Born in
Gothenburg,
Sweden, PewDiePie originally pursued a degree in
industrial economics and
technology management at
Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. In 2010, during his time at the university, he registered a YouTube account under the name PewDiePie. The following year, he dropped out of Chalmers after losing interest in his degree field, much to the dismay of his parents. After failing to earn an apprenticeship with an advertising agency in
Scandinavia, he then decided to focus on creating content for his YouTube channel. In order to fund his videos, PewDiePie began selling prints of his
Photoshop art projects and working at a hot dog stand. PewDiePie soon gathered a rapidly increasing online following, and in July 2012, his channel surpassed one million subscribers.
Early on, PewDiePie was signed under the
multi-channel network Machinima. After dissatisfaction with the network, he signed with
Maker Studios, having his channel under Maker's sub-networks Polaris and, later, Revelmode. Throughout his time on YouTube, PewDiePie has produced content that has been praised as genuine and unfiltered, but also been received as abrasive, and in some cases, met with controversy. As a result of an early 2017 controversy regarding allegations of
anti-Semitism in several of PewDiePie's videos, the
Disney-operated Maker Studios ended their partnership with him, dropping him from their network. While he criticised the coverage of the situation and defended his content as jokes that were taken out of context, he conceded its offensiveness.
On 15 August 2013, PewDiePie became the
most subscribed user on YouTube, being surpassed for a total of 46 days in late 2013 by
YouTube Spotlight. Holding the position since 22 December 2013, the channel has 64 million subscribers as of July 2018.
[8] From 29 December 2014 to 14 February 2017, PewDiePie's channel held the distinction of being the most viewed of all time, and as of June 2018, the channel has received over 18 billion video views.
[8]
PewDiePie apologized for posting a meme that made light of Demi Lovato's hospitalization for a suspected drug overdose recently.
Lovato was rushed to hospital on Tuesday, but was stable and recovering on Thursday,
CNN reports.
PewDiePie's meme, which was believed to have been a repost from another source, prompted a bad reaction from Lovato's fans and supporters of those suffering from addiction,
BBC notes.
The YouTuber, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, has been no stranger to controversy since he became known for his game commentaries and having the site's most popular channel with more than 64.5 million subscribers.
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