YouTube king Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg reins as the most subscribed independent creator on the platform, following his long-lasting battle with Bollywood label T-Series: but now, the Swede has started to focus on popular sandbox game Minecraft, rather than keeping his top spot on the site.
While PewDiePie’s popular shows like “LWIAY” and “Pew News” were once a hit with fans, he’s since stepped away from the format to bring his channel back to its origins in gaming, taking a deep dive into Minecraft with increasingly positive results.
However, it wasn’t always so: in fact, PewDiePie claimed that he had once “refused” to play the game early in his career, as told during a “Meme Review” episode on July 25.
According to Kjellberg, Minecraft’s initial explosive boom was akin to the likes of Fortnite’s current popularity, which made content using the game appear disingenuous to the YouTuber at the time.
“Minecraft became so explosively popular,” PewDiePie explained. “And everyone would just play it. It felt like people were playing it just because it was popular, and not because they were actually [having fun] doing it.”
(Timestamp: 5:25 for mobile viewers)
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Kjellberg likewise claimed that he didn’t want to fall off after becoming a channel dedicated exclusively to Minecraft content, claiming that if he gets bored of the title, he can just “move on to something else.”
Despite his original distaste for the title, PewDiePie has effectively become a “Minecraft YouTuber,” putting so much time into the game that he claims he “doesn’t care” about internet drama like Twitch streamer Alinity Divine’s cat-tossing scandal.
“I haven’t paid attention to what anyone’s doing,” PewDiePie continued. “It’s so goddamn liberating. Alinity threw a cat? Okay, great, I don’t care!”
PewDiePie’s Minecraft binge has even helped him reach another major milestone on YouTube, skyrocketing him to 98 million subscribers – just two million away from his previously coveted 100 million subscriber mark.
While Kjellberg has since put his feud with T-Series to bed, it doesn’t look like his road to 100 million is stopping anytime soon, with fans across the internet regularly tuning in to his Minecraft uploads despite his lack of internet controversy.