YouTube king Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg reached 91 million subscribers in the midst of his battle with Bollywood label T-Series – but his next subscriber goal may never come to fruition.
While Kjellberg announced a race to 100 million subs against T-Series in early March, the YouTuber has since backpedaled on this goal, appearing to admit defeat in an episode of LWIAY on March 30.
“Let’s get real here,” PewDiePie said of his loss. “T-Series have already passed. Let’s just acknowledge the situation. It’s over, okay? …we ain’t never gonna get to 100.”
While PewDiePie put up a major fight for nearly half a year, T-Series managed to surpass the YouTuber by a wide margin on March 26 – and has stayed on top for nearly four days, as of March 30.
T-Series currently sits at over 107,000 subs above PewDiePie; while the YouTuber has been known to bounce back from major defeats before, it doesn’t look like the YouTuber has another comeback plan in mind, as further hinted at by his statements in March 30’s LWIAY episode.
“It feels weird – this is the first LWIAY I’ve recorded where we’re not technically winning,” PewDiePie continued. “Sad. Just sad.”
PewDiePie’s fight against the label saw the involvement of major YouTubers and celebrities alike, with the likes of political commentator Ben Shapiro and Tesla CEO Elon Musk making appearances on Kjellberg’s ‘Meme Review’ show.
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Popular YouTuber Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson likewise made massive contributions to their battle, creating a citywide ad campaign across his hometown and even taking the fight to the 2019 Super Bowl, where he and his squad wore a series of shirts that read, ‘Sub 2 PewDiePie’ on live television.
Even hackers jumped in on the action, infiltrating Chromecasts, Smart TVs, and even printers in an effort to boost PewDiePie’s subscriber count ahead of T-Series.
Despite the efforts of his dedicated fanbase, Kjellberg may have lost his crown for good, even reiterating that he “doesn’t care” about who comes out on top in the end.