Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg is one of the most popular YouTube personalities of all-time. The Swedish vlogger is best known for his video game commentaries. After dropping out of college, the future PewDiePie floundered about the workforce, ending up at a Scandinavian advertising agency. Not feeling the 9 to 5, he started working on his YouTube channel. To fund his hobby-turned-passion, PewdiePie started selling prints that he created on Photoshop while supplementing his income by slinging hot dogs at a stand. By July 2012, PewDiePie had over one million subscribers.
Kjellberg focuses most of his video game content around the horror genre. Majority of the uploads are Let’s Play video game-style commentaries. With horror movies, he reacts to the scare factor in the games. As his popularity has grown, he’s moved on from just horror and tries out other types of video game genres.
Over time, he started sprinkling in more formatted vlogs. Some of the videos would focus on comedy. Others would be social commentaries on the internet culture. Either way, he drove his viewers to spark debate and interaction between himself and them as well as with one another.
While many praise PewDiePie for maintaining a positive message, some have questioned anti-Semitism in a number of his videos. In fact, these allegations caused his sponsor, Maker Studios, to drop him. While PewDiePie admitted the jokes were offensive, he stood by the fact they were just that…jokes. He criticized Maker Studios for their actions and insisted he was not a racist person.
Those who have stuck with PewDiePie through thick and thin are known as the Bro Army. He uses this open platform with the Bro Army to raise money for many charities. His rise in popularity caused Time magazine to name the star one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People” in 2016. Riding off that success, PewDiePie plays a lot of indie video games. This draws attention to underdogs in the video game world and helps drive up sales for them.
