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How’s it going Bros, His name is PewDiePie

“How’s it going bros, My name is PewDiePie”, “Clap! Clap!! clap!!! Meme Review!”, “Welcome to Friday with PewDiePie”… If you are a YouTube fan there’s no way of not hearing these phrases at least once in your lifetime. It is none other than the world famous Youtuber, Felix Kjellberg.

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg who is well known by his YouTube name – PewDiePie – is a Swedish Content creator. He was born on the 24th of October 1989 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He grew up with his elder sister, Fanny and both his mother and father are successful chief executives. After graduating from Göteborgs Högre Samskola in 2008, Felix enrolled for further studies in industrial economics and technology management at the Chalmers University of Technology from which he later dropped out.

Even from his childhood, Felix was highly interested in gaming but not only playing, he also enjoyed drawing game characters and he was really fond of photo manipulation using Photoshop which he was really talented in. Anyway, in school days, skipping classes to play games was a pretty much frequent thing for Felix. Even at a time when YouTube was not as popular as it is now, Felix started his channel originally as Pewdie in 2006. According to him it’s pew, the sound of lasers and die, which is just to die:) Even Though his fans think he started the new channel on the 29th of April, 2010 as a new start, it’s just Felix who has forgotten his password. After he dropped from University, his parents didn’t support him financially and fans even had the conclusion that he did it purposefully just to continue YouTube even though it’s just that he found the field of the degree as not interesting for him.

In his early YouTube age, he mainly referred to video game commentaries, especially from horror and action categories. And he was particularly noted for his Let’s plays of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and related streams. Random YouTube searchers found commentaries and videos quite enjoyable and different from other videos in those days in the streams. As Felix later said he wasn’t even sure that he would be this successful because in that era there was no one big in gaming videos. But he just tried as it was what he loved.

After starting the Fridays with PewDiePie, a huge lot of teens gathered around him and he was often called Pewds and he calls his fans “the bros”, who loved to see his crazy and funny sketches. As he didn’t have any financial support, he funded his early videos by working as harbour captain, selling prints of his Photoshop Arts and at a hot dog stand. By 2011,, his channel became pretty much famous and reached 500,000 subscribers in May, 1 Million in July and 2 Million in September of 2012 where OpenSlate ranked him as the Number one YouTube channel. 

With the rising attention, Pewds started different sorts of content creations that his fans really loved. Friday with PewDiePie, You Laugh You Lose which is referred to as YLYL, Last week I asked you which referred to LWIAY, Reddit Reviews, Meme Reviews, Pew News are some of his creations rather than gameplay. From time to time he was a trend maker and there were some memorable friendly wars which he made the whole community hyped on. In his early videos, Pewds did all the editing by himself but later he joined Brad and then Sive who also took part on some of his videos. Even Though Pewds calls himself an introvert who is very shy, he never fails to make his audience laugh.

In 2013  May, Pewds passed 5 Million subscribers and 6 Million in April and he got lots of recognition from every part of the world. After passing “Smosh” on 31st of October 2013, he became the first to reach 15 Million and even received the Guinness world record of “Most Subscribed YouTuber”. 2012 and 2013 can be known as the golden era for bros which PewDiePie accessed with rapid growth. With his huge popularity, he got the opportunity to take part in Tv shows, interviews, conferences, to receive various recognition awards and lots of creators and companies reached out to him to collaborate. Scare PewDiePie which was a web series he took part in got huge popularity which his bros are still counting for season 2. Also, PewDiePie merchandise, games, apps and a lot of other brandings emerged in these times and many famous companies liked to partner up with him. He published a book called “This book loves you” which his fans really loved. In the meantime, he achieved the most viewed channel title with more than 4 Billion views. Even Though critics were not okay with his commentaries, his bros were always there to hug his videos and smash with the famous brofist. His channel rapidly grew and in late 2016,2017s he even tried the most disliked video. Most commented on the video and some other trends which caught the attraction.

Even though he tried different kinds of videos and experiments, his usual gameplay streams did not break from the line. He plays almost every sort of game and with his commentaries, some games could achieve a lot of popularity and fame. He often collaborates with CinnamonToastKen, Jacksepticeye, Markiplier and also Marzia for his videos. The time of 2018,2019 and 2020s can be called as path changing years for Pewds which T series war, Cocomelon war, Blue Shirt kid, Minecraft Hype, Hej Hej Monika and other songs and a lot of other viral incidents occurred. His hourly long gameplays and commentaries never missed more than Millions of views and Minecraft can be called a point that attracts another whole lot of subscribers. It was really a fun era in which his fans battled to make Pewds win. His channel made a whole new change in the community which many teenagers find as a place to be happy and release stress just by looking at PewDiePie Videos. As PewDiePie says, he just does what he loves and I think that is the reason why many are attracted to PewDiePie. He seems way more natural unlike some other creators and the way he does his videos as we are also in the place with him is way more appealing.

With the time being now Pewds mostly do reaction videos rather than his old style of videos and it seems pretty interesting how much knowledge he has on some deep subjects. He often can be seen sharing the knowledge he gained from reading books and any other material but he doesn’t hesitate to do some sour tasty reaction videos with Ken or Jack. His reviews and reactions on other videos and TikTok cannot be forgotten here. His bro army which is now referred to as the floor gang after his Japan tour can be seen very active in Reddit on PewDiePie submissions creating whole new chapters of memes. Pewds never hesitate to do videos upon requests from his floor gang and it’s pretty interesting and amazing how long he has walked along with his channel.

When it comes to life outside YouTube, Felix is a huge fundraiser who helps lots of organisations. His popularity on YouTube is indeed a great support for that but his pure motive to help others is a great thing that the whole world appreciates. He is an influencer as well as a responsible public image many people follow. He raised thousands of money for various kinds of funds including the World Wildlife fund, St. Jude children’s research hospital fund, Charity: water, Charity: Save the children and he has raised nearly $1 Million for Red nose day, Movember, Blue ocean foundation and many others. Even though he is referred to as the “king of YouTube” Felix is a really humble and gentle person who would like to make a great impact on the world.

From the very little start of his YouTube career and until now, he always had Marzia Bisognin whom he got to know as a fan from his very early videos in 2011. Throughout all the years, Marzia also took part in many videos which his fans really love to see. Marzia is an Italian and both of them settled in England in 2013. Funny videos of Felix, Marzia and their little Pugs, Edgar and Maya were amazingly adorable that many loved. He got married to Marzia on 19th August 2019 which can be called as one of the most blessed weddings on YouTube.

As a person, Felix really is a huge example of the fact that anyone can change their lives if they really work on their passions. Even though some channels have passed the subscriber count, PewDiePie is still the most subscribed individual content creator in YouTube having more than 110 Million subscribers. Cannot forget how emotional Pewds was when he was doing the 100 Million YouTube award revealing. And not only that, among all the awards and recognitions he got for his creations and influence, there is one thing that we all love to specifically recall; that he was crowned as the most handsome face of 2020 by TC Candler’s list.

All the way he came through some ups and downs in his journey, PewDiePie can be called an essential in YouTube and a daily dose of energy for 19-year-olds. With a heartfelt wish for an awesome birthday for him, Stay awesome bros! Brofist!

Design by Shanaka Vishwantha

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