Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg is undoubtedly one of the most famous and highest-paid individuals among YouTubers and internet money-makers. With over 104 million followers, PewDiePie has made himself known even to elementary school kids. Games like Minecraft, Goat Simulator, Flappy Bird, and Slender have gained attention thanks to PewDiePie, as all the games lucky enough to be introduced by this streamer attract many fans due to what is known as the “PewDiePie effect.”
With his achievements, PewDiePie has set numerous records that any YouTuber would envy. Below are the most impressive milestones this streamer has reached in his career. Let’s take a look at what PewDiePie has achieved and what he has received to become so famous.
PewDiePie Sets Record for Most YouTube Channel Subscribers
It’s no surprise that we all know PewDiePie is one of the most popular video creators on YouTube of all time. However, few know that he set a world record in 2015 by having the most subscribed YouTube channel, a statistic reported by Tubefilter. That year, Kjellberg had 36 million subscribers. According to statistics, PewDiePie gained a new follower every 3.6 seconds and achieved 23,800 new subscribers daily.
These numbers are very impressive. However, the following year, on the official Guinness World Records website, an Indian music channel named T-Series surpassed PewDiePie’s record on May 30, 2019, with over 100 million subscribers.
The competition between Kjellberg and T-Series for the Guinness title in 2019 was quite fierce. Business Insider reported that the controversial YouTuber released two songs about T-Series, which sparked a significant backlash. According to Rogue Rocket, the Indian music channel filed a lawsuit against PewDiePie. India later banned these two songs from appearing on their version of YouTube due to abusive language.
PewDiePie is the First Solo YouTuber to Reach 100 Million Subscribers
As reported by The Verge, Kjellberg set an impressive record on the evening of August 24, 2019. Fans waited for this significant moment for hours and captured it using Social Blade, a web app that allows tracking statistics of many famous creators. The next day, YouTube’s official Twitter channel created a celebratory video to mark PewDiePie’s record milestone.
PewDiePie became the first solo YouTuber to achieve 100 million subscribers. With this achievement, YouTube awarded PewDiePie a Red Diamond Creator Award, which he showcased in a vlog.
In 2019, PewDiePie’s YouTube Channel Surpassed 4 Billion Views
PewDiePie received a major award at the end of 2019 when he became the most-watched YouTuber of the year after achieving over 4 billion views. YouTube announced PewDiePie’s record in its “Rewind” summary, a video that compiled the most significant moments of the year on YouTube, which included a clip of Kjellberg showcasing his award to his fans.
As Julia Alexander from The Verge noted, PewDiePie was absent from YouTube’s Rewind videos in 2017 and 2018. According to Alexander, the presence of this controversial creator in Rewind 2019 represented “a pivotal moment for YouTube,” and the company aimed to highlight the most popular moments rather than just recount verified content.
The year 2019 was a controversial one for PewDiePie when, in an effort to compete with T-Series for the Guinness record, he created the meme “Subscribe to PewDiePie,” but his fans used it to vandalize a World War II memorial, and things got even worse when a mass murderer in New Zealand shouted this slogan.
PewDiePie Earned Over $1.1 Million from Advertising
We all know that PewDiePie doesn’t just earn income from YouTube or his businesses through Represent.com, PewDiepie.store, and other online stores, but he also makes a significant amount of money from advertising activities. Researchers at Purple Moon estimate that PewDiePie earned over $1 million in advertising revenue in 2019. This is an incredible amount, surpassing the combined revenue of the second and third-place channels.
The second channel on the list is Dude Perfect, which earned over $490,000. This means that PewDiePie earned twice the advertising revenue of other top YouTubers, but with over 104 million subscribers, the amount PewDiePie makes from advertising is not surprising to many.