PewDiePie
| PewDiePie | |||||||||||||||||||
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 PewDiePie | |||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg October 24, 1989 Gothenburg, Sweden | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Swedish | ||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Chalmers University of Technology (dropped out) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | YouTuber | ||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Marzia Kjellberg (m. 2019) | ||||||||||||||||||
| YouTube information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Channel | |||||||||||||||||||
| Also known as | PewDiePie | ||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 2010–present | ||||||||||||||||||
| Genre(s) | Gaming, comedy, vlog | ||||||||||||||||||
| Subscribers | 110 million+ (September 2026) | ||||||||||||||||||
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PewDiePie (born Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg; October 24, 1989) is a Swedish YouTuber who defined an era of the platform. He held the title of YouTube's most-subscribed channel from August 2013 until 2019, became the first individual creator to reach 100 million subscribers, and turned a one-man gaming-commentary operation into the blueprint for the modern creator career.[1] In 2026, with over 110 million subscribers, he stepped back from the spotlight on his own terms — ending his long-running family vlogs to give his young son a private childhood.[2]
Early life and education
Kjellberg was born on 24 October 1989 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He attended Göteborgs Högre Samskola and later studied industrial economics and technology management at Chalmers University of Technology, which he left to pursue YouTube — a gamble that looked reckless in 2011 and obvious in retrospect. He married Italian former YouTuber Marzia Bisognin in August 2019 after eight years together.[3]
Career
The Let's Play king (2010–2016)
Kjellberg registered the PewDiePie channel in 2010 and became one of the pioneers of the Let's Play format — horror-game playthroughs delivered with an unhinged, theatrical energy that made viewers feel like they were on the couch beside him. The formula exploded. In August 2013 he became the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, and he held the crown for the better part of six years, a reign no individual creator has matched since. By 2016 he was the platform's biggest earner and its most recognizable face, a one-man media operation run out of Brighton, England, with his then-girlfriend Marzia.
The T-Series battle and reinvention (2017–2021)
The late 2010s tested him. A 2017 controversy over offensive jokes in his videos cost him his Disney-owned Maker Studios deal and a YouTube Red series, and forced a public reckoning with the responsibilities of his audience size. Then came the subscriber race that became a global internet event: Indian music label T-Series closed in on his subscriber count through late 2018, and the "Subscribe to PewDiePie" campaign — backed by fellow creators including a young MrBeast, who bought billboards for the cause — turned into a months-long meme war. His diss track "Bitch Lasagna" became his most-viewed video. T-Series finally passed him for good in April 2019, but by then PewDiePie had already begun his second act: stepping back from daily uploads, leaning into meme-review formats, Minecraft series and a slower, more deliberate pace.
Japan, family and stepping back (2022–2026)
In 2022 Kjellberg and Marzia moved to Japan, a country they had fallen in love with years earlier, and the channel's center of gravity shifted with them. Their son Björn was born in July 2023, and the monthly Japan vlogs — quiet videos about gardening, cooking and family life — became some of the most beloved content on a channel with over 110 million subscribers.[4]
In May 2026 Kjellberg announced the vlogs would end that September. His reasoning was simple and, in the creator economy, almost radical: his three-year-old son was becoming too exposed online, and appearing on camera should be the boy's own choice someday. "He deserves his own privacy," he said.[5] The final vlog went up on 22 September 2026, closing a four-year, roughly 100-episode run. He has not quit YouTube — he continues to upload on his own schedule — but the daily-grind era of PewDiePie is over, ended deliberately by a creator who decided his child mattered more than the content.[6]
References
- ↑ https://www.techdigest.tv/2022/11/mrbeast-overtakes-pewdiepie-as-most-subscribed-youtube-creator.html
- ↑ https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/internet-culture/creators-influencers/2026/09/22/pewdiepie-felix-kjellberg-son-vlogs-youtube-end/91888426007/
- ↑ https://thetab.com/2026/06/22/remember-pewdiepie-heres-a-look-at-what-the-youtuber-is-doing-now-in-2026
- ↑ https://thetab.com/2026/06/22/remember-pewdiepie-heres-a-look-at-what-the-youtuber-is-doing-now-in-2026
- ↑ https://www.talkesport.com/entertainment/pewdiepie-ends-family-vlogs-son-bjorn-privacy/
- ↑ https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/internet-culture/creators-influencers/2026/09/22/pewdiepie-felix-kjellberg-son-vlogs-youtube-end/91888426007/