...
: Silver, Gold, Diamond, Custom, and Red Diamond Creator. These awards are earned upon surpassing the 100,000; 1 million; 10 million; 50 million; and 100 million subscriber milestones, respectively. Kjellberg nicknamed his Custom Creator Award the Ruby Play Button, which he received in 2016. In 2019, Kjellberg's channel became the second overall, and the first run by an individual creator, to receive the Red Diamond Creator Award. His YouTube channel is one of the top 10 most subscribed YouTube channels as of 2024.


Critical reception

Kjellberg's YouTube content has been met with mixed critical reception. Media outlets write that he is one of the most popular creators online, despite being involved in multiple media controversies. His content has been described by various outlets as goofy, energetic, and filled with profanity, and his on-camera personality has been generally received as genuine, unfiltered, and self-aware by various outlets. Kjellberg's content has also been received negatively by the media, with detractors describing it as "obnoxious" and often reporting his popularity as an "inexplicable phenomenon". Rob Walker of ''
Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
'' has commented positively on Kjellberg's intelligence, stating Kjellberg is "clearly" smart based on when he speaks directly to his audience. Other outlets, such as ''Time'' and ''The Verge'', have written similar sentiments, describing Kjellberg as "articulate" and "self conscious", respectively. In contrast, Andrew Wallenstein of ''Variety'' heavily criticised Kjellberg, following his channel becoming the most-subscribed on YouTube, describing his videos as "aggressive stupidity" and "psychobabble." Lev Grossman of ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' noted that "he's totally unpolished, but at the same time his timing is consistently spot-on," adding that "most of the critical literature about PewDiePie focuses on the bad language and crude physical humor–and admittedly there are a lot of both–and the fact that he is, at the end of the day, just a guy playing video games and yelling." Walker wrote Kjellberg's "chosen mode of sharing his critique happens to be ribald entertainment, an unmediated stream of blurted jokes, startled yelps, goofy voices, politically incorrect comments, and pretty much nonstop profanity." Justin Charity of '' The Ringer'' stated, "PewDiePie isn't a comedian in any conventional sense," but described his "hosting style sloopy and irreverent in the extreme: He's a little bit stand-up, a little bit shock jock, a little bit
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, mu ...
bottom-feeder." In regards to his early Let's Play content, Swedish columnist Lars Lindstrom commented positively, stating that "Felix Kjellberg avinga comic talent is indisputable. It is both amazingly awful and amazingly funny when a father bikes around with his son in the game '' Happy Wheels'' and both get crushed and bloody again and again and PewDiePie improvises absurd comments as the game continues. The secret is that he loves to play these games and that he has fun doing it." As his content went through changes in style in 2016, Patricia Hernandez of ''Kotaku'' wrote, "the PewDiePie of 2016 can still be immature, sure, but ..a defining aspect of recent PewDiePie videos is existential angst, as he describes the bleak reality of making content for a machine he cannot fully control or understand." Following the controversy regarding alleged antisemitic content in his videos, many media publications both in and outside of the gaming and tech industries severely criticised Kjellberg's content. These outlets suggested that Kjellberg's content contained and promoted fascist, white supremacist, and
alt-right The alt-right (abbreviated from alternative right) is a Far-right politics, far-right, White nationalism, white nationalist movement. A largely Internet activism, online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late ...
ideologies. A ''
Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...
'' article covering the controversy referred to him as a "poster boy for white supremacists". Charity opined that Kjellberg's "occasional, reactionary irreverence has become a core component of his appeal. Likewise, for critics and fans who value inclusivity — and among outside observers who view jellbergs conduct as inexplicably frequent in the news —  jellbergrepresents all that is wrong and alienating about games culture."


Censorship

In April 2019, "
Congratulations Congratulations may refer to: Film and television * Congratulations (2010 film), an Egyptian film * Congratulations (2023 film), a Gujarati drama film *'' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'', 2005 television programme ...
" and " Bitch Lasagna" were banned in India when the
Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi ( Hindustani: दिल्ली उच्च न्यायालय; ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') is the high court in Delhi, India. It was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966. ...
granted an injunction in favor of T-Series. The complaint against Kjellberg allegedly stated that his songs were "defamatory, disparaging, insulting, and offensive," and noted that comments on the videos were "abusive, vulgar, and also racist in nature." Although both parties came to a settlement later in the year, Kjellberg's videos remain blocked in India. On 16 October 2019, Kjellberg uploaded an episode of his ''Meme Review'' series, in which he reacted to memes about the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. The video also featured his commentary on the China–NBA issue and the
Blitzchung controversy In October 2019, United States, American video game developer Blizzard Entertainment punished Ng Wai Chung () (known as Blitzchung), a Hong Kong esports player of the online video game ''Hearthstone (video game), Hearthstone'', for voicing his ...
, as well as memes comparing
Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
Xi Jinping Xi Jinping, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...
to
Winnie-the-Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by ...
. As a result, Kjellberg's channel and content were reportedly censored in China. The
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
wrote that instead of a complete ban, only "some content related to the YouTuber has indeed been made inaccessible online," and that "there is no evidence to suggest this was done on the orders of the government." The BBC suggested that
Baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China's search engine market (via Baidu Search), and provides a wide variety of o ...
seemingly removed PewDiePie-related messages on a forum out of caution, but that "a aidusearch for his name still returns more than eight million results." ''Vox'' wrote that "access to reposted PewDiePie videos and music" appeared to be available to some regional users. According to ''Business Insider'', "For years, critics of Pewds have been campaigning for YouTube to bar him from the platform to no avail."


Public image and influence

Since breaking through on YouTube with his
Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...
-styled videos, Kjellberg has emerged as one of the most noted, influential, and controversial online personalities. He has also been cited by various publications as largely influential for digital content creation and Internet culture, particularly relating to video gaming subcultures. ''
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...
'' noted that Kjellberg was cast by media reports as a "figurehead" of YouTubers, and for being nearly synonymous with gaming YouTubers in general. In 2016, Douglas Holt of ''
Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. ''HBR'' is published six times a year ...
'' wrote of Kjellberg as "YouTube's greatest success", and regarded him, about gaming subcultures, "the star of this digital art world—just as
Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved notoriety in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti ...
and
Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...
had done in urban art worlds back in the analog days". Lev Grossman of ''Time'' wrote that Kjellberg dominated "an entire medium single-handed," and pioneered "a new form of fame not controlled or manufactured by a studio or a network." Kjellberg has stated that he dislikes being called "famous". In a 2014 interview with ''The Wall Street Journal'', he called the influence he has "kind of scary". In a ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' article, Kjellberg admitted to being shocked by his fame; he recalled a gaming event near his hometown, stating "I remember there were five security guards yelling at a crowd to back up – it was out of control. It was shocking to find myself in that situation, where I was that celebrity person." In a 2019 interview with the ''New York Times'', Kjellberg commented on his influence stating, "it's weird for me to be in this position because I don't really want to be in this position." He went on to express feelings of nostalgia for his early YouTube career, when he had fewer subscribers, and admitted to periodically thinking about giving up the platform altogether. Colleagues and media have referred to Kjellberg as "normally press shy", "quiet", and "much more reserved in real life." After moving to Japan, Kjellberg expressed enjoying a lack of recognition while in public.


As a YouTube personality


After becoming the most-subscribed

In September 2014, Rob Walker of ''
Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
'' called Kjellberg's popularity "insane", writing that it "strikes me as considerably more curious – I mean, you know who
Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, businesswoman, and actress. One of the List of music artists by net worth, wealthiest musicians in the world, List of awards and nominations received by Rihanna, her vario ...
is, but would you recognize this kid if he was standing in line behind you at the bank?" Walker, among other reporters, has questioned and analysed reasons for his popularity. Walker commented on Kjellberg's interaction with his audience, writing, "While he can be raucous and crude, it always comes across as genuine. He constantly addresses his audience as a bunch of peer-like friends, as opposed to distant, genuflecting fans. He's certainly more than willing to make fun of himself in the process." In 2015, Ross Miller of ''The Verge'' wrote, "Love it or hate it, his success – like so many other YouTube personalities – isn't just in playing games but actually connecting and talking directly to an audience. No agent, press release, or any other intermediary. He just hit record." Writing about and analyzing Kjellberg's career, Kevin Roose of ''The New York Times'' wrote that during the period in which Kjellberg had the most-subscribed channel but prior to his alleged antisemitism controversy, " jellbergwas not just the YouTuber with the biggest channel. To many Inner YouTubers, he represented the values of the platform — lo-fi, authentic, defiantly weird."


Following media controversies

In the wake of the ''Wall Street Journal'' controversy, John Herman of ''The New York Times'' commented that " jellbergbemoaned ouTube'sstructure and the way it had changed; he balked at its limits and took joy in causing offense and flouting rules. Over time, he grew into an unlikely, disorienting, and insistently unserious political identity: He became YouTube's very own
populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...
reactionary." YouTube's chief business officer Robert Kyncl stated Kjellberg "underestimated the responsibility he had as the platform's most popular ambassador, even if he himself is not a hateful person." In 2018, Paul MacInnes of ''The Guardian'' wrote, "Given the scale of his audience and his influence, not much is written about PewDiePie. Tech sites like ''The Verge'' and ''
Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...
'' report on him and often critique him severely. But in the mainstream media, his name has broken through only either as a result of novelty or scandal," and noted that his content was rarely written about. Touching on Kjellberg's alleged antisemitic controversy, MacInnes also added that he "is funny, intelligent, innovative and highly charismatic ..to call him an alt-right agitator would perhaps be unfair as he has never publicly identified with the proto-fascist movement. But he shares much of their culture and amplifies it across the world. People should pay PewDiePie more attention." Max Read of '' Intelligencer'' retrospectively opined on Kjellberg's alleged antisemitic controversy, commenting that "Kjellberg, for his part, is seen as a standard-bearer for the oppressed YouTuber subject to the whims of YouTube's corporate masters — a symbol of the ongoing tension between YouTube and the culture that it spawned," and added that "he, through fights over his behavior and his position within the YouTube space, is something like a gateway drug to bigger political battles over free speech, the role of media, and diversity." Shortly prior to his 2020 hiatus, Erin Nyren of ''Variety'' commented that Kjellberg's "popularity continues unabated in spite of—or perhaps because of—the fact that he has been the subject of ongoing controversies."


Media lists and rankings

Kjellberg's influence has ranked highly on various lists. Subtitled as the "King of YouTube" on ''The Verge''s 2014 "Verge 50" list—the outlet's "definitive list of the most interesting people building the future." On his listing's blurb, ''The Verge'' wrote that "Kjellberg's real talent is finding the human within games. He's just a normal person, finding the authentic in games for an audience that are desperate for a little more humanity." In 2015, Kjellberg was included on ''Time'''s list of the 30 most influential people on the Internet, with the publication writing that his channel "broadcasts some of the most-watched programs in pop culture." Later in 2015, Kjellberg was featured on the cover of ''Variety''s "Famechangers" issue, with the magazine ranking him as the "#1 Famechanger", or "those whose influence stands head and shoulders above the rest". The following year, ''Time'' included him on their ''
Time 100 ''Time'' 100 is a list of the top 100 most influential people, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, the list is now a highly ...
'' list, with ''
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
'' co-creator
Trey Parker Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, and musician. He is best known for co-creating ''South Park'' (1997) and '' The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative part ...
writing in his entry, "I know it might seem weird, especially to those of us from an older generation, that people would spend so much time watching someone else play video games ..But I choose to see it as the birth of a new art form. And I don't think anyone should underestimate its most powerful artist." ''Forbes'' wrote that " jellberg'soverall brand suffered earlier this year
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when he included antisemitic content in nine of his videos," when citing their reason for not ranking him as the top gaming influence. ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' still included Kjellberg in the gaming category of their June 2017 "Top Influencers" list. In September 2019, ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'' ranked him first on their list of the UK's 100 most influential people online.


Channel demographics

Kjellberg's channel appeals strongly to younger viewers, a group Google refers to as "Generation C" for their habits of "creation, curation, connection and community". This demographic has been more commonly referred to as
Generation Z Generation Z (often shortened to Gen Z), also known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2 ...
by researchers and popular media. In a 2017 video, Kjellberg shared a screenshot of data provided by YouTube regarding his channel statistics, which suggested his largest demographic was among the 18–24 age group, followed by the 25–34 age group. Surveys conducted throughout the 2010s highlighted that favorable opinions of Kjellberg, as well as his name recognition and online influence within these age ranges, was comparable to that of mainstream figures such as
Jennifer Lawrence Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress and producer. She is known for starring in both action film franchises and independent dramas, and her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide. The List of high ...
,
Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is recognized for his multi-genre musical performances. He was discovered by record executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and subsequently brought to the U ...
, and
LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. ( ; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and ...
. ''The New York Times'' published results of an online reader poll the publication held, showing that only 17% of their digital readers correctly identified Kjellberg after seeing an image of him; the outlet wrote that the poll's results "probably reflect the fact that ''Times'' readers are older than a representative sample of Americans, citing that "in 2015, the median digital ''Times'' subscriber was 54 years old." In 2016, Maker Studios' international chief content officer was cited in ''The Guardian'' as comparing "the average parent's bafflement at their teenage children's passion for stars like PewDiePie, KSI, and
Zoella Zoë Elizabeth Sugg (born 28 March 1990), also known by her online name Zoella, is an English media personality, entrepreneur and author. She began her career as a YouTuber in 2009 and has since amassed over 10 million subscribers. Her debut ...
to past generations' inability to comprehend
punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...
or
gangsta rap Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called reality rap, is a subgenre of rap music that conveys the culture, values, and experiences of urban gangs and street hustlers, frequently discussing unpleasant realities of the world in general th ...
." Studies of the gaming community on YouTube have shown that 95% of video game players engage in watching online videos related to gaming, which has been linked to being an important reason for Kjellberg's popularity.


Fan base

''
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
'' noted in 2015 that Kjellberg typically performed a " Brofist" gesture at the end of his videos, and often referred to his fan base as the "Bro Army", addressing his audience as "bros". Likewise, media outlets also adopted the name when referring to Kjellberg's fan base. Later in his YouTube career, Kjellberg stopped using the term "Bro Army", and began to refer to his audience as "Squad Fam", "9 year olds", and later "19 year olds", in his videos. The fan base has been subject to criticism; in July 2018, ''
Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...
'' published an article, referring to Kjellberg's fan base as "toxic", stating that "it's not just that they've stuck with the Swedish gamer/alleged comedian as he peppered his videos with racial slurs, rape jokes, antisemitism, and homophobia for nearly a decade (though that's bad enough). It's also that they insist that PewDiePie somehow isn't being hateful at all." At the 2013 Social Star Awards in Singapore, Kjellberg greeted his fans personally despite security warning him against doing so. Kjellberg also mentioned this event to ''Rolling Stone'', stating, "I didn't even understand they were screaming for me at first." Kjellberg has commented on fans from Malaysia and Singapore; during a trip to
Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...
in 2016, fans entered his hotel to search for him, which he expressed annoyance with. In a 2019 vlog, Kjellberg expressed that fans in Malaysia and Singapore can be "very hectic and scream-ish and crazy, and they lose their minds when they see you." He later apologized to fans from the two countries, stating that seeing the effect he had "on fans back then uring his 2013 trip to Singaporewas cool" and that he would "be lying" if he claimed to hate this initial experience with fans, although added that he has grown to not enjoy being treated as more than a person. ''Business Insider Singapore'' reported that some fans took offense to Kjellberg's comments, but that "most netizens accepted the YouTuber's apology and admitted that fans had gone overboard in invading his privacy." Relating to his responsibility to his audience, Kjellberg has stated, "many people see me as a friend they can chill with for 15 minutes a day," adding, "The loneliness in front of the computer screens brings us together. But I never set out to be a role model; I just want to invite them to come over to my place." Correlating with this note, his audience has been reported to provide positive remarks about him; some of his viewers created and contributed to a thread expressing that he has made them happier and feel better about themselves. Conversely, during an informal Twitter poll conducted by one ''Kotaku'' reporter, respondents described him as "annoying" and an "obnoxious waste of time." Additionally, ''Rolling Stone'' has documented the existence of several Reddit threads dedicated to sharing disparaging views of Kjellberg.


Influence on video games

Kjellberg has been noted to support video games from indie developers, often having played through such titles in his videos. His commentaries have had a positive effect on sales of indie games, with ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' writing that "gamemakers have observed a kind of Oprah effect." The developers of the indie game '' McPixel'' stated, "The largest force driving attention to ''McPixel'' at that time were 'Let's Play' videos. Mostly by Jesse Cox and PewDiePie." Kjellberg has also been confirmed to have driven the popularity of ''
Yandere Simulator ''Yandere Simulator'' is an upcoming stealth action video game for Windows. The story follows obsessively lovesick schoolgirl Ayano Aishi, nicknamed " Yandere- chan", who takes it upon herself to eliminate (through either violent or non-viole ...
'' during that game's development, and positively influenced the sales of '' Slender: The Eight Pages'' and '' Goat Simulator''. Although games being featured on Kjellberg's channel have reportedly contributed to their commercial success, he has stated, "I just want to play the games, not influence sales." In 2019, Kjellberg's ''Minecraft'' videos led a surge of interest towards the game, which saw an increase in players. It also registered the largest-trending score on YouTube since January 2017 and surpassed '' Fortnite'' as the most-searched game on YouTube, with the searches for ''Minecraft'' on Google almost doubling since previous months. Video game media outlets, such as ''Polygon'' and ''The Verge'', largely credited this newfound success to Kjellberg, with ''The Verge'' suggesting that the surge "proves that the 'PewDiePie Effect' is still real" (about the Oprah effect-like success enjoyed by games Kjellberg has played). Several other popular YouTubers followed suit by focusing on ''Minecraft'' content. ''Polygon'' also noted that in the wake of Kjellberg's focus on ''Minecraft'', YouTubers focused on ''Fortnite'' began to shift towards making ''Minecraft'' videos instead. Kjellberg, along with characters from '' Amnesia: The Dark Descent'', were referred to by a ''McPixel'' level designed in his honour. Additionally, in the video game '' Surgeon Simulator 2013'', the Alien Surgery stage features an organ called "Pewdsball" in honour of Kjellberg. Kjellberg agreed to allow the developers of ''Surgeon Simulator 2013'' to use his likeness in ''GOTY IDST'', a showering simulation video game. Kjellberg was also included as an NPC in the indie game ''Party Hard'', and had a voice acting role in '' Pinstripe'', a puzzle adventure game.


Income

In March 2014, Kjellberg made an estimated $140,000–$1.4 million from YouTube revenue, according to Social Blade. In June 2014, ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' reported that Kjellberg earned $4 million in 2013; Kjellberg confirmed on Reddit that the figures were somewhat close to what he actually earned. In July 2015, the Swedish newspaper ''
Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...
'' reported that Kjellberg's production company, PewDie Productions AB, reported earnings of 63.7 million SEK ($7.5 million) in 2014. In 2015, outlets described Kjellberg's income as sizeable, and even "remarkable"; Kjellberg appeared at the top of ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' October 2015 list of the richest YouTube stars with a reported $12 million earned in 2015. In December 2016, ''Forbes'' named Kjellberg as the highest-earning YouTuber with his annual income reaching $15 million. This was up 20% from 2015, largely due to his
YouTube Red YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals ...
series '' Scare PewDiePie'' and his book '' This Book Loves You'', which sold over 112,000 copies according to Nielsen Bookscan. Kjellberg relies on external revenue sources rather than YouTube's ad model, which he has stated is common for most YouTube content creators; Kjellberg commented that YouTube's ad revenue model is inefficient, unstable, and insecure. According to ''Forbes'', Kjellberg's income dropped to $12 million in 2017, which made him the sixth highest-paid YouTuber during that year. ''Forbes'' commented that Kjellberg's income would have been higher had he avoided the pushback from advertisers resulting from the controversies surrounding his videos in 2017. Extensive media coverage on his earnings has been met with frustration by Kjellberg, who has stated that he is "tired of talking about how much e makes, and suggested that media outlets should rather report on the money he raised for charity. ''The Guardian'' commented that the reason the media was so captivated by Kjellberg's earnings is that the topic "offers a rare insight into the money being made at the top end of YouTube stardom," adding "it's very rare for any YouTube creator to talk about their earnings publicly, not least because YouTube itself does not encourage it."


Sponsorships

Beginning in April 2014 and spanning into August, Kjellberg, along with his then-girlfriend Marzia, began a marketing campaign for the Legendary Pictures film ''
As Above, So Below "As above, so below" is a popular modern paraphrase of the second verse of the ''Emerald Tablet,'' a short Hermetica, Hermetic text which first appeared in an Arabic source from the late eighth or early ninth century. The paraphrase is based on ...
''. Kjellberg's videos for the marketing campaign included a miniseries featuring him participating in the "Catacombs Challenge". The challenge involved Kjellberg searching for three keys in the catacombs to open a container holding "the
Philosopher's stone The philosopher's stone is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold or silver; it was also known as "the tincture" and "the powder". Alchemists additionally believed that it could be used to mak ...
". The couple's videos were able to earn nearly 20 million views. Maker Studios, which both Kjellberg and Marzia were represented by, brokered the ad deal between the two and Legendary Pictures. In January 2015,
Mountain Dew Mountain Dew, stylized as Mtn Dew in some countries and colloquially known as Dew in some areas, is a soft drink brand owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage Bottler (company), bottlers Barney and A ...
partnered with Kjellberg to launch a
fan fiction Fan fiction or fanfiction, also known as fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF, is fiction typically written in an amateur capacity by fans as a form of fan labor, unauthorized by, but based on, an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted ...
contest, in which winning fan fiction will be animated into video formats and then uploaded onto his channel. While he entered partnerships early in his YouTube career, Kjellberg maintained that he worked with few brands and conducted few promotions. He stated he felt he made enough money from YouTube and found endorsing too many brands to be disrespectful to his fans. On this topic, Kjellberg has expressed disappointment when a sizable portion of people misinterpret his intentions; he stated, "if I mention on Twitter that I find this or that
Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
project cool, people immediately start to ask what economical interests I might have in it." Eventually, Kjellberg began to work with more brands, stating that he wanted to have a genuine relationship with brands and added he was lucky to not be dependent on working with them to support his career. In January 2019, Kjellberg announced a partnership with energy drink company G Fuel.


Other ventures


Video games, authorship, and fashion design

On 24 September 2015, Kjellberg released his own video game, '' PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist'', on
iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
and Android. The game was developed by Canadian game developer Outerminds in collaboration with Kjellberg. On 29 September 2016, he released another game developed by Outerminds, '' PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator''. It was released as a free app on iOS and Android devices and reached the number one spot on the App Store within a few days of its release. On 31 October 2017, former '' Goat Simulator'' developer and lead designer Armin Ibrisagic announced his partnership with Kjellberg for his video game ''Animal Super Squad''. Kjellberg helped Ibrisagic with the core concept of the game and provided him with feedback and creative direction. In 2019, Kjellberg released two more video games: ''PewDiePie's Pixelings'' on 15 November and ''Poopdie'' on 12 December. The latter game was rejected from the App Store due to its "crude imagery and sound effects which may disgust users", but is available on Android.
Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media company, media Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a Mergers and acquisitions, mer ...
's Razorbill imprint released Kjellberg's '' This Book Loves You'', a parody of
self-help book A self-help book is one that is written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. The books take their name from ''Self-Help'', an 1859 best-seller by Samuel Smiles, but are also known and classified under "self-i ...
s, on 20 October 2015. The book is a collection of anti-proverbs paired with visuals. It was number-one on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list for two weeks in the Young Adult Paperback category. Kjellberg and his wife Marzia launched Tsuki, a unisex clothing brand which they announced in a YouTube video.


Appearances in other media

Aside from his own YouTube channel, Kjellberg has made appearances in the videos of other YouTube creators. In April 2013, he made a cameo in an episode of ''
Epic Rap Battles of History ''Epic Rap Battles of History'' (ERB) is a YouTube web series and music project created by Peter "Nice Peter" Shukoff and Lloyd "EpicLLOYD" Ahlquist. The series pits historical and pop culture figures against one another in a rap battle format ...
'', portraying
Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; ; born January 27, 1948) is a Latvian and American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male ...
. In July 2013, he starred alongside Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox of Smosh, as well as Jenna Marbles, as guest judges on the second season of ''
Internet Icon ''Internet Icon'' is an online video-making talent competition (described as "''American Idol''-esque") that premiered on the YOMYOMF YouTube channel on June 12, 2012. The show was a competition between groups to see who can be "the next internet ...
''. Kjellberg also appeared in YouTube's annual year-end ''Rewind'' series each year from 2013 to 2016; he once again appeared in ''YouTube Rewind'' in 2019. On 3 June 2014,
Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio Aktiebolag, AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio programming, radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a television ...
announced that Kjellberg was chosen to host his own episode of the Swedish radio show '' Sommar i P1''. Due to his international popularity, the episode was recorded in both Swedish and English. The Swedish version was broadcast on 9 August 2014 on Sveriges Radio P1, and when the broadcast started the English version was published online. The link to the Swedish version of the broadcast was shared over 3,500 times, and the link to the English version was shared about 49,000 times. In December 2014, Kjellberg guest-starred in two episodes of the 18th season of ''
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
.'' The two episodes served as a two-part season finale. The first part, titled " #REHASH" aired on 3 December, while the second part, titled " #HappyHolograms", aired on 10 December. In the episodes, he parodied himself and other Let's Play commentators, providing commentary over ''
Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-of ...
'' gameplay in an overly expressive way. In July 2015, Kjellberg was announced as a voice actor in the
Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...
fantasy series, '' Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures''. In October of the same year, he appeared as a guest on ''
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night news satire, news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Stephen Colbert, Spartin ...
,'' where Colbert referred to him as "Emperor of the Internet". In February 2016, he appeared on '' Conan'', playing '' Far Cry Primal'' as part of the show's Clueless Gamer segment. In 2019, he was a guest on the ''Cold Ones'' YouTube podcast.


Philanthropy

Kjellberg's popularity has allowed him to garner support for fundraising drives. In February 2012, Kjellberg ran for King of the Web, an online contest. He lost the overall title, but still became the "Gaming King of the Web" for the 1–15 February 2012 voting period. During the following voting period, Kjellberg won and donated his cash winnings to the
World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the ...
. He has raised money for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and began a "Water Campaign" charity, where his fans could donate money to Charity: Water, in celebration of reaching ten million subscribers. Kjellberg contributed one dollar to the charity for every 500 views the video announcing the campaign accumulated, up to a maximum of $10,000. Kjellberg had the stated goal of raising US$, but at the end of the drive, the amount raised was $. Kjellberg organized another charity drive for Charity: Water in February 2016. The drive raised $, surpassing a $100,000 goal. In celebration of reaching 25 million subscribers in June 2014, Kjellberg announced another charity drive for
Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...
. It raised over $630,000, surpassing a $250,000 goal. In an interview with the Swedish magazine ''Icon'', he has expressed a desire to continue these drives as time goes on, and also credited
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
and
Hank Green William Henry Green II (born May 5, 1980) is an American YouTuber, science communicator, novelist, Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian, and entrepreneur. He produces the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers with his older brother, author John Green, a ...
as two individuals who gave him the idea of making unique videos for charity. These videos are purchased by game manufacturers and advertisers, for prices ranging up to $50,000. In December 2016, he hosted ''Cringemas'', a livestream held across two days (9 and 10 December, both at around 6 pm–10 pm GMT), with other Revelmode creators. During the livestream, they helped raise money for RED, a charity committed to helping eliminate HIV/AIDS in Africa. After the first day, the fundraiser raised over $200,000, after YouTube doubled their goal of $100,000, and at the end of the livestream, they had raised a total of over $1.3 million with help from the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the third largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $ ...
. On 3 December 2018, Kjellberg announced that he had started a fundraiser on
GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...
for Child Rights and You (CRY) to help Indian children, partially in response to racist comments left on his videos directed toward Indians. Kjellberg also hosted a livestream on 4 December, donating all of its proceeds to CRY. He raised over $200,000. On 21 July 2019, Kjellberg started a fundraiser on GoFundMe with American actor
Jack Black Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for roles in family and comedy films, in addition to his voice work in animated films. His awards include a Children's and Family Emmy ...
for
National Alliance on Mental Illness The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a United States–based nonprofit organization originally founded as a grassroots group by family members of people diagnosed with mental illness. NAMI identifies its mission as "providing advoca ...
(NAMI), in the wake of the suicide of the internet personality Etika in June 2019. Kjellberg and Jack Black streamed themselves playing ''Minecraft'' together to raise money for their fundraiser. Kjellberg donated $10,000 to his fundraiser and managed to raise over $30,000 for NAMI. Kjellberg has previously spoken on the topic of mental health, including his struggles with his own, and as part of the UK's Mental Health Awareness Week in 2017, he highlighted various resources to help one's mental health in a video. In celebration of receiving his 100 million subscribers Play Button in September 2019, Kjellberg announced in a video that he was donating $50,000 to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an international Jewish non-governmental organisation. Part of Kjellberg's fanbase criticized his decision, citing controversial actions and stances of the ADL. ''Kotaku'' and ''
Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...
'' praised Kjellberg's donation and were critical of the portion of Kjellberg's fanbase who opposed the donation. Two days after his initial announcement, Kjellberg announced in another video that he had decided to withdraw his donation. He expressed that he was advised to donate to the ADL, and did not hand-pick an organization that he was passionate about, as he had done with previous donations. Additionally, he confirmed that he would still make a $50,000 donation to an organization at some point in the future, but after undergoing his usual process to select a suitable one. On 31 October 2019, Kjellberg donated $69,420 to Team Trees, a fundraising drive taking action against
deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
by pledging to plant one tree for every dollar donated. The donation number is a comedic
in-joke An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke with humour that is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are ''in'' a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest ...
combining numbers from
internet culture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...
: 69 and 420. In early June 2020, Kjellberg raised more than $116,000 for the
Sentencing Project The Sentencing Project is a Washington, D.C.–based research and advocacy centre working for decarceration in the United States and seeking to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The organisation produces nonpartisan ...
, victims of
police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...
, and for small businesses affected by
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
demonstrators looting and rioting after the
murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...
. Kjellberg pledged to donate money earned from his YouTube membership to various charities every month. By 2021, Kjellberg raised over $1 million to charities such as Red Nose Day, Movember, Papyrus, Blue Ocean Foundation, Save the Children Lebanon, and Winston's Wish.


Personal life

Kjellberg married his long-term Italian girlfriend Marzia Bisognin on 19 August 2019. The couple have one son, born 11 July 2023. Kjellberg and Bisognin were introduced to each other through a friend of Bisognin's in 2011, and after establishing an online relationship, Kjellberg flew to Italy to meet her. The pair shuffled between Sweden and Italy, before settling in
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
, England. Kjellberg explained that they moved to the UK in July 2013 for preference to live close to the sea and for better Internet connectivity. He said he enjoyed the general anonymity that living in Brighton granted him. A 2018 trip to Japan inspired Kjellberg to move to the country. Announcing their intention to permanently move there, Kjellberg and his wife bought a home in Japan in 2019. The home was burgled in late 2019, and the couple's move was delayed due to Japan restricting relocation regulations in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. In May 2022, Kjellberg and his wife moved to their home in Japan with a 5-year business visa. Regarding his political beliefs, Kjellberg stated in October 2019 that he is "more
apolitical Apoliticism is apathy or antipathy towards all political affiliations. A person may be described as apolitical if they are uninterested or uninvolved in politics. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased p ...
than anything", and that he was "somewhere in between" left-wing and right-wing. In June 2014, Kjellberg stated that he is an agnostic atheist. Kjellberg has frequently mentioned in videos that he adheres to a pescetarian diet for various reasons. To deal with stress stemming from his content creation workload, Kjellberg developed a daily whiskey-drinking habit. During a ''Cold Ones'' podcast interview in July 2019, Kjellberg shared that a book on
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
inspired him to drop the habit.


Filmography


Television


Web


Music videos


Video games


Gameography


Discography


Bibliography

* '' This Book Loves You'' (15 October 2015)


Awards and nominations


See also

* Internet in Sweden * List of YouTubers


Notes


References


Citations


Primary video, playlist, and post sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):


Further reading and viewing

* *


External links

* * (original YouTube channel) * * Sveriges Radio 
Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg
* {{Authority control PewDiePie, 1989 births Living people 2010s YouTube controversies 21st-century philanthropists 21st-century Swedish male artists 21st-century Swedish male writers Chalmers University of Technology alumni Charity fundraisers (people) Comedians from Gothenburg Comedy-related YouTube channels Comedy YouTubers Commentary YouTubers English-language YouTube channels Gaming-related YouTube channels Gaming YouTubers Immigrants to Japan Let's Players Maker Studios people Mass media people from Gothenburg Minecraft YouTubers Music YouTubers Number-one YouTube channels in subscribers Obscenity controversies in video games Polaris channels Revelmode people Shorty Award winners Streamy Award-winning channels, series or shows Streamy Award winners Surreal comedy Swedish agnostics Swedish contemporary artists Swedish digital artists Swedish emigrants to the United Kingdom Swedish expatriates in Italy Swedish male comedians Swedish male video game actors Swedish male voice actors Swedish parodists Swedish YouTubers Video game commentators Vlogs-related YouTube channels YouTube channels launched in 2010 YouTube vloggers