PewDiePie’s Net Worth: The YouTuber Implies He’s Worth Even More
PEWDIEPIE #PEWDIEPIE
Over the past decade, PewDiePie has become one of the most popular YouTubers on the planet. His channel, which held the title for most-viewed on YouTube for more than two years, currently has over 109 million subscribers and has received more than 27 billion views. We know top-tier YouTube stars earn millions of dollars, and this Swedish-born vlogger is no exception. So what is PewDiePie’s net worth? Here, we uncover the truth behind his massive fortune.
PewDiePie’s Real Name Is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg
PewDiePie was born Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg in Gothenburg, Sweden, on October 24, 1989. He was an avid video game player as a kid and attended the Chalmers University of Technology for a number of years before dropping out in 2011.
When Kjellberg started his PewDiePie channel in April of 2010, he mostly posted “Let’s Play” commentaries on popular video games like Minecraft, Call of Duty, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The gamer says that at the time, he had no idea he could actually make a living off posting his gaming videos to YouTube.
“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,” he told The Guardian in 2015. “It was never like a career that I could just quit college to pursue. It was just something I loved to do. The fact that I could make videos was so much more important to me than [that] I had to spend a few hours a day doing a job that wasn’t that prestigious.”
At first, PewDiePie held down odd jobs to fund his video making, including working as a a hot dog vendor. But by the fall of 2011, after adding weekly vlogs to his “Let’s Play” video content, his hobby began earning him some cash. The channel had 60,000 subscribers by December 2011 and exploded to one million subscribers in July 2012. By the end of 2013, he reached 19 million subscribers and became the most subscribed channel on YouTube.
PewDiePie Has A Long History Of Controversial Moments
As the decade wore on, PewDiePie’s popularity continued to soar. By December of 2015, his videos averaged more than 300 million views per month, and his channel became the first ever to hit 50 million subscribers. However, along with his stardom came a number of setbacks due to his involvement in multiple controversies.
In early 2017, PewDiePie was called out for using a racial slur in one of his “Let’s Play” gaming videos. Days later, he came under fire again for posting a video prank in which he paid participants to hold signs that read “Death to all Jews.” Viewers were offended, and PewDiePie apologized.
“I am sorry,” he said in a video. “I didn’t think [the sign holders] would actually do it. I feel partially responsible. I mean I’ve got to give them five stars for an outstanding experience because at least they did what I asked. I don’t feel good. I don’t feel too proud of this, I’m not gonna lie. I’m not antisemitic, or whatever it’s called, okay so don’t get the wrong idea. It was a funny meme, and I didn’t think it would work, okay. I swear I love jews, I love ’em.”
The video ended up costing PewDiePie a lucrative deal with Walt Disney Co. and forced YouTube to pull his channel from their premium advertising program. YouTube Red also canceled the upcoming season of his show, Scare PewDiePie.
Despite these consequences, PewDiePie found himself in hot water once again later that year when he used another racial slur during a live stream. And in December of 2017, fans were outraged when he recommended and shared a YouTube channel that was clearly anti-Semitic. PewDiePie claimed he did not know about the channel’s offensive content, saying, “[The channel creator] apparently likes to have hidden and not-so-hidden Nazi references in his videos and obviously if I noticed that I wouldn’t have referenced him in the shoutout.”
PewDiePie At One Point Made Over $3,000 Per Minute Off His YouTube Videos
Luckily for PewDiePie, his controversies have not made much of a dent in his income. He reportedly made $12 million in 2019 and earned a reported $15.5 million dollars in 2018, which breaks down to a whopping $3,319.71 per minute of video. But despite his wealth, the YouTube sensation says that he doesn’t particularly like the fact that so much fuss is made over his fortune.
“It seems like the whole world cares more about how much money I make than I do myself,” he said in a YouTube video.“We did raise a million dollars for charity, and very few articles picked up on that, but here it is everywhere how much money I make. I don’t think there’s any good reason why anyone should care, and on top of that I don’t think there’s any good reason why I should care either, so we’re just going to end it there.”
PewDiePie Subtly Disputes His Reported Net Worth
So how much money is this YouTube mogul worth? There’s been some dispute about the actual number. According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, PewDiePie’s net worth is $40 million. However, in a recent video, he suggests this number is not accurate and that he may be worth even more.
“C’mon! C’mon!” he says. “I’m not gonna say, obviously I’m not going to talk about money and how much money I make, but $40 million? C’mon!”
Regardless of the actual number, PewDiePie insists that at the end of the day, being rich really isn’t the key to a perfect life. “You only have to experience it yourself to realize how little it does for your well-being or your happiness, I should say,” he says in the video. “I just think we put too much weight on it, that’s it. [Money] is great, it can be useful, but I think in general we tend to romanticize the concept of fame and money.”