Felix Kjellberg might not ring a bell on his own, but when we associate him with the YouTube user PewDiePie, the situation changes completely. With nearly 38 million followers, his channel is the number one on the portal, and it has held that position since December 2013 thanks to indie game reviews and charity work. Unsurprisingly, YouTube makes significant payments to PewDiePie for his audience, and according to a Swedish publication, in 2014 he received 63 million kronor... $7.4 million.
The number one on YouTube
Obviously, there are people who transmit something special through the Web. I'm not talking about artists, politicians, or actors, but ordinary people who, when they stand in front of a camera, radiate charisma, gaining millions of followers in a short time. We've previously talked about the most influential people on the Internet, but all of them pale in comparison to what Swedish Felix Kjellberg, much better known on YouTube as PewDiePie, has achieved. Kjellberg opened his channel in April 2010, and his main activity there is indie game reviews, or as they like to say on the other side of the pond, "Let's Play" videos with his comments and reactions. At first, PewDiePie filmed himself playing horror titles like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Slender, and SCP. Unscripted content, unfiltered expressions, and genuine scares in front of the camera made PewDiePie what he is today: the number one on YouTube in subscribers, and the clearest example of what Google calls "Generation C", for content creation and community engagement.
Lucrative fame
His fame allowed him to gain sponsors, start donation campaigns for different organizations (WWF, Save the Children, etc.), and carry out other projects, such as his book called "This Book Loves You", which will go on sale in October. His videos accumulate more than nine billion views, and although not everything was rosy during his career (his run-ins with Machinima and Nintendo are well documented), such popularity has been translated into considerable income. During 2013, PewDiePie confirmed in an AMA that his earnings were $4 million, surprising everyone. In 2014, those four million became insignificant, because if we trust what was published by the Swedish newspaper Expressen, PewDiePie's earnings in 2014 were 63 million kronor, equivalent to $7.4 million.
If you feel you've chosen the wrong career, don't worry: I'm going through the same thing. I imagine his company, PewDiePie Productions AB, must keep things in order with the Swedish tax authorities, one of the most obsessive and paranoid when it comes to collecting (I think they're still chasing ABBA), but Kjellberg has said more than once that he "spends much more on donations than on himself", something you don't hear often. $7.4 million. Where did I put my webcam...?
