Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg became rich by playing video games and making obnoxious videos. Love him or hate him, PewDiePie is one of the richest and most notorious YouTubers in the world.
Kjellberg’s fame is truly something else. He gaine 15.5 million subscribers in 2013, more than any other YouTube channel that existed, and became the platform’s most-subscribed channel for several days, before being dethroned by T-Series, a channel owned by an Indian record company.
Kjellberg has the second-most subscribed YouTube channel and has held that position for nearly seven years. Advertisers pay him up to $450,000 for a deal to get their project featured.
Not bad for a guy who dropped out of college and sold hot dogs to pay the bills.
Because Social Blade has an algorithm that includes negative numbers, the amount of money it thinks he’s earning is at $0. But that’s impossible. In 2019, PewDiePie brought in an estimated $8 million a month, according to one study. In 2014, Social Blade ranked him as making upward of $16.6 million per year.
We’re going with $8 million, but acknowledge that it’s probably higher.
