PewDiePie Deletes His Alternate YouTube Channel
By John Jacques 12 December 2016
YouTube celebrity PewDiePie deletes an alternate channel of his on the video-sharing website after promising a deletion would occur upon reaching 50 million subscribers.
YouTube star PewDiePie made waves this week when the website’s most subscribed user promised to delete his account once it reached a total of 50 million subscriptions. Once the statement was put forth and reiterated across media channels around the globe, Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg’s channel – which earns the celebrity around $7.45 million annually – began to grow at a level even faster than usual. It didn’t take long for the channel to hit the promised 50 million marker, and with that came expectations.
The YouTube personality initially appeared to double down on his promise, stating yesterday that he would delete his YouTube channel at 5PM GMT today. As the clock ticked down closer to zero, a new video called “DELETING MY CHANNEL” appeared, but as many gamers had aptly guessed, the entire thing had been a joke played by Felix. His Youtube channel remains both open, active, and with over 50 million subscribers. Curious gamers can take a look at the official video below, which is hosted on PewDiePie’s still-functional YouTube channel.
As the above video shows, instead of shutting down his actual account, Felix went ahead and shut down a parody alternate account for Jack Septic Eye, who happens to be another prominent YouTube account with around 13 million followers. The parody account he actually shut down had a comparatively sparse following, and only hosted some content of PewDiePie mimicking the Irish accent of Jack himself. As the classic YouTube saying goes, “It’s just a prank, bro!”
Ironically, PewDiePie’s promise to delete his channel has given him a substantial boost to his already-impressive follower count, which now rests at over 50,100,000. To put that in to perspective, there are more accounts subscribed to PewDiePie than there are people in countries like Spain or Canada. Given how lucrative the channel is – what with its subtly disclosed paid sponsorships and all – it is unlikely that PewDiePie will ever shut down his main source of income, lest he ever get tired of producing YouTube videos on a consistent basis.
PewDiePie put some icing on the cake in the above video by promising to delete his main channel if it reaches 100 million subscribers. If the current YouTube growth trends continue, it might remain that PewDiePie would be the faster YouTuber to hit that milestone too. Only time will tell what the future holds, but for the time being, the future will have plenty more of PewDiePie chiming in from his original channel and his entertainment network.
What do you think of PewDiePie’s YouTube joke, Ranters? Do you feel misled, or had you expected it?
