Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, has become the first individual content creator on YouTube to reach 100 million subscribers on Sunday. PewDiePie had famously lost the race to 100 million to T-Series, the Indian music channel which is at 109 million. However in the war which PewDiePie deemed as ‘one man vs a big corporation’ becomes a milestone because of the fact that he did that as an individual creator, and no one in his peer group comes close to this. Third spot on YouTube after PewDiePie and T-Series has been taken by 5-Minute Crafts which has 60 million subscribers.
The groundbreaking achievement came in the same week PewDiePie married longtime girlfriend and former YouTuber Marzia Bisognin. The happy man posted a wedding video on his channel, which currently ranks as the #2 trending video on the video streaming website.
And not just that, YouTube itself paid a tribute to PewDiePie acknowledging the milestone which the 29-year-old achieved.
Married to @marziapie ????
Revived our love of Minecraft ⛏️
Reached 100 million subscribers on YouTube ✔️
What a month to celebrate and congratulate @PewDiePie ???? pic.twitter.com/4rGuNDDwyx— YouTube (@YouTube) August 25, 2019
Being the most popular individual creator on Youtube, PewDiePie has had his share of controversies. Once, he reportedley paid men on Fiverr to hold up a sign with an anti-semitic message as part of a “gag,” which landed him in a hot soup with search engine giant, Google. Another time he spoke the ‘n-word’ on a stream. In 2017, his YouTube Red show was scrapped by the platform and he was removed from Google Preferred advertising as well.
Nonetheless, PewDiePie has made a comeback as an avid gamer. With the non-stop Minecraft videos on his channel for the past few months, PewDiePie has played a part in the resurgence of Minecraft game on its tenth anniversary as Minecraft streams and views for Minecraft videos breaking its previous records.
The year 2018 has been particularly good for the content creator despite his famous dispute with T-Series. As per Forbes, PewDiePie’s earned $15.5 million last year. Since 2013, PewDiePie had been the most-subscribed channel whereas T-Series held the the title for being the most-viewed channel since 2017. The PewDiePie vs T-Series started as ‘one man vs the big company’ quickly turned into ‘India vs the world’ after “activism” by some PewDiePie supporters turned ugly with use of anti-Indian remarks. Both sides traded barbs and indulged in contests to gain more subscribers than the other.
Finally on April 28, PewDiePie released a video asking his supporters to end their efforts to keep him as the most subscribed channel, as T-Series had gained a significant lead.
Bhushan Kumar-led T-Series temporarily surpassed PewDiePie on many occasions in 2019, and in March 2019, the music channel made it as the most subscribed channel for five days consecutively but PewDiePie again took the lead. His channel held the fort for about 14 days, but T-Series managed to overtake him permanently, peaking at 100 million subscribers on May 29, 2019.
