Ten Things You were Wondering about PewDiePie

Top 10 Facts - PewDiePie

PewDiePie

One of the most if not the most recognized gamer in the world, completely dominating  Youtube right now from Sweden, seems to have a problem pronouncing his own Youtube username and screams at virtual monsters like a little girl. This is PewDiePie. And now we’re going to learn ten interesting facts about him.


1.    Millions of subscribers

PewDiePie has, as of writing this script around 36,637,321 individual people subscribed to his channel. He gains roughly 1.6 subscribers per second. If that isn’t interesting enough, he gained more subscribers in one year than the third largest channel Smosh had done in eight.



2.    How rich is he

PewDiePie makes a ton of money and nobody is surprised! He is in fact a millionaire. To get an exact number though is difficult as there are so many variables to consider (CPM, RPM, CPC, CPR) and PewDiePie just like many other Youtubers has not revealed his earnings to the public yet.

However if we take a look at Analytics Page of another popular Youtube gamer, we can see that he earns roughly $10,000 in one month with 6 million views. PewDiePie currently gets around 250 million views per month, which means, if he makes anything close to these numbers, he earns a monthly sum of around ≈$400,000/month.

3.    How did he do it

But the question is, how did he do it? How did he become the number one channel on Youtube? Especially, how did he do it so fast?
Well, if we neglect the fact that it most likely have to do with timing adjust or good old reliable luck, there are a few things which were working in his favor.
For example, he usually makes long videos, everywhere from 10 to 30 minutes long and that to the fact he uploads more or less every single day of the year and you get the recipe for a lot of watchtime.

Youtube revenue split

Why this matters is because Youtube’s algorithm sees this huge amount of traffic and promotes his channel even more. In the end it’s a never ending spiral of promotion by Youtube systems as it’s working in it’s own favor. Because you have to remember that Youtube, LLC (Limited Liability Company) is a business like any other with the main goal is to make money. So, the more people watch a popular channel like PewDiePie the more money Youtube makes themselves.

4.    Personal life

PewDiePie’s real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg and born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden. His is currently 25 years old. Through Youtube he met his current girlfriend Marzia Bisognin. To meet his Italian girlfriend he moved to Italy and now they are currently living in Brighton, England. (You can thank me later, Stalkers)

Felix and Marzia

5.    PewDiePie-flavored easter eggs

PewDiePie has become such a huge icon in the gaming industry that he has been featured as small easter eggs in many different video games. For example in Cry Of Fear, there’s a golden statue that when you get close to says, “Stephanol!? What the f**k PewDiePie!”

Cry of Fear - Stephanol

In the game Doorways, there’s a person in the game named Felix Lundberg, who is also from Gothenburg, Sweden. This may or may not be a reference to PewDiePie as his real name is Felix Kjellberg.

Doorways - Felix Lundberg

The game Octodad features a pie called “PewDie Pie”.

Octodad - PewDie Pie

Finally, in Surgeon Simulator 2013, one of the organs in the aliens’ surgery stage, is called Pewdsball.

Surgeon Simulator 2013 - Pewdsball

6.    Achievements

PewDiePie - Gaming King of the Web 2012

He has also won several awards such as King of the Web and Gaming King of the Web in 2012;  most popular social show Sweden Social Star and Starcount Social Star Awards 2013, as well as the Shorty Awards for Gaming in 2013.

7.    The origin of a “sensational” name

The name PewDie was created from the pew sound of lasers and “Die”, well it’s self explanatory. But after forgetting the password to his Youtube account for the name “Pewdie”, he simply created a new one under the name “PewDiePie” where Pie was apparently completely random.

Origin of the name PewDiePie

8.    Gaming life

PewDiePie is mostly known for playing horror survival games, such as, Amnesia. He also frequently plays less popular Indie Games which eventually helps to promote them and increases their sales. But he actually started his Youtube carrier playing Call of Duty and his very first video was actually him playing Minecraft.

9.    To infinity and beyond

If he theoretically kept on growing at the rate his channel is right now, which it won’t of course, but bear with me here, he will have over 100 million subscribers within three years. That means 1.3% of world human population would be subscribed to PewDiePie’s channel.

Bro Army

If you are one of those who think that the so called “Bro Army” is annoying now, a dark future awaits you my friend! A very dark future awaits you!

10.    Ethics of entertainment 

Many people think that it’s simply unfair for him and some other YouTubers to earn so much by simply uploading their silly little videos online. But is it really that strange? Is it really that unfair? If we compare to the President of the United States for example, he is currently making $400,000/year. And if you remember from earlier, PewDiePie could potentially be making that sum every month! Which brings to his yearly income to around $4.8 million/year. Well, in that sense, yes, it seems very ridiculous.

Youtubers are entertainers and not leaders of a nation even though one might argue that the President should be making more either way. But I am going to let you argue over that in the comments. What we should be comparing him (or them) to are the people from entertainment business. Because that’s ultimately most Youtubers do! They entertain. The most similar jobs probably are TV hosts and maybe even actors and here where it gets good. Oprah makes an estimated $350 million/year, Dr. Phil makes $80 million/year, Simon Kaul makes $34 million/year,  Judge Judy makes $30 million/year and the list goes on and on. Hence, that kind of settles the argument of ethics.

Brofist

So, like PewDiePie or not, it’s just really a matter of perspective. Let me know in the comments below of what you think of this.

Special thanks to Afifa Farzana for helping me write this article.