It was around 2013 that I first discovered PewDiePie’s channel on YouTube, he had done a play-through of Bully (I’m a simple woman, I see Bully I click) and I found PewDiePie’s hyperactive and silly energy really entertaining and it was a time in my life where some dark stuff happened so finding something that made me laugh really helped. Soon he ended up becoming the most subscribed channel on YouTube and keeping that title for almost six years reaching 90+ million subscribers at the time of writing this. Not only that, he arguably is a major player in making YouTube a home for gaming and tech related content. That’s a pretty incredible legacy.
I stopped watching PewDiePie a while ago but that was because I started to find other channels to watch and PewDiePie started to venture into other formats to the point that he hasn’t done any Let’s Plays for quite some time now. I watched a few of his more recent videos and they mostly consist of PewDiePie reacting to memes or other viral subjects and it’s clear that PewDiePie’s humour will definitely attract a certain type of fanbase that have…issues. And quite rightly PewDiePie was dropped by Disney and has been involved in some really serious transgressions including racist remarks and antisemitism.
Despite all that controversy, I really didn’t think that PewDiePie would be overtaken as the most subscribed, even as big companies and celebrities are now using the platform. Yet it happened, and it was an Indian channel that posts Bollywood music videos and trailers that did it. I didn’t even know what T-Series was until seeing a PewDiePie video on his quite humorously one-sided rivalry with this huge company. I don’t think I’m subscribed to any channels that post music videos yet these channels have huge subscriber numbers. There was a lot of outcry over the T-Series/PewDiePie subscriber clash because it was being seen as a loss for creators if a big corporate entity with money and huge production values was the biggest channel. YouTube has changed a lot over the years from humble beginnings with people vlogging from their bedrooms to a massive platform that’s now literally making their own TV shows. It’s great that YouTube has reached such heights but’s hard to ignore how creators who essentially made YouTube what it is are being screwed over due to broken algorithms, copyright strikes and demonetisation.
I’m still subscribed to PewDiePie despite hardly watching his videos and most likely will not subscribe to T-Series. A lot of the YouTube channels I watch regularly actually have probably a tiny fraction of the subscribers that these two have, which just goes to show there’s so many channels that cater to everyone’s interests and taste (and lack taste haha jk). So if you aren’t into the brash humour of PewDiePie or Bollywood, there’s a lot more else on YouTube that you can check out.
At My Desk 