In recent YouTube news over the past month or so, many have been watching as Indian channel, T-Series, is rising to claim the spot as the most subscribed to channel on the website. This would overthrow the current spot holder, Pewdiepie (Felix Kjellberg), who has been at the top for several years. Though I am not a YouTuber myself, I can see the frustration and anger that can definitely come along with seeing this.
First thing, I realize that Pewds has had a troubled past. He has been accused of being anti-semitic and sexist. These accusations were the results of some so-called offensive jokes, but he is often known for his crude humor by his longtime fans. Last year, the second season release of his YouTube Red show, Scare Pewdiepie, was canceled after he slipped a racial slur during a live stream. He has since apologized and does genuinely feel bad about his actions. His fans also constantly remind him of his mistake and joke about it so that he doesn’t do it again.
A lot of people have remarked that they’re okay with him losing his rank. Not only for the reasons listed above, but because he has been in the top spot for so many years that people think someone else should take the spotlight. The problem with this is that Pewdiepie is a solo YouTuber. Yes, he has the assistance of editors, but he is not followed by a huge company. He has managed to appeal to watchers from all over the world. Not only is he Swedish, but he can speak English and a little Japanese, connecting him to a wide variety of people. He began as a gaming channel, and while he does do play-throughs seldomly, his channel focuses on news and memes now.
T-Series is a company, based in India, which is the 2nd highest populated country in the world. They can only truly appeal to people who speak the same language. They just recently started uploading music videos and soap operas, using the help of productions crews with hundreds of employees. This may discourage individual creators from starting or continuing their channels because they see no point in trying if a company is going to sit at the top.
At the time I am writing this, Pewdiepie is sitting at the top with 70.5 million subscribers and growing. T-Series is slowly closing in at 70.1 million subscribers. If you’re interested in gaming, memes, learning YouTube news, and supporting an individual creator that’s been here for 10 years, here is the link to his channel so you can subscribe and help keep him at the top.