PewDiePie

From Gothenburg to YouTube

In 2010, a Swedish university student began recording himself as he played video games. Within a few years, his videos were reaching an audience larger than many television shows. His name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, but online he is known as PewDiePie.

Felix was born on October 24, 1989, in Gothenburg, Sweden. After finishing school, he studied industrial economics and technology management at Chalmers University of Technology. He did not complete the program. Instead, he concentrated on making videos for the PewDiePie channel he launched in 2010.

His early uploads often belonged to a format called “Let’s Play”: viewers watched the game while hearing the player’s reactions and commentary. Felix mixed gameplay with quick editing, jokes, and direct conversation with the camera. That informal approach helped viewers feel as though they were sharing the game with another person.

A New Kind of Entertainer

The channel grew quickly. By 2013, PewDiePie had become YouTube’s most-subscribed channel. In a 2014 interview with Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT, Felix explained that online creators could have a closer connection with viewers than traditional television allowed. His videos also helped make Let’s Play entertainment familiar far beyond gaming communities.

The numbers became historic. In September 2015, PewDiePie became the first YouTube channel to pass 10 billion views. That year, Felix published This Book Loves You, appeared on American television, and worked with YouTube on Scare PewDiePie, a reality-adventure series inspired by video games. These projects showed how an individual creator could move between a home recording setup, publishing, and larger productions.

Records and Responsibility

A giant audience also brought serious responsibility. In 2017, several PewDiePie videos were criticized for antisemitic images and offensive jokes. Maker Studios ended its partnership with Felix, and YouTube cancelled a second season of Scare PewDiePie. Felix said the jokes had gone too far and that he did not support hate-based groups. Later that year, his use of a racist slur during a livestream drew further criticism.

These events are an important part of his story because online humor can harm people even when a creator describes it as a joke. They also show why public figures must think carefully about the messages they send to millions of viewers.

His channel kept setting milestones. Indian music company T-Series passed PewDiePie in the race for the largest channel in 2019. A few months later, PewDiePie became the first individual YouTube creator to reach 100 million subscribers.

A Changing Channel and Lasting Influence

During the 2020s, Felix posted less often and broadened his videos beyond the gaming reactions that first made him famous. In May 2022, he and his wife, Marzia Kjellberg, moved from Britain to Japan. His videos increasingly included everyday life, travel, art, and technology alongside games and comedy.

In November 2022, MrBeast passed PewDiePie as the most-subscribed individual man on YouTube. Guinness World Records noted that PewDiePie had held that individual record for close to a decade. Records change, but his wider contribution remains clear: he helped turn direct-to-camera gaming videos into mainstream entertainment and showed that independent creators could build worldwide communities.

His career also offers a useful lesson about digital influence. Creativity and a friendly connection can bring people together, while careless words can spread just as widely. Understanding both the achievements and the mistakes gives a fuller picture of how online culture grew.