Last week, YouTube’s biggest star swore that once he hit 50 million subscribers, he was going to delete his popular comedy channel. Today, Felix Kjellberg hit that fated number… and the channel is still up.
For now, he claims.
will delete tomorrow 5pm gmt
— pewdiepie (@pewdiepie) December 8, 2016
Lots of people watched Kjellberg’s announcement with disbelief: Could someone really just throw away such a big audience after six years of building it up? Many believed that the entire thing was just a stunt to drive up subscribers, or a troll meant to trick everyone. Some pointed toward Kjellberg secondary channel, Jack septiceye2, as a potential deletion target: In that case, Kjellberg could delete “his” channel without much consequence, leaving his main channel and its massive viewership intact. Despite all the scepticism, many watched closely, setting up livestreams to monitor the numbers or opting to watch subscriber counts in real time, just to see what would happen. All the while Kjellberg stoked the flames on social media:
YouTube NG+
— pewdiepie (@pewdiepie) December 8, 2016
The reality of the situation is still unclear. Is Kjellberg actually going to keep to his word, or is he just extending a ruse a little while longer? An optimistic theory would be that he is now taking the time to give the channel a proper sendoff with a formal video, rather than just deleting it unceremoniously. That would be the nice thing to do for fans, anyway.
For reference, here are Pewdiepie’s most popular videos before deletion:
Note that most of them were created years ago, which tracks with Kjellberg’s assertion that lately, his footage just wasn’t attracting the same (massive) numbers that he had become accustomed to — which is partially the motivation for getting rid of his channel, Kjellberg’s claimed.
if im pulling 2mil views per video with 50mil subs id rather restart and get rid of inactive accounts and piss people off in the process thx
— pewdiepie (@pewdiepie) December 2, 2016
If Kjellberg does keep to his word, that doesn’t necessarily mean that years of work have gone down the drain, however. Kjellberg’s screams have been re-uploaded by fans, often in the form of reaction videos. Some downloaded entire videos for the sake of archive, in preparation. Pewdiepie will live on, one way or another.
I downloaded a lot of of @pewdiepie ‘s videos xD #50Mpewds #Pewdiepie pic.twitter.com/op9COsNiLv
— LockyDelire (@LockyDelire) December 8, 2016
Most people are congratulating Kjellberg right now for hitting such a big milestone, even if there’s still some scepticism on whether or not the deletion stuff is all an act:
Kjellberg is also slated to appear on a new season of Scare Pewdiepie next year, which is his YouTube Red premium show, and he is also collaborating with one of the creators of Goat Simulator to create new games. If he does delete his channel as promised, it sounds like Kjellberg will have plenty to keep him busy.
Comments
17 responses to “Pewdiepie Hits 50 Million YouTube Subscribers, Says He’ll Delete Channel Tomorrow”
I remember when it was a big thing when Ashton Kutcher got a million followers on twitter.
Amazing where a few dick and rape jokes can take you.
It’s not like he couldn’t. He’s got fuckloads of money, if the job isn’t satisfying him any more it’s not like he’ll be out on the street if he pulls the plug.
Yeah, the last few articles about him have all kind of touched on his shame about his earlier work, his wearying of his fanbase’s reputation, being bored with the kind of shtick that made him famous, and logistical issues with continuing to work.
It sounds a hell of a lot like burnout, to me. And he’s got millions in the bank to retire on comfortably, and do all those other projects that he’s a lot more interested in than his legacy channel. I’d have done it already, and I wouldn’t even have come up with an excuse or ’50M subs’ gimmick.
That’s the gist of what I think is going on, yeah. I mean sure, maybe it’s bait, but I think the guy just wants out, or at the very least to start fresh with a different tone and a different fanbase. I think the 50M sub gimmick is a last ditch ‘let’s get a bunch of views to milk revenue one last time’ move, which seems fine to me.
Don’t forget he’s had people turn up to his house, including a teacher bringing a class to his home for a field trip.
wow 50million….bafoons
Maybe he just wants to focus on making different content and doesn’t want to look after two channels at the same time? He did say he might start up a new one once this one is deleted.
Can’t stand Pewdiepie, really hopes he deletes his channel and fades into irrelevancy.
wow such hate for the guy why cant people just ignore some one on the internet if they don’t like them instead of telling everybody there irrelevant opinion. and then not only insulting the guy but then insulting people who like the guy. its all just petty.
He isn’t quitting youtube, he is simpy deleting that channel and starting a different one with a new direction.
I also have no ill-will towards him, even though I do not personally enjoy his content.
Good luck to you, Mr Felix, whatever it is you do.
He also said in the 50 mil video he wouldn’t be leaving YouTube, a lot of people seem to miss that. Will be interesting to see what happens, whether your a fan or not.
So, has he done it yet or what?
(Asks like he really cares)
So he’s going to quit youtube and if you want to keep watching him you have do it on YouTube red. It’s a marketing ploy.
“many watched closely, setting up livestreams to monitor the numbers or opting to watch subscriber counts in real time, just to see what would happen”
I think if you are doing something like this it’s time to think about your priorities in life…
Anyone notice he was slowly turning into filthy frank?