- PewDiePie is one of the most popular YouTube personalities in the world, with a reported net worth of $20 million.
- PewDiePie, aka Felix Kjellberg, got his start doing gaming walkthroughs and reviews, but has since expanded to more satirical commentary and meme roundups.
- Just this week, the 30-year-old Kjellberg announced he plans to take a break from YouTube in early 2020. He also deleted his Twitter, which he called a "cesspool of opinion" in a recent video.
- Here's everything you need to know about how he got his start on YouTube, immersed himself in controversy, and reached 100 million subscribers this year.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Felix Kjellberg, who goes by PewDiePie online, is one of the highest-earning YouTubers. In a recent video, he said that his net worth is "definitely" more than $20 million.
Source: PewDiePie on YouTube
Kjellberg was born October 24, 1989, in a city in southwest Sweden called Gothenburg. As a child, Kjellberg quickly developed a passion for video games, despite his parents wanting him to play less.
Source: ESPN
Kjellberg attended Chalmers University of Technology, in the city where he was born, and pursued a degree in industrial economics and technology management. Kjellberg dropped out in 2011, saying he lacked interest in his major and "couldn't relate to f---ing anyone."
Source: We The Unicorns
While in school, Kjellberg registered a YouTube account in 2010 under the name "PewDiePie," a combination of some words including the sound a shooting laser makes. After dropping out, Kjellberg decided to pursue a career with his YouTube channel, at a time when being a YouTuber wasn't seen as much of a viable career path.
Sources: ESPN, We The Unicorns
But Kjellberg's parents refused to support him financially after he dropped out of college. To earn money for his YouTube passion, he worked at a hot-dog stand and sold his artwork.
Source: ESPN
In the early days, PewDiePie's channel consisted mostly of play-by-plays of video games — dubbed the "Let's Play" genre — along with color commentary. He found that his videos with horror games were more popular, and people were drawn to his overdone reactions.
Source: ESPN
One of PewDiePie's first videos to become a hit was his play-by-play video of the beloved game "Minecraft." His antics and voiceover comments have earned him over 12 million views and counting on the 2010 video.
Source: Business Insider
Just as he started to take off on YouTube, Kjellberg met his now wife, Marzia Bisognin. Bisognin reportedly emailed Kjellberg to tell him she found his videos funny, and the two have been together ever since. She started her own YouTube channel called "CutiePieMarzia" in 2012.
Source: New York Post
By December 2011, PewDiePie reached 60,000 subscribers, and quit his gig at the hot-dog stand. PewDiePie quickly established his signature video send-off: a "bro fist bump" to the camera and a message to "stay awesome."
Sources: ESPN, We the Unicorns
Kjellberg expanded into content beyond video games early on, including his weekly vlog series called "Fridays with PewDiePie." PewDiePie reached his first million subscribers in July 2012, and later that year signed with a multichannel YouTube network called Maker Studios.
Sources: We the Unicorns, Hollywood Reporter
From the beginning, comments that Kjellberg made in his play-by-play videos attracted controversy. In 2012, he was criticized for making rape jokes and trivializing sexual assault. He wrote on his Tumblr in October 2012 that he would no longer making rape jokes, and apologized if his jokes ever hurt anyone.
Source: We The Unicorns, PewDie on Tumblr
In August 2013, PewDiePie became the most-subscribed-to channel on YouTube. He edged out the Smosh Brothers for the title, and the creators created a video celebrating the new king of YouTube. By the end of 2013, PewDiePie had acquired nearly 19 million subscribers.
Source: We The Unicorns
Kjellberg's popularity is evident: Several low-budget, relatively unknown video games he featured on his channel have found success and increased sales after their cameos, including "Goat Simulator" and "I Am Bread."
Source: Eurogamer
In 2014, PewDiePie became one of the first major channels on YouTube to disable comments on his videos. He said his comment sections were becoming inundated with trolls and spam, and hindering his ability to connect with his fans. ESPN compared the move to "the equivalent of LeBron James refusing to tweet."
Sources: ESPN, We the Unicorns
By 2014, Kjellberg made an estimated $7.4 million. That was up $3 million from his estimated earnings a year before, showing the incredible growth of his channel in just four years. Kjellberg said he was "extremely tired" of constantly discussing his income.
Source: Business Insider
PewDiePie released his own video game in 2015 called "PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist." The $5 mobile app for iOS and Android devices is an action-adventure game with references to PewDiePie, his girlfriend Marzia, their dogs, and fellow YouTubers. It was a hit. He launched another game, "PewDiePie Tuber Simulator," in 2016.
Sources: ThinkGaming, Business Insider
Also in 2015, Kjellberg released a satirical self-help book called "This Book Loves You." The book parodying motivational texts rose to No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list when it was released that November.
Sources: Tubefilter, Business Insider
So in 2015, when YouTube launched its ad-free subscription service, YouTube Red, the company announced it was working on an exclusive show with Kjellberg called "Scare PewDiePie." The series, which featured Kjellberg exploring sets based on horror games he's played in past videos, premiered in 2016.
Source: Venture Beat
Kjellberg is not shy about frequently trolling his fan base and the media, like when he threatened to delete his YouTube channel after hitting 50 million subscribers. But his trolling also got him briefly kicked off Twitter in 2016 for saying he was joining ISIS.
Sources: Business Insider, Business Insider
But in 2017, Kjellberg's antics cost him. A Wall Street Journal report found that nine of his videos, between August 2016 and February 2017, included "anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery." One of those videos showed two men, paid by PewDiePie, holding up a sign reading "Death to All Jews."
Source: Wall Street Journal, Business Insider
In the fallout from the WSJ report, Disney and YouTube cut ties with Kjellberg. Disney owned Maker Studios, the creator network Kjellberg was affiliated with, and called his videos "inappropriate." YouTube killed the second season of its series "Scare PewDiePie" and removed Kjellberg from its preferred advertising program.
Source: Business Insider
Kjellberg later criticized YouTube for treating him unfairly by severing ties. He referred to the platform's reaction to Logan Paul's suicide-forest controversy, after which YouTube still rolled out Paul's latest movie on its Premium subscription service. "Maybe it's because I joked about Jews and that's a more sensitive topic than showing a dead body," Kjellberg said in a video.
Source: Business Insider
After being dropped by Disney and YouTube, Kjellberg released a video calling the backlash against his behavior "an attack by the media to try and discredit me." He flipped off the camera, and invited the media to "try again motherf-----" to take him down.
Source: Business Insider
Not long after, Kjellberg announced he was turning to Twitch to launch weekly livestreams and a new series called "Best Club." The decision to stream on Twitch came as YouTube was dealing with its ad-pocalypse, which saw advertisers boycotting the platform because ads were appearing next to extremist content.
Source: Tubefilter, Business Insider
Kjellberg's history of making Nazi jokes didn't age well, especially after the fatal 2017 white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Kjellberg promised to stop making Nazi jokes, vowing he had "nothing to do with these people" and was alarmed he "actually got grouped in" with them.
Source: Business Insider
However, Kjellberg was back to making offensive comments in his videos before the end of 2017. While livestreaming himself gaming, he used a racial slur during an expletive-ridden rant. It wasn't the first time he used the N-word — he dropped the slur in a video earlier that year too.
Source: Business Insider, We the Unicorns
Kjellberg launched a popular series on his YouTube channel in November 2017 called "Meme Review," where the YouTuber reviews trending memes and internet jokes. The incredibly popular series has grown to feature big-name guests like right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Dr. Phil.
Sources: Know Your Meme, Business Insider
Kjellberg made sexist remarks in May 2018, referring to female gaming streamers as "stupid Twitch thots." After Twitch streamer Alinity retaliated by filing a copyright claim against one of Kjellberg's videos, Kjellberg derided Alinity's wardrobe choices. "You're just playing games with the shortest skirt ever," PewDiePie said in a video. "That’s our fault for looking at it in any sexual way, right?"
Source: VICE
Kjellberg then faced criticism after posting a meme on Twitter in 2018 that mocked Demi Lovato shortly after she was hospitalized for a reported drug overdose. The meme showed Lovato asking her mom for money to buy a burger, which she then uses to buy heroin. He deleted it after a few hours and apologized for being "insensitive."
Source: Business Insider
PewDiePie has been viewed as the bona fide King of YouTube for years, as he's kept his substantial lead as the most-subscribed-to YouTube channel. However, that commanding lead started to be threatened in 2018, thanks to a Bollywood production company called T-Series. A rivalry between the two was quickly born.
Source: Business Insider
Kjellberg attempted to stave off T-Series' rapid growth thanks to a massive social-media campaign by PewDiePie's loyal fans. Hackers targeted the Wall Street Journal homepage, smart TV devices, and thousands of printers to encourage people to "subscribe to PewDiePie." YouTuber Mr Beast also campaigned for PewDiePie.
Sources: Business Insider, Business Insider
As The New York Times reported, "subscribe to PewDiePie" was transformed into an "all-purpose cultural bat signal for the young and internet-absorbed." The slogan was used to deface a World War II memorial in New York with graffiti.
Sources: Buzzfeed News, New York Times
Then, the "subscribe to PewDiePie" slogan took on greater significance in March, when it was said during the terror attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. In a livestream video from the shooting, the suspected gunman is heard telling people to "subscribe to PewDiePie." Kjellberg said he was "absolutely sickened" to hear his name mentioned during the Christchurch shootings.
Source: Business Insider
Kjellberg posted a video on YouTube asking his fans to end the "subscribe to PewDiePie" movement. "This was made to be fun, but it's clearly not fun anymore. It's clearly gone too far," Kjellberg said. A day later, a plane with a banner reading "subscribe to PewDiePie" flew over New York City.
Sources: Business Insider, Business Insider
T-Series overtook PewDiePie's lead in March, and edged out PewDiePie in May to become the first YouTube channel to hit the 100-million subscriber mark. Kjellberg released two diss tracks mocking T-Series, but they were blocked from viewing in India after a court deemed them "vulgar" and "racist."
Source: Business Insider
Kjellberg announced in April 2019 that he would start regularly livestreaming again, this time on the relatively unknown livestreaming platform DLive. The blockchain-based platform says it doesn't take a cut of the revenue generated from livestreams, unlike similar platforms like Twitch.
Source: Business Insider
The Washington Post reported in August 2019 that YouTube was allowing its most popular creators — including PewDiePie — to have more flexibility with the platform's rules and moderation policies. YouTube denied the claims, and said it applies policies "consistently, regardless of who a creator is."
Source: Business Insider
Kjellberg got married on August 19 to Marzia, his girlfriend of nearly eight years. The two got married in London, and some of Kjellberg's YouTube pals were in attendance at the wedding.
Source: Business Insider
PewDiePie hit the 100-million subscriber mark in late August, becoming the first individual YouTuber to hit the milestone. Following the achievement, Kjellberg announced he would donate $50,000 to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish anti-hate group, to try to "move past" his prior controversies.
Sources: Business Insider, Business Insider
However, Kjellberg's announcement was met with condemnation from fans, who questioned why the YouTuber was donating to a group that had previously spoken out against him. Just a day later, Kjellberg walked back on his $50,000 pledge, and said he would instead donate to a charity he was "personally passionate about."
Source: Business Insider
Marzia Kjellberg, the YouTuber's wife, revealed in December on Instagram that the couple's home had been broken into. She said that around 90% of her valuable were stolen. It's not clear which of their homes was broken into — they have one in Japan and another in Brighton, England.
Source: Business Insider
Kjellberg announced Monday he would be taking a break from YouTube "for a little while" in early 2020. "I'm feeling very tired, I don't know if you can tell," Kjellberg said in a video to his fans. This isn't the first break Kjellberg has taken from YouTube, citing creator burnout.
Source: Business Insider
Just a few hours later announcing his break, Kjellberg suddenly deleted his Twitter account, which had nearly 20 million followers. The action was preceded by a YouTube video in which he said Twitter had "become such a cesspool of opinion." However, he kept ahold of the Twitter handle "@pewdiepie" to "prevent fake accounts."
Source: Business Insider
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