news
07-07-2015, 10:20 PM
He has 37.7 million subscribers, 9 billion video views and a fat annual paycheck.
YouTube gaming star Felix Kjellberg, better known by his online persona PewDiePie (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-lHJZR3Gqxm24_Vd_AJ5Yw), has uploaded thousands of comedic clips of himself playing video games. His YouTube profile has the most video views (http://socialblade.com/youtube/user/pewdiepie) of any account on the site, and it's the fourth most-subscribed in the world, according to Social Blade. And all of those numbers pay. Quite well.
Kjellberg made $4 million last year, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported (http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/youtube-jattens-stora-vinst-63-miljoner/), and the 25-year-old raked in more than $7 million this year after adding an additional 10 million subscribers.
The news seems to confirm two facts: You can still make a ridiculous amount of money (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=2015/02/05/youtube-stars-money_n_6549906.html) via social media, and the industry centered on watching people play video games is here to stay (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/its-totally-normal-to-watch-other-people-play-video-games/379476/).
Kjellberg recently uploaded a video to his YouTube channel to address the news -- and criticism -- that he's made so much money in his non-traditional career path.
"Money is a topic that I purposefully avoid," he says in the clip. "I just want to make entertaining videos. It was never a career that I just quit college to pursue, it's just something I just love to do. Here we are five years later, and it's exploded."
Kjellberg notes that a lot of people have responded to the news in anger, saying it's "unfair" for him to profit for basically "sitting on [his] ass all day" yelling at a screen, "which is true."
"What people I guess don't really think about until it's in their face is that I have 9 billion views, and that translates to something," he says.
Kjellberg doesn't dispute that he makes millions every year posting videos to a social network. But he also has used his social capital for good causes, including a fundraiser that garnered $630,000 in donations (http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.9052337/k.ECCD/PewDiePie_Celebrates_his_25_Million_YouTube_Subscr iber_Milestone_by_Supporting_Save_the_Children.htm ?msource=weklppdp0314) to celebrate his 25 millionth YouTube subscriber.
And for the angry among his fans, he has a simple message:
"Haters gonna hate, right?" -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/1/rc.htm)
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/2/rc.htm)
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http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/a2.img (http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/a2.htm)http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677045/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/mf.gif
More... (http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677045/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/l/0L0Shuffingtonpost0N0C20A150C0A70C0A70Cpewdiepie0E youtube0Eearnings0In0I77473920Bhtml/story01.htm)
YouTube gaming star Felix Kjellberg, better known by his online persona PewDiePie (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-lHJZR3Gqxm24_Vd_AJ5Yw), has uploaded thousands of comedic clips of himself playing video games. His YouTube profile has the most video views (http://socialblade.com/youtube/user/pewdiepie) of any account on the site, and it's the fourth most-subscribed in the world, according to Social Blade. And all of those numbers pay. Quite well.
Kjellberg made $4 million last year, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported (http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/youtube-jattens-stora-vinst-63-miljoner/), and the 25-year-old raked in more than $7 million this year after adding an additional 10 million subscribers.
The news seems to confirm two facts: You can still make a ridiculous amount of money (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=2015/02/05/youtube-stars-money_n_6549906.html) via social media, and the industry centered on watching people play video games is here to stay (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/its-totally-normal-to-watch-other-people-play-video-games/379476/).
Kjellberg recently uploaded a video to his YouTube channel to address the news -- and criticism -- that he's made so much money in his non-traditional career path.
"Money is a topic that I purposefully avoid," he says in the clip. "I just want to make entertaining videos. It was never a career that I just quit college to pursue, it's just something I just love to do. Here we are five years later, and it's exploded."
Kjellberg notes that a lot of people have responded to the news in anger, saying it's "unfair" for him to profit for basically "sitting on [his] ass all day" yelling at a screen, "which is true."
"What people I guess don't really think about until it's in their face is that I have 9 billion views, and that translates to something," he says.
Kjellberg doesn't dispute that he makes millions every year posting videos to a social network. But he also has used his social capital for good causes, including a fundraiser that garnered $630,000 in donations (http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.9052337/k.ECCD/PewDiePie_Celebrates_his_25_Million_YouTube_Subscr iber_Milestone_by_Supporting_Save_the_Children.htm ?msource=weklppdp0314) to celebrate his 25 millionth YouTube subscriber.
And for the angry among his fans, he has a simple message:
"Haters gonna hate, right?" -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/1/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/1/rc.htm)
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/2/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/2/rc.htm)
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/3/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/rc/3/rc.htm)
http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/a2.img (http://da.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/a2.htm)http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/233194376855/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/a2t.imghttp://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677045/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/mf.gif
More... (http://feeds.huffingtonpost.com/c/35496/f/677045/s/47ebc3b7/sc/15/l/0L0Shuffingtonpost0N0C20A150C0A70C0A70Cpewdiepie0E youtube0Eearnings0In0I77473920Bhtml/story01.htm)