PewDiePie is on Time’s 100 Most Influential List, here’s why

Written by Gage Allen, April 21, 2016, at 8:00 p.m. Tweet to: @lotims

PewDiePie, otherwise known as Felix Kjellberg, has been listed on Time‘s 100 Most Influential People list. Kjellberg is known as being YouTube’s #1 most subscribed user of all time, as well as for creating a mass amount of video game related entertainment such as Let’s Plays, Mobile Games, live-action shows, and more.

The internet has voiced mixed feelings about Kjellberg being on the list, some saying that he is not as influential as Time has pegged him to be. To respond to this, we wanted to shed some light on why PewDiePie’s placement on this list is well deserved.

Felix Kjellberg began making YouTube videos in 2010, discovering his passion for creating Lets Plays. This led him to drop out of college the following year to pursue the risky venture of becoming a YouTuber full time. It was during this time many had joked that YouTubers should get a “real” job and stop “pretending”. Success stories on YouTube were present, but by no means did they reveal a top sense of earnings, as some were just barely scrapping by with ad-revenue. Let’s Plays at the time were also considered a somewhat strange sense of entertainment. They had received a lot of criticism from many who couldn’t understand why viewers would be interested in watching others playing games. This led to YouTubers who decided to pursue Let’s Plays as full time work, being made fun of more than most. PewDiePie was the one drawing the most fire, as his unique personality on-camera was unusual to certain viewers.

However, his videos began attracting a lot of attention, moving from tens of thousands of views to millions of views. It was soon apparent that PewDiePie was beginning to climb the ranks of YouTube’s subscriber list, and managed to find the niche that would propel him forward.

This was observed by many on YouTube as a somewhat stunning revelation. PewDiePie had managed to not only attract millions of subscribers, but was able to keep up the momentum beyond what any other YouTuber was able to do. It got to the point where in one summer he gained upwards of 7 million subscribers alone. A feat that no one at the time had accomplished. His Let’s Play videos become so influential that they were able to spike sales of the games he played. This is when game developers around the world, both large and small, began clamoring over PewDiePie’s spotlight. His channel had surpassed 1 million subscribers in 2012, and less than 2 years later his channel would surpass 40 million subscribers; That’s 39 million subscribers in less than two years. A feat unmatched by anyone. 

As his subscriber count rose, his influence in the world grew as well. He began approaching massive levels of attention soon exceeding how popular the creator of Minecraft, Notch, had become. His words became news throughout the world; When he disabled comments on his videos, news outlets globally covered the event, with millions of people online discussing the circumstance. When he stated his opinion and disagreement with certain things in the game world, that became news as well, inciting a lot of criticism of those same areas of the game industry.

PewDiePie’s word became a spotlight for millions across the world

At the time of this writing, PewDiePie has garnered over 43 million subscribers. His channel has become the most watched YouTube channel in the world, reaching 10 billion views, and making $12 million in 2015 alone. PewDiePie had managed to do the impossible, and catapulted the art of Lets Plays to a global entertainment standard.

He had become the flagship of the most watched video database in history.

Kjellberg understood how useful his influence can be, so he decided to use a lot of it for good. Choosing to help raise over a million dollars for charities around the world, such as the  “Water Campaign” charity, where his fans could donate money to Charity: Water, in which his efforts ended up raising $446,462. His “Save the Children” charity efforts raised over $630,000 as well. Showing no signs of stopping, Kjellberg has stated that he is going to continue using his influence to raise money for charities globally. 

One YouTuber had managed to do what none thought possible.

This is why Felix Kjellberg earned the place in Time’s 100 most influential people list.