Streamer PewDiePie has officially lost his throne as the biggest channel on YouTube, with Bollywood production company T-Series officially taking the top spot.
The Swedish YouTuber has already posted a parody concession rap ‘congratulating’ T-Series. Yes, it sucks. But he’s fabulously wealthy so you have to watch it. I don’t make the rules.
Current numbers show T-Series fairly narrowly leading PewDiePie in subscribers, 92,083,891 to 92,004,190. The two channels have actually fought for dominance for the past six or so months, T-Series occasionally briefly taking the number one position for losing it again. But this time the Indian channel has held it for long enough for PewDiePie to make a rap. So that’s a win, I guess.
PewDiePie, real name Felix Kjellberg, has been the top channel on YouTube since 2013.
The phrase ‘Subscribe to PewDiePie’ became a meme when many creators started dropping it in their videos in August last year. It was something of a rallying cry for independent YouTube creators like Kjellberg against mammoth content machines like T-Series.
As with many memes, it was quickly perverted – someone graffitied it on a war memorial in Brooklyn, and it was infamously said by the Christchurch shooter at the beginning of his livestream. Kjellberg has denounced all misappropriations of his name. Some have blamed these controversies for the slowdown in PewDiePie’s subscriber growth.
It’s entirely possible that PewDiePie could reign supreme again. But probably not. End of an era.
