This is Felix Kjellberg, giving us some major real talk about his success — and it’s wonderful.
It’s might seem strange to see Pewdiepie, the king of YouTube, speak so frankly here. But after seeing so many articles floating around in the past week about the reported $US7.4 million he allegedly made on YouTube in 2014, he felt he needed to respond to a lot of the hate he’s been getting recently.
“Money is a topic that I’ve purposely tried to avoid for the five years that I’ve been making videos,” he says. “I just feel like it’s not important.” This might seem like a dismissal that is pretty easy to make if you’re rich, but it’s at this point in the video that Pewdiepie starts talking about his early days. There was a time when he even he had trouble paying rent and couldn’t afford a computer of his own, he reminds people, so it’s not as if he doesn’t know where people are coming from, too.
“I took whatever job I could get, which was to work in a hot dog stand,” he recalls. “I was the happiest I was at that time,” he says. It was during this period that he started making videos — and the rest is history.
“So whenever it comes out how much I made a certain year, people just get so shocked. A lot of people also were very very angry. They thought it was unfair, they thought that I just sit on my arse all day and I just yell at the screen all day…which is true! But there’s so much more to it than that.”
“I understand that haters gonna hate, right? But, I don’t know. I really think money doesn’t make you happy. I am just as happy as I am now as I was [when I was selling hot dogs.]”
“[Money] doesn’t change much,” he says.
Pewdiepie then goes on to read a few specific comments he saw floating around, and it’s hilarious. This one, for example:
“I think that’s what is cool about YouTube — that anyone could technically do it,” Pewdiepie responded. “Surely, if I didn’t exist, there’d be someone to fill my place.” Then Pewdiepie goes ahead and actually encourages the commenter to try the whole YouTube thing out, because who knows? Maybe he would strike gold, too.
In response to this one…
He laments that life isn’t fair, but also encourages people to support the entertainers they believe in.
My favourite part of the video, though, has to be where he takes everyone to task for talking about how much money he makes, but not the boatload he’s raised for charity, too. He’s got a point — but it’s harder to gripe about Pewdiepie using money for good, I guess.
Really, you should give it a watch. Pewdiepie is famed for being unhinged while playing video games, but he’s a person, too — and this is one of the rare videos where you can see that shining through.
Comments
45 responses to “Pewdiepie Responds To Haters, Kills It”
I don’t like his videos, but he always seemed like a decent guy. I’ve never understood why people hate him so much.
Jealousy, basically. im not overly fussed on his videos either, but if he makes good money from them, good for him.
Pretty much. People put shit on him for being stupid or doing something anyone could do, but for the rumoured eleventy bajillion youtube dollars he’as earning they’d do it too, in a heartbeat. Pewds knows what appeals to his audience so maybe if you don’t like his stuff, you’re not his audience and that’s ok? I watched his stuff for awhile, and he comes across decent enough. Doesn’t hurt that he’s good looking either. Eventually I simply didn’t have time to watch him play games so my chosen group of game-playing idiots remains Achievement Hunter.
If someone sat next to you on a train and started screaming and making stupid noises and generally being an obnoxious tool, would you dislike them because you’re jealous that someone’s paying them money to behave like a complete idiot, or because they’re behaving like a complete idiot?
Good luck and all the best to to him, but I can’t stand to watch him, not for a second. And that has nothing to do with jealousy.
Strawman argument is strawman, although given your name I guess that goes without saying. When PewDiePie is sitting on the train next to you yelling in your ear, then and ONLY then do you have the right to complain about not liking him because he’s an annoying idiot. If you don’t want to watch him, no-one is forcing you- or sitting on the train next to you yelling at you.
Same. He’s annoying as hell, but seems like a nice guy in real life (based on his non-persona vids). Plus he’s done some great artwork.
He’s obnoxious at times, no worse then a lot of other youtubers, he’s just more prominent so he gets more hate.
People have trouble separating the character from the actor. Felix is an actor, PewDiePie is the character he plays. A lot of people hate the character (I find it obnoxious myself) but they translate that hate onto him as a person too, which is unfair. As a person, everything I’ve seen says he’s a really nice guy.
Like Francis, aka boogie2988. The dude is pretty cool IRL, but his character is quite annoying too. Some people don’t distinguish between the two which is a shame.
Exactly right.
Not a fan of his stuff, don’t care for it – but he’s just a guy putting on a show. Like you said. Don’t understand how people can’t see that…
Angry Joe on the other hand, I can’t stand that guy…. he always pops up in my youtube recommends. I click one video, now youtube throws him in my face. I hope it’s all just a very very annoying act.
No one has suffered as much as I. 😛
Use Chrome? If so get the “Video Blocker” extension. Then just right click on any of the recommended vids you don’t want and click “Block videos from this channel”.
much obliged 🙂
I think a big part of it is that he’s surrounded by people who do a better job with far worse results. PewDiePie is a character and all that, but he’s not a particularly good character. To make it big you generally have to be top notch, work hard and be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, but a lot of people feel like he just has the lucky part.
That’s not to say he doesn’t deserve his success or that his audience isn’t entertained, just that it’s got to be frustrating for some people to watch. It’s like when you hear how much those ‘hot girl responds’ YouTube videos used to make. You don’t hate the girl but it’s a huge slap in the face to people working really hard on their videos and barely getting paid. He works harder and delivers better content but it still stings.
Of course one of the primary points is that its all down to opinion. If people didnt click and watch his revenue wouldnt be as high. So its ironic that while they decry him they are infact supporting him.
And there’s the winner. He is the most highly paid gaming you tuber because the most people watch his video’s. So, he must appeal to the most people and do the best job of keeping people watching his stuff. If movie stars can get paid millions of dollars per movie, I have no idea why people are upset about this – I would much rather watch Pew die pie than Kanye or Stallone or (enter most annoying public figure who makes stupid amounts of money here). At the end of the day, he is an entertainer, who seems to be entertaining a group of people. People watch Jackass movies, so we obviously like dumb humour…. Just because the sector he is appealing to is not overly academic or highbrow does not mean it is not a viable money making venture.
Plus, Pewdies free to watch and he’s harming noone. Add to that he gives a LOT of money to charity, dudes pretty damn decent in my books.
I’m guessing most of the people who hate him don’t actually watch anything he produces. =P
Not according to the comments on youtube lol
I’m under the impression most of the haters just follow and post on any YT personality they hate and just post crap w/o even watching the clip anyway…
Just go to clip and comment and start the troll thread going..
His success didn’t happen overnight. It’s taken him more years than many are willing to put into YouTube to be where he is today. He’s worked harder than most other ‘more deserving’ YouTubers out there and for that, he’s harvesting the fruits of his labour.
Actually I think he really cleverly fills a niche (whether that was intentional or not) and pretty much perfectly targets his audience. I’m not a member of his audience; but given the amount of uploads he has all the time (seemingly, not actually sure) working as a one man team makes what he’s doing very impressive to me knowing how long it can take to edit a video together.
He’s an entertainer; so his work is of course subjective, and of course people that work really hard at their jobs, or who do really important/ dangerous things have every right to be jealous, but I think he, and a lot of other YouTubers work really hard at what they do and simply because their work is uploaded to a website usually associated with amateur content people think they themselves are working at an amateur level. Personally I think their work is much more work than that entails, but again, the perception and jealousy is natural.
Tall poppy syndrome at it’s finest
I too wish I could get paid a ton of money for being a retard on youtube…………I just don’t have the skill set so I do other things for money, besides their is most likely more to it than people think. My son and his friends all like Pewdiepie so the guy has to be doing something right…….
He should start dating a kardashian. Then he’d really know what hate is.
Or, you know, be a female game developer… 😉
*dons bombproof suit and slinks away*
Surprised people still hate him, figured they would be bored by now.
Every time someone posts an article hypothesising that he makes enough money in a month to buy a house in Sydney people get salty all over again.
Anyone mad at him for making so much money probably just doesn’t understand it. They may not be YouTube watchers and just think “I play games, where is my money?” He is an entertainer. Just like Beyoncé, George Clooney, or anyone else. It’s just he is working with a relatively new format and so people are bound to be confused about the money aspect of it.
Or they may think all he does is scream and yell at games. Sure, but what about editing? That would take up a lot of time. Putting together thumbnails? Uploading? Marketing himself? Planning future content? All of these things would take up the same amount of time a full-time worker would do each week, if not more. It’s not like he just webcams himself for twenty minutes a day and kicks back for the rest of it.
I don’t even like his videos, but you have to give credit where it’s due.
He should be more recognised for his measured and calm response to the toxic environment that is the internet. An example for everyone about how to take the internet and haters with a grain of salt and not let them faze you.
Look, I’m not a fan of his. Good on him for getting where he is. People are going to hate no matter what. I also believe that without the hate he would not be where he is now. A lot of his subscribers I am sure are only there to be negative.
I watch him from time to time, he is funny, entertaining never talks down to anyone and is a pretty damn good role model for kids growing up who seem to love let’s plays. Looking at the comments and some other “role models” in gaming such as esports etc and its pretty bad image everything from racial slurs to god knows what else, companies are even starting to ban toxtic players even pro’s as they realize this is quickly spinning out of control and needs to be addressed.
My opinion is the hate and filth directed at Pewdiepie is not a reflection of how lucky he got or how untalented every seems to think he is but is more a reflection of the community as a whole, that community being the gaming community and its sub communities such as lets plays, forums etc. Sites like Kotaku are a bastion compared to what’s out there, most people these days are forced to play with voice chat muted, its really disgusting how the general populace act. Kids seem to have free rain online and some of the stuff that comes out of their mouth I wonder how did the parents not hear. Role models further this with esports stars raging and ranting on twitch, using foul language. The attitude toward woman, while some might think is unrelated, it is, as its all part of the general attitude online these days reminiscent of cave men/women.
Free speech is great, but it goes beyond that when the thing you would say in real life is different from the thing you say in your online life. and unfortunately its so deep seeded now I don’t think it will ever be fixable.
At times his stuff was really great. Especially when i was watching his Amnesia videos. After awhile all the screaming and yelling got to me, and i now prefer to watch Mark Plier.
However where he is now is well deserved. At the time of his early days he set the benchmark for entertaining commentaries. Sure maybe he was lucky and maybe there might have been other people that were funny but i never found them. I only found him. That is enough for me. Well done bro.
Sort of off-topic, but when you look back you tend to gloss over the bad parts. Financial troubles exist in the moment but even when they’re replaced by new ones the old ones pass. Unless you’re running up massive debt with loan sharks you’re not going to look back five or ten years later and truly feel that constant pressure of living on just enough to get by. You’re just going to look back at whatever you were doing when you were younger because you stopped worrying about the specific financial problem the second you moved past it.
I’m not saying money made me happy or is a requirement for happiness but money absolutely obliterated so many obstacles in my life. It made being happier so much easier. If I want to ask someone out I don’t have to think ‘crap, I don’t get paid until Tuesday, and I’ve got bills coming up, what can I ask her to do with me that won’t cost more than $25?’. If my phone breaks I’m not stuck using it. The washing machine breaks and the solution is ‘replace it or pay someone to fix it’ (well, realistically it’s ‘fix it myself’, but only because I enjoy that sort of thing, and choosing to fix it myself is very different to being forced to). It doesn’t make life perfect but it eliminates a million little pressure points.
Money won’t automatically make you happy, but money removes a lot of stress and provides a lot of freedom. I think this is why people have such a hard time taking someone like PewDiePie seriously when he claims money doesn’t change much. He may sincerely believe he is just as happy as he was when he was selling hot dogs, and there may be some truth to it, but he’s not eating no name brand imitation hot dogs every night because he needs to save for a home deposit, driving a car that’s way over due for a service and freezing his arse off because the heater drives the bills up too high. He’s not stressing that he’s still going to be stuck working at the hot dog stand at 50.
You don’t have to be shallow and materialistic to appreciate coming out ahead financially. I could live with being broke again and it’s not the worst thing in the world but I’m not going to say I’d be fine with it just to delude myself into believing it’s ok to have more because I’m humble about it.
Funny how it works the other way around though, now I have kids and no money I vividly remember how it felt to have disposal income 🙂
Watched one of his videos to see what the hype was all about… Never watched another again. Absolute garbage. But hey, if people want to watch him and he gets paid for it, lucky him.
I am very disappointed with Pewdiepie, I subscribed to him when he had about 100k subs, and I enjoyed the vast majority of his content, but when he started getting millions of subs every couple of months, his content change, it’s just random stupid shit now and I can’t stand watching it…
yay more publicity for this idiotic talentless tool.
Kinda missing the point there buddy. Just because you don’t like his content (I don’t myself) doesn’t mean that he’s talentless or a bad person. He clearly puts a lot of time and effort into his work and has a large viewership for that. I’m of course a little jealous that he earns so much, but not because of the way he earns it as what he does requires a lot of work, even if it doesn’t seem immediately apparent as far as your personal quality standards go.
I don’t really care what he or anyone else says TBH –
At the end of the day he still gets paid millions to “act like an idiot, play games and film himself while doing it”.
Boohoo he worked at a hotdog stand and couldn’t afford a computer at one point in his life, SO suddenly he understands the every day Joe Blows problems? Uh no. Sorry, just no. There are people who actually work hard their entire life and never see that much money, fame or success in any field.
I don’t care if PewDiePie is supposedly a character, whereas Felix is the person – it’s Youtube. He wouldn’t last 10 seconds as a stand up comedian, TV/Broadway actor or musician. He has no identity outside of being “that obnoxious youtube tool”. I did some semi-professional acting when I was 22 in some classic live Musical – The King and I, Man of La Mancha etc.
Let me tell you, REAL acting really is difficult. Even with a passion. It’s work through rehearsal with pressure from pleasing audiences and doing your part to the best of your ability. PewDiePie has no idea what real acting even is. He films himself on Youtube and makes millions. He has no real skill or identity. Just a pop culture fluke and someone who got won the equivalent of an expensive scratchy ticket. He didn’t work hard. Sorry but there’s no way you can spin “filming myself playing games and acting like a child” as being “real work”. Maybe he should talk to some real actors.
He’s a pretentious, overpaid tool without a clue as to what producing “real entertainment” actually means. Just like most people today.
What people consider ‘real entertainment’ is really down to the individual. Its also a never ending argument between the old ways and the new ones.
People argue between paperbacks and ebooks, tv and Netflix, computer games and board games and so on and so on….. While you may go out to the theatre, others are watching their favorite channels on youtube.
The fact that he and a lot of other people are making a decent living on youtube means that there are a number of people that don’t agree with your view.
For every million dollar earning actor, there are thousands of actors who are scraping by. For every youtuber who gets a million hits, there are thousands that may only get a hundred (or less).
Him competing for views with other youtubers is no different to an actor competing for a role. He worked hard, found the right role and went from there.
Love him or hate him (which you obviously are of the latter) while he still gets hits, he will still be making money, in the same way that any actor will rise or fall through a mix of their skill and celebrity. Some very famous people are terrible actors and some great actors will live their entire lives not being recognised (this has happened with actors, artists, musicians and scientists for thousands of years)
You’re completely correct. Filming himself is different from acting. Usually in theatre you work as a team and no one is going to expect the lead actor to spend his time creating sets, working on scripts, checking lighting, doing marketing casting actors for other roles and sorting out the entire crews lunch. PewDiePie does all of his own editing, thumbnails, and countless other things. Some actors work had in their life and and make nothing, some become word famous. Just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve his fame or money and it doesn’t make his form of entertainment less “real”.
Haha, wow you are so off point i is ridiculous. Do you feel embarrassed for yourself when you spout nonsensical drivel like that?
Love him or hate him, a great many people obviously find him entertaining. He got to where he is himself, regardless of how much effort other people think it took. People will always hate on someone who’s got it better than they do. Selfish, self-centered idiocy for the most part. ‘What about me, though?’ Some people get lucky, others put in a lot of work to get where they are. I think PewDiePie is a combination of both. Don’t resent others for their success, it makes you petty and childish.
I’ve watched a few of his videos, and I honestly don’t mind him. Sure, there’s lots of shouting and stupidity, but he’s also fun to watch. He’s not a typical YouTuber that fills their channel with inane prattle about what’s annoying them today – he just plays video games and has fun. It’s light hearted, and a nice change from the oft-cynical tones of YouTube and the internet in general.
i thought only women watch him for his looks…….who knew?