PewDiePie
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, is a Swedish YouTuber, 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, Kjellberg registered his YouTube channel "PewDiePie" in 2010, primarily posting Let's Play 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. After becoming the platform's most-popular creator, he diversified his content, shifting its focus from Let's Plays and began to frequently include vlogs, comedy shorts, formatted shows, and music videos. For its first foray into original programming as part of the relaunch of its subscription service, YouTube also enlisted Kjellberg to star in a reality web series.
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. Most notably, a 2017 article by The Wall Street Journal alleging his content included antisemitic themes and imagery prompted other outlets to write further criticism of him and companies to sever their business partnerships with Kjellberg. Though he acknowledged the content which garnered media ire as inappropriate, he defended it as humor taken out of context and vehemently rebuked the Journals reporting in particular.
In late 2018 and early 2019, Kjellberg engaged in a public competition with Indian record label T-Series, before his channel was ultimately overtaken by the label's as the most-subscribed on YouTube. Shortly following this, he returned to making regular gaming uploads, with a focus on Minecraft, generating record viewership for his channel. In the 2020s, Kjellberg became more reserved online, uploading less consistently and taking frequent breaks from Internet use. Meanwhile, in his personal life, he moved to Japan with his wife, Italian Internet personality Marzia. He has since semi-retired from YouTube, choosing to upload less frequently and for his enjoyment rather than as a career. His content has since centered on his family life and personal interests. With over 110 million subscribers and 29.4 billion views, his channel still ranks as one of the most-subscribed and viewed on YouTube.
Kjellberg is widely considered a pioneer and ambassador of YouTube's platform and culture, as well as largely influential to Internet culture in general, particularly its gaming subculture. His popularity online has been recognized to boost sales for the video games he plays, especially the ones developed independently. This has allowed him to stir support for charity fundraising drives. Some media outlets have opined that Kjellberg promoted hateful ideologies or described him as adjacent to them, while others have called such descriptions unfair. Noted as YouTube's most-popular creator for much of the 2010s, Time magazine named him as one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2016.
Early life and education
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg was born on 24 October 1989 in Gothenburg, where he was also raised. He was born to Lotta Kristine Johanna and Ulf Christian Kjellberg, and grew up with his older sister, Fanny. His mother, a former chief information officer, was named the 2010 CIO of the Year in Sweden. His father is a corporate executive.File:Chalmers entrance.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Kjellberg studied at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg.
During his childhood, Kjellberg was interested in art and has detailed that he would draw popular video game characters such as Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as play video games on his Super Nintendo Entertainment System, such as Star Fox 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 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 and management at Chalmers University of Technology 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, wanting to work on photo manipulation 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.
YouTube 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 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 and Call of Duty, although he came to be particularly noted for his Let's Plays of horror games such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent and The Last of Us. 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 contained mainly Swedish commentary from Kjellberg, rather than the English language he employed in later videos.
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 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. In October, OpenSlate ranked Kjellberg's channel as the No. 1 YouTube channel. Kjellberg signed with Maker Studios in December, a multi-channel network that drives the growth of the channels under it. Prior to his partnership with Maker, he was signed to Machinima, a rival of Maker's. Kjellberg expressed feeling neglected by Machinima; 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 in his videos. Michael "Slowbeef" Sawyer, a fellow Let's Play YouTuber, created a video mocking Kjellberg's content and highlighting 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 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 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 and most-viewed user
By 2013, Kjellberg became "ubiquitous" on the platform. On 18 February, his channel reached 5 million subscribers, and in April, he was covered in The New York Times 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, Smosh, and Toby Turner, he also won the award for "Most Popular Social Show". In June, Kjellberg published "A Funny Montage", an entry in his series of compilations of clips from previous uploads. Many of his most-viewed videos are such compilations, and the specific June 2013 entry spent a considerable amount of time as Kjellberg's most-viewed video overall, with publications citing it as such through 2018.In July, he overtook Jenna Marbles to become the second most-subscribed user, and shortly thereafter surpassed 10 million subscribers. In August, Kjellberg signed with Maker's gaming sub-network, Polaris. Polaris functioned as a relaunching of The Game Station, Maker's gaming network. On 15 August, Kjellberg became the most-subscribed user on YouTube, suprassing Smosh. For the achievement, Kjellberg received a certificate from Guinness World Records. 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. After a brief back-and-forth in December, his channel firmly supplanted the YouTube Spotlight on 23 December 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 reported that the channel gained more subscribers than any other channel in 2013.
In 2014, Kjellberg's commentaries, then best known for featuring horror video games, began to actively feature games that interested him regardless of genre. That September, Kjellberg again announced he would disable comments on his YouTube videos, intending for this to be a permanent change. He reasoned that most comments were either spam and self-advertisements. Though he disabled his YouTube comments, Kjellberg continued interacting with his audience through Twitter and Reddit. 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. Kjellberg stated in a later video that disabling comments made him happier.
Also in October, Kjellberg hinted at the possibility that he would not renew his contract with Maker Studios upon its expiration in December. He expressed his frustrations with the studio's parent company, Disney, and 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 and online store to sell merchandise, in addition to an official PewDiePie app for the iPhone that released earlier that August, allowing audiences to view his videos, create custom favourite video feeds, and share videos with others. In return, Kjellberg promoted Maker's media interests, and gave the network a share of his YouTube ad revenue.
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.