PewDiePie facts for kids

Quick facts for kids PewDiePie
Kjellberg in July 2019
Personal information
Born	Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (1989-10-24) 24 October 1989 (age 35) Gothenburg, Sweden
Occupation	YouTuber
Spouse(s)	Marzia Kjellberg ​ (m. 2019)​
Signature
YouTube information
Years active	2010–present
Genre	Let's Play vlog comedy commentary satire
Subscribers	110 million
Total views	29.4 billion
Network	Machinima (c. 2011–2012) Maker Studios (2012–2017) Re6l (c. 2019–present)
Associated acts	Marzia Kjellberg jacksepticeye jacksfilms Markiplier PJ Liguori MrBeast Roomie Boyinaband Party In Backyard The Anime Man Emma Blackery
Subscriber and view counts updated as of 5 January 2025.

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (born 24 October 1989), known online as PewDiePie, is a famous Swedish YouTuber. He is well-known for his funny videos, especially his gaming content. Felix has become one of the most recognized online personalities and content creators in the world. Many people see him as a symbol for YouTube, especially in the gaming community.

Felix grew up in Gothenburg, Sweden. He started his YouTube channel "PewDiePie" in 2010. At first, he mostly posted videos called Let's Plays, where he played horror and action video games. His channel grew very quickly in 2012 and 2013. On 15 August 2013, it became the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. For a few years, from 2014 to 2017, his channel also had the most views on the platform. During this time, his videos changed from just gaming to include vlogs, short comedies, and music videos.

Later in the 2010s, some of Felix's content became more talked about and faced more attention from the media. In 2019, after a big public competition with an Indian music company called T-Series, his channel was overtaken as the most-subscribed on YouTube. Felix then started uploading videos less often and took breaks from the internet. He decided to upload videos more for fun than as a full-time job. In his personal life, he moved to Japan with his wife, Marzia, who is also an internet personality from Italy.

Today, his channel still has over 110 million subscribers and 29.4 billion views. This makes it one of the most-subscribed and most-viewed channels on YouTube. His popularity has even helped increase sales for the video games he plays. He has also used his fame to raise money for charity. In 2016, Time magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Early Life and School Days

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg was born on 24 October 1989 in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he also grew up. His parents are Lotta Kristine Johanna and Ulf Christian Kjellberg. He has an older sister named Fanny. His mother was a top information officer in Sweden, and his father is a business executive.

Kjellberg studied at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg

When Felix was a child, he loved art. He would draw popular video game characters like Mario and Sonic. He also enjoyed playing video games on his Super Nintendo Entertainment System, such as Star Fox and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. In high school, he often played video games in his room and would skip classes to go to an Internet café with his friends. In his last year of high school, he bought a computer with money he earned by selling his artwork through his grandmother's art gallery.

After high school, Felix started studying industrial economics and technology management at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. However, he left the university in 2011. While some reports said he left to focus on YouTube, Felix clarified in 2017 that he left because he wasn't interested in his studies. He also said that leaving university just for a YouTube career would be "stupid."

Felix also really liked Adobe Photoshop and wanted to create photo manipulation art. After leaving Chalmers, he entered Photoshop contests and almost got a job at a big advertising company in Scandinavia. He was also interested in making videos for YouTube. When he didn't get the advertising job, he sold special prints of his photoshopped images to buy a computer for making YouTube videos.

Starting His YouTube Journey

First Videos and Early Growth

Felix first created a YouTube account called "Pewdie" in December 2006. He said "pew" was the sound of lasers and "die" meant dying. He forgot the password to this account, so he made a new channel called "PewDiePie" on 29 April 2010. After leaving university, his parents didn't help him financially. So, he earned money for his early videos by working as a harbor captain, selling his Photoshop art, and working at a hot dog stand. Felix said that being able to make videos was more important to him than a fancy career. He later remembered, "I knew people were big at other types of videos, but there was no one big in gaming, and I didn't know you could make money out of it. It was never like a career that I could just quit college to pursue. It was just something I loved to do."

In his first few years on YouTube, Felix focused on commenting on video games, especially horror and action games. Some of his earliest videos included games like Minecraft and Call of Duty. He became well-known for his Let's Plays of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and its related game mods. Felix said about these videos, "I was so shy back then. It was so weird to me, sitting alone in a room talking into a microphone. That was unheard of back at the time. No one really did it." His oldest video still available is "Minecraft Multiplayer Fun", uploaded on 2 October 2010. In this video, he mostly speaks Swedish, unlike his later English videos. This video has been watched over 21 million times.

Starting on 2 September 2011, he also began posting weekly vlogs called Fridays with PewDiePie. These videos were different from his usual gaming content. They often featured vlogs and Felix doing requests from his viewers.

Fan art of Kjellberg from 2012, showing him as a character from Happy Wheels

By December 2011, Felix's channel had about 60,000 subscribers. It then grew very quickly in 2012. When his channel reached 700,000 subscribers, Felix spoke at a conference. In July 2012, his channel hit 1 million subscribers, and by September, it had 2 million. In October, a company called OpenSlate said Felix's channel was the number one YouTube channel. In December, Felix joined Maker Studios, a company that helps YouTube channels grow.

Becoming the Top YouTuber

On 18 February 2013, Felix's channel reached 5 million subscribers. In April, The New York Times wrote about him after he passed 6 million subscribers. In May 2013, at an awards show in Singapore, Felix won the "Swedish Social Star" award. He also won "Most Popular Social Show," beating other famous YouTubers like Jenna Marbles and Smosh. In July 2013, he became the second most-subscribed YouTube user, passing Jenna Marbles. On 9 July 2013, he reached 10 million subscribers. In August, Felix joined Polaris, a gaming network that is part of Maker Studios.

Felix's subscriber count passed that of the top channel, Smosh, on 15 August. He even received a certificate from Guinness World Records for becoming the most subscribed YouTuber. In November, YouTube's Spotlight channel briefly took over as the most-subscribed. Later that month, Felix said he didn't like YouTube's new comment system and turned off comments on all his videos. On 23 December 2013, his channel passed the YouTube Spotlight channel again, becoming the most-subscribed on YouTube once more. Throughout 2012 and 2013, Felix's channel was one of the fastest-growing on YouTube. Billboard reported that his channel gained more subscribers than any other channel in 2013.

In 2014, Felix started playing games that he found interesting, not just horror games. Kotaku wrote that he was "actively playing more things that interest him."

In March 2014, he said he would upload videos less often. In August 2014, Maker Studios released an official PewDiePie app for iPhones. This app let people watch his videos and share them. Later that month, Felix uploaded a video saying he would permanently turn off comments on his YouTube videos. He said most comments were spam or self-promotion, which he didn't want to see. After turning off comments, Felix talked to his audience through Twitter and Reddit.

On 13 October, he decided to allow comments again, but only after he approved them. He said he did this to encourage viewers to comment on his website's forums instead. He later said that turning off comments made him happier. In the same year, Felix started streaming videos of his show, BroKen, on MLG.tv. He hosted the show with Kenneth Morrison, also known as CinnamonToastKen, who is also a video game commentator.

In October 2014, Felix hinted that he might not renew his contract with Maker Studios when it ended in December 2014. He had some problems with Disney, Maker's parent company. Felix thought about starting his own network. However, after news outlets reported his unhappiness with Maker, he tweeted, "I feel like I was misquoted in The WSJ, and I'm really happy with the work that Maker has been doing for me." Felix continued to make videos with Maker. This partnership led to Maker launching an official PewDiePie website, app, and online store for merchandise. In return, Felix promoted Maker's interests and shared his YouTube ad money with them.

In 2014 alone, Felix's account gained almost 14 million new subscribers and over 4.1 billion total views. Both numbers were higher than any other user. According to Social Blade, Felix's channel became the most-viewed channel on the website on 29 December 2014, with over 7 billion views by that date.

Changing Content and New Projects

Kjellberg at PAX in 2015

The New York Times later noted that around 2015, Felix's videos started to change. He began to try new things. He still played video games, but he also did viral challenges, made fun of other YouTubers, and looked at funny pictures and videos (memes) sent by his fans. Felix said his content at this time was due to him being young, getting bored with playing video games, and YouTube's system encouraging certain types of videos. He also thought his channel's growth had slowed down.

On 6 September 2015, his YouTube account was the first to reach over 10 billion video views. Later that month, Felix hinted that he would be in a web television series. He said he was in Los Angeles to film the show. It was later announced that the series would be an original YouTube Red show called Scare PewDiePie. The show started in February of the next year.

In January 2016, Felix announced he was working with Maker Studios to create Revelmode. This was a special network under Maker that would feature Felix and his YouTube friends in new shows. After the deal, the head of Maker Studios said they were "thrilled to be doubling down with Felix." Along with Felix, eight other YouTubers joined Revelmode: CinnamonToastKen, Marzia, Dodger, Emma Blackery, Jacksepticeye, Jelly, Kwebbelkop, and Markiplier. Three more YouTubers joined later: Cryaotic, KickThePJ, and Slogoman.

Throughout 2016, Felix's video style changed even more. He made fewer Let's Play videos about horror games, and his humor changed. He said his humor became drier, which younger viewers sometimes didn't understand. He looked back at his older videos and regretted using words like gay or retarded in a mean way. In December 2016, Patricia Hernandez from Kotaku wrote about his style changes. She explained that "over the last year, the PewDiePie channel has also had an underlying friction, as Kjellberg slowly distances himself from many of the things that made him famous. He's doing fewer Let's Plays of horror games like Amnesia." She added that "the PewDiePie of 2016 can still be immature, sure, but [...] a defining aspect of recent PewDiePie videos is existential angst, as he describes the bleak reality of making content for a machine he cannot fully control or understand."

On 2 December 2016, he uploaded a video talking about his frustration with YouTube accounts losing subscribers and views for no clear reason. Felix said that many people working with YouTube "have no idea of the struggles that came with being a content creator." A Google representative told Ars Technica that there were no unusual drops in subscriber numbers. Felix's video was uploaded as his channel was close to 50 million subscribers. He said he would delete his channel once it reached that number. On 8 December, his channel hit 50 million subscribers, becoming the first YouTube channel to do so. He soon received a special Play Button from YouTube for this achievement. In the end, Felix did not delete his main PewDiePie channel. Instead, he deleted a smaller second channel he had recently made. His threat to quit was also reported to be a "promotional stunt" for Scare PewDiePie.

Felix still showed his unhappiness with the platform. He criticized YouTube's changing system (algorithm) for negatively affecting how many people watched videos from content creators. YouTube's system started to focus on how long people watched videos and preferred videos that got daily viewers, more engagement (likes and comments), and content that was "ad-friendly." Felix later told The New York Times that creators didn't really know what YouTube's rules were. He responded to the changes by uploading vlogs that mixed sincere feelings with silly humor. He also "enjoyed wading into the meme culture and edgelord humor that accompanied Donald Trump's ascent."

In late 2016 and early 2017, Felix uploaded several videos talking about what he saw as negative effects of the new algorithm on creators' viewership. As a joke about the changing algorithms, Felix made videos asking viewers to help the video reach certain goals, like one million likes, dislikes, or comments. These videos were very successful. The dislike video got over 5 million dislikes before YouTube made these numbers private in November 2021. It became one of the most-disliked videos on the whole platform.

Recent Years and New Adventures

Minecraft Fun and Big Milestones

In September 2018, Felix uploaded a video where he talked about the Indian music company T-Series' YouTube channel possibly passing his in subscribers. He said he wasn't worried about T-Series itself, but he was concerned about what it would mean for YouTube if a big company channel became the most subscribed instead of an individual creator. Online campaigns like "subscribe to PewDiePie" greatly helped Felix's subscriber growth. His channel gained 6.62 million subscribers in December 2018 alone, which was more than the 7 million subscribers he gained in all of 2017.

After briefly being the top channel a few times in early 2019, T-Series officially passed Felix in subscribers on 27 March, becoming the most-subscribed channel on YouTube.

The rest of 2019 brought more discussions about PewDiePie. In early June, Felix uploaded a sponsored video for a social media app called Nimses. The app became very popular after he promoted it. However, some people were worried about the app's location features and privacy settings. Some fans even thought the app might be a pyramid scheme because it offered rewards for inviting friends. The Pirate Party Germany criticized his promotion of Nimses, warning that Felix was promoting a possibly harmful app to many people. A marketing head at Nimses denied the privacy concerns. Felix responded in a video, saying the concerns were just "rumors" and that Nimses was no more invasive than other social media apps.

Even though T-Series passed him and there were some discussions, Felix continued to get a lot of views on YouTube. This was mainly because he started uploading gaming videos consistently again. On 21 June, Felix started Gaming Week, where he uploaded Let's Play videos every day, which he hadn't done in years. One of the games he played was Minecraft, and he was surprised by how much he enjoyed it. Felix focused many of his videos on Minecraft in the following months. Even his Meme Review and LWIAY series started featuring content about the game. Although he had played Minecraft early in his YouTube career, he rarely played it later because he didn't want to just follow the trend of other Minecraft YouTubers, who he felt only played the game for its popularity. This focus on Minecraft was very successful for Felix. He saw a big increase in views, getting over 570 million views in July, which was the most his channel had received in a single month since at least October 2016. His daily new subscribers grew from 25,000 to 45,000 during that month. Despite this success, Felix said he played the game for his own enjoyment and didn't want to become only a "Minecraft YouTuber." He stated, "If Minecraft gets boring, I can just move on to other things."

On 25 August, Felix became the first individual YouTuber to reach 100 million subscribers. His channel was the second overall to reach this milestone, after T-Series. YouTube tweeted a congratulatory message and gave him a Red Diamond Play Button.

In October, Felix said in a video that his YouTube content, and content about him on other websites like Reddit, had been blocked in China. He explained this was because of his comments about the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests and showing an image of Chinese president Xi Jinping compared to Winnie the Pooh in a previous video. In November, Business Insider reported that Felix was working with Re6l, a company that helps internet celebrities with media and online sales.

Towards the end of the year, after being recognized as the most-viewed creator of 2019 with over 4 billion views, Felix announced he would take a break from YouTube the next year. He also deleted his Twitter account because he was unhappy with the site. Felix's break was short, lasting a little over a month in early 2020. Taking short breaks from creating online content became something he would do often in the following years. In his first video after his break, Felix made some jokes about the COVID-19 pandemic and spoke in mock-Chinese phrases. After some people criticized these jokes, Felix uploaded another video, defending his jokes and making more jokes about COVID-19.

Felix signed a special deal to stream only on YouTube in May. YouTube was signing popular streamers to compete with other platforms like Twitch and Mixer. When he signed with YouTube, Felix had over 800,000 followers on DLive, another streaming platform. However, because of his deal with YouTube and not streaming on DLive for four months, it was unclear if he was still connected to DLive. Felix's DLive channel was eventually closed.

In October, Felix's fans started to think his channel was being shadowbanned. This meant his channel and recent videos weren't showing up in YouTube's search results properly. YouTube responded on Twitter, saying the problem was due to their system flagging his recent videos. They also said that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, YouTube was taking longer to review videos, including Felix's. YouTube apologized and said they were "working on fixing the issue."

Moving to Japan and New Chapter

In November 2020, Felix uploaded a Q&A video, looking back at his YouTube career. In the video, he said he felt "retired" from YouTube since earlier that year. He continued to upload videos fairly often after that, but not always consistently. He also decided to post more casual content, like vlogs.

In January 2021, Felix signed a deal with Jellysmack, a company that helps create content. This deal meant Jellysmack would make Felix's content suitable for Facebook Watch and then share it there. Even though his content was now on Facebook, Felix continued to release his new videos first on YouTube.

In May 2022, Felix and his wife Marzia moved from England to Japan. Many of his videos after the move were "vlogs about daily life around Tokyo." In September, Felix explained how his video-making changed when he announced his "retirement." He chose to share videos for fun, just like when he first started uploading.

On 14 November, MrBeast passed Felix as the most-subscribed individual creator on YouTube. Felix and MrBeast are known to be friends. MrBeast had even supported the 'Subscribe to PewDiePie' campaign during Felix's competition with T-Series. Earlier, Felix had answered a viewer's question about whether MrBeast would pass his subscriber count, saying, "He definitely will ... He definitely deserves it, I hope he does it."

After years of not being active, Felix's Twitch account started streaming episodes of the Canadian TV show Trailer Park Boys in March 2023. This was part of a test by a company called CoPilot Media, as they were planning to launch "PewDiePie Infinity," which was an endless loop of Felix's videos. On 9 May, Felix's Twitch account was temporarily blocked, even though it was only streaming old content. On 29 June, Felix announced he would take a break from YouTube because he was going to become a father soon.

How PewDiePie Makes Videos

His Video Style

When he first started on YouTube, Felix's videos were mostly Let's Play videos. His comments on horror games were his most famous content during this early time, but he later started playing other types of games. Unlike regular walkthroughs, Felix made his Let's Play videos more personal, talking directly to his audience. Variety said that Felix "acts like he's spending time with a friend. He begins each video introducing himself in a high-pitched, goofy voice, drawing out the vowels of his YouTube moniker, then delves into the videos."

As his channel grew, Felix's content became more varied. Besides traditional Let's Play videos, he uploaded vlogs, short comedy videos, and structured shows. Towards the end of the 2010s, he started making many reaction-style videos. For example, in late 2018 and early 2019, he reacted to different collections of TikTok videos. Felix has also uploaded music to his channel, often with animations, fan art, or live footage. Many of the music videos on his channel are collaborations with other artists like The Gregory Brothers, Boyinaband, Roomie, and Party In Backyard.

Making Videos and Uploading

In the early days of his YouTube career, Felix didn't hire any editors or outside help for his videos. He said he wanted "YouTube to be YouTube." While his first videos were just raw footage, he later started spending time editing them himself. A Swedish magazine noted he used Adobe Premiere Pro editing software. At different times, he later looked for an editor and a production assistant to help him create content. Even though he now has an editor for his videos, he said in a 2017 video, "I'm just a guy. It's literally just me. There's not a producer out there [...] there's no writer, there's no camera guy." In July of that same year, Felix mentioned that a few months before, he had an office and a small number of people helping him with his content.

Felix has been known for uploading videos very often. By early 2017, he had uploaded almost 3,500 videos to his channel. Because of this, Felix has made videos and statements saying he felt burned out from constantly creating content for YouTube and how it affected his mental health. In March 2017, Felix said his channel was uploading daily. He stated, "[there's] a lot of challenges in doing daily content, [...] but I still really, really love the daily challenge—the daily grind—of just being like, 'hey, I'm gonna make a video today, no matter what.' And sometimes it really works, and sometimes it doesn't."

How His Audience Grew

Media writers have said that Felix's content grew "methodically," meaning he didn't just become famous overnight from one viral video. At the same time, his channel's growth has been described as very fast. Douglas Holt from the Harvard Business Review said that "the power of crowdculture propelled [Kjellberg] to global fame and influence in record time." Many people close to Felix have said he is "steadfastly loyal to his YouTube audience."

By December 2011, Felix's channel had about 60,000 subscribers. On 9 May 2012, it reached 500,000 subscribers. In March 2012, a Swedish newspaper reported that Felix had uploaded at least one video every day for the past seven months. They also noted that his channel had 71 million total video views by then, and 25 million views in February 2012 alone. The channel reached 1 million subscribers in July 2012, and 2 million subscribers in September.

Throughout 2012 and 2013, Felix's channel was one of the fastest-growing on YouTube in terms of new subscribers. In 2013, the channel grew from 3.5 million to almost 19 million subscribers. By the end of 2013, it was gaining a new subscriber every 1.037 seconds. Billboard reported that his channel gained more subscribers than any other channel in 2013. In June 2013, Tubefilter started listing the most viewed YouTube channels each month. In 2013, Felix was consistently at the top of this list, ranking #1 in June, July, August, October, and December. Analyzing Tubefilter's data, The Guardian reported that Felix's channel got 1.3 billion video views in the second half of 2013. His channel had two of the ten most-viewed gaming videos in 2013: the sixth part of his Mad Father Let's Play was the third-most viewed, with 27 million views, and a video from his Funny Gaming Montage series was the eighth-most viewed gaming video of 2013.

On 18 February 2013, Felix's channel reached 5 million subscribers. In April, The New York Times wrote about him after he passed 6 million subscribers. Many of Felix's most-viewed videos are collections of funny moments from his Let's Play videos. One of these, "A Funny Montage," uploaded in June 2013, was his most-viewed video for a long time, with publications still calling it that in 2018.

In July 2013, he passed Jenna Marbles to become the second-most-subscribed YouTube user, and reached 10 million subscribers on 9 July. Felix's subscriber count passed that of the top channel, Smosh, on 15 August 2013. On 31 October 2013, his channel was the first to reach 15 million subscribers. Soon after, YouTube's Spotlight channel passed PewDiePie in subscribers. After competing for the top spot for the next month, PewDiePie's channel firmly held the most-subscribed title on 23 December. On 9 January 2014, the channel reached 20 million subscribers.

In 2014, Felix's channel was the most-viewed in January, and then for seven months in a row from March to September. In August 2014, Tubefilter reported that his channel passed the Rihanna VEVO channel on 19 July as the most-viewed on YouTube, with about 5.2 billion video views. However, data from Social Blade shows that the channel still had fewer video views than the emimusic channel. According to their data, his channel passed emimusic on 29 December 2014, with over 7.2 billion views, to become the most-viewed channel on the website. According to Tubefilter and The Guardian, the channel gained almost 14 million new subscribers and about 4.1 billion video views in 2014. Both numbers were higher than any other user. The latter figure was an 81% increase from the channel's video views in 2013. His channel was also the most viewed in 2013.

In July 2015, his videos were getting over 300 million views per month. He reached the 10 billion video view milestone on 6 September 2015, becoming the first channel to do so. At that time, "A Funny Montage" was Felix's most-viewed video, with about 68.8 million views. Part of the reason it got so many views was because it was also the PewDiePie channel trailer. In 2016, the channel saw fewer views, which also happened to other creators on YouTube, due to changes in YouTube's system. On 8 December, it reached 50 million subscribers, becoming the first YouTube channel to do so.

Online campaigns like "subscribe to PewDiePie" greatly helped Felix's subscriber growth. His channel gained 6.62 million subscribers in December 2018 alone, compared to the 7 million subscribers gained in all of 2017. Renewed interest in Felix's videos because of his subscriber competition with T-Series led to his channel getting over 500 million video views in December 2018. This was then the channel's highest monthly view count ever. After briefly being the top channel several times in early 2019, T-Series passed Felix in subscribers on 27 March, becoming the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. The day after "Congratulations" was uploaded, Felix temporarily regained his lead over T-Series as the most subscribed channel.

In July 2019, largely because of Felix's Minecraft gameplay videos, his channel's video views surged. The Verge noted that it was Felix's most successful month in years for viewership. Data from Social Blade shows the channel received 573 million video views, a new single-month record for Felix's channel at the time. Felix was the most-viewed creator of 2019, with his channel receiving over 4 billion views during the year.

Along with T-Series, the PewDiePie channel is one of only two on YouTube to receive all five levels of YouTube Creator Awards: Silver, Gold, Diamond, Custom, and Red Diamond Creator. These awards are given when a channel passes 100,000; 1 million; 10 million; 50 million; and 100 million subscribers, respectively. Felix called his Custom Creator Award the Ruby Play Button, which he received in 2016. In 2019, Felix's channel became the second overall, and the first run by an individual creator, to receive the Red Diamond Creator Award. His YouTube channel is one of the top 10 most subscribed YouTube channels as of 2024.

Censorship and Challenges

Some of Felix's songs and comments on his videos caused problems and were seen as offensive, leading to his videos being blocked in India.

On 16 October 2019, Felix uploaded an episode of his Meme Review series. In it, he reacted to memes about the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. The video also included his comments on the China–NBA issue and the Blitzchung controversy, as well as memes comparing Chinese president Xi Jinping to Winnie-the-Pooh. Because of this, Felix's channel and content were reportedly blocked in China. The BBC wrote that instead of a complete ban, only "some content related to the YouTuber has indeed been made inaccessible online," and that "there is no evidence to suggest this was done on the orders of the government." The BBC suggested that Baidu might have removed PewDiePie-related messages on a forum to be careful, but that "a [Baidu] search for his name still returns more than eight million results." Vox wrote that "access to reposted PewDiePie videos and music" seemed to be available to some users in the region.

According to Business Insider, "For years, critics of Pewds have been campaigning for YouTube to bar him from the platform to no avail."

Other Cool Things He's Done

Games, Books, and Clothes

On 24 September 2015, Felix released his own video game, PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist, for iOS and Android devices. The game was made by a Canadian game developer called Outerminds, working with Felix. On 29 September 2016, he released another game made by Outerminds, PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator. It was a free app for iOS and Android and quickly became the number one app on the App Store. On 31 October 2017, Armin Ibrisagic, a former developer for Goat Simulator, announced he was working with Felix on his video game Animal Super Squad. Felix helped Ibrisagic with the main idea of the game and gave him feedback and creative ideas. In 2019, Felix released two more video games: PewDiePie's Pixelings on 15 November and Poopdie on 12 December. The latter game was not allowed on the App Store because of its "crude imagery and sound effects which may disgust users," but it is available on Android.

Penguin Group's Razorbill company released Felix's book, This Book Loves You, on 20 October 2015. It's a funny book that makes fun of self-help books. The book is a collection of anti-proverbs (sayings that are the opposite of wise advice) with pictures. It was number one on The New York Times Best Seller list for two weeks in the Young Adult Paperback category. Felix and his wife Marzia also launched Tsuki, a clothing brand for everyone, which they announced in a YouTube video.

Appearing in Other Shows

Besides his own YouTube channel, Felix has appeared in videos by other YouTube creators. In April 2013, he made a quick appearance in an episode of Epic Rap Battles of History, playing Mikhail Baryshnikov. In July 2013, he was a guest judge on the second season of Internet Icon, alongside Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox from Smosh, and Jenna Marbles. Felix also appeared in YouTube's yearly Rewind series from 2013 to 2016, and again in YouTube Rewind in 2019.

On 3 June 2014, Sveriges Radio announced that Felix was chosen to host his own episode of the Swedish radio show Sommar i P1. Because he was popular internationally, the episode was recorded in both Swedish and English. The Swedish version was broadcast on 9 August 2014, and the English version was published online at the same time. The link to the Swedish version was shared over 3,500 times, and the English version was shared about 49,000 times.

In December 2014, Felix was a guest star in two episodes of the 18th season of South Park. These two episodes were the last two parts of the season. The first part, "#REHASH" aired on 3 December, and the second part, "#HappyHolograms", aired on 10 December. In the episodes, he made fun of himself and other Let's Play commentators, giving overly expressive comments on Call of Duty gameplay.

In July 2015, Felix was announced as a voice actor in the Vimeo fantasy series, Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures. In October of the same year, he appeared as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where Colbert called him "Emperor of the Internet." In February 2016, he appeared on Conan, playing Far Cry Primal as part of the show's Clueless Gamer segment. In 2019, he was a guest on the Cold Ones YouTube podcast.

Helping Others Through Charity

Felix's popularity has allowed him to encourage support for fundraising efforts. In February 2012, Felix competed in an online contest called King of the Web. He didn't win the main title, but he became the "Gaming King of the Web" for that voting period. In the next voting period, Felix won and gave his cash prize to the World Wildlife Fund. He has raised money for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He also started a "Water Campaign" charity drive, where his fans could donate money to Charity: Water, to celebrate reaching ten million subscribers. Felix gave one dollar to the charity for every 500 views the video announcing the campaign got, up to $10,000. Felix hoped to raise US$250,000, but by the end of the drive, they had raised US$446,612. Felix organized another charity drive for Charity: Water in February 2016. This drive raised US$152,239, which was more than their $100,000 goal.

To celebrate reaching 25 million subscribers in June 2014, Felix announced another charity drive for Save the Children. It raised over $630,000, surpassing a $250,000 goal. In an interview with a Swedish magazine, he said he wants to continue these drives. He also said that John and Hank Green gave him the idea to make special videos for charity. These videos are bought by game companies and advertisers, sometimes for up to $50,000.

On 31 October 2019, Felix donated $69,420 to Team Trees, a fundraising effort to fight deforestation by planting one tree for every dollar donated.

In January 2021, Felix raised almost $1 million for Red Nose Day, Movember, Papyrus, Blue Ocean Foundation, Save the Children Lebanon, and Winston's Wish.

His Life Outside YouTube

Marzia Kjellberg, Felix's wife, has appeared in his videos many times.

Felix married his long-time Italian girlfriend Marzia Bisognin on 19 August 2019. The couple had their first son on 11 July 2023.

Felix and Marzia met through a friend of Marzia's in 2011. After they started an online relationship, Felix flew to Italy to meet her. The couple moved between Sweden and Italy before settling in Brighton, England. Felix explained that they moved to the UK in July 2013 because they wanted to live near the sea and have better internet. He said he liked being able to live a more private life in Brighton.

A trip to Japan in 2018 made Felix want to move there. Announcing their plan to move permanently, Felix and his wife bought a home in Japan in 2019. Their home was robbed in late 2019. Their move was also delayed because Japan had strict rules for moving due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2022, Felix and his wife moved to their home in Japan with a 5-year business visa.

Felix has often mentioned in videos that he follows a pescetarian diet, which means he eats fish but no other meat.

Filmography

Television

Web

Music videos

Video games

Gameography

Discography

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: PewDiePie para niños

• Internet in Sweden
• List of YouTubers