Felix Kjellberg has been portrayed in the media as a figurehead for YouTube and as being almost synonymous with YouTube gaming.
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Felix Kjellberg's channel gained a substantial following and was one of the fastest growing channels in 2012 and 2013, before becoming the most-subscribed on YouTube on 15 August 2013.
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Felix Kjellberg's content was already noted for its polarizing reception among general audiences online, but in the late 2010s, it became more controversial and attracted increased media scrutiny.
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In 2019, following a public competition with Indian record label T-Series, Felix Kjellberg was overtaken as the most-subscribed YouTube channel.
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Subsequently, Felix Kjellberg became more reserved online, uploading less consistently and taking frequent breaks from Internet use.
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Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg was born on 24 October 1989 in Gothenburg, where he was raised.
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Felix Kjellberg then went on to pursue a degree in industrial economics and technology management at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, but left the university in 2011.
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Felix Kjellberg has discussed an enjoyment of Adobe Photoshop, wanting to work on photo manipulation art using the program rather than be in school.
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Felix Kjellberg was interested in creating content on YouTube; after not earning the apprenticeship, he sold limited edition prints of his photoshopped images to purchase a computer to work on YouTube videos.
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Felix Kjellberg stated that the ability to make videos was more important to him than a prestigious career.
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Felix Kjellberg expressed feeling neglected by Machinima, and frustrated with their treatment, he hired a lawyer to free him from his contract with the network.
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Felix Kjellberg received a certificate from Guinness World Records for becoming the most subscribed YouTuber.
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Later in the month, Felix Kjellberg proclaimed his dislike of YouTube's new comment system, and disabled the comment section on all of his videos.
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Later in the month, Felix Kjellberg uploaded a video, announcing he would permanently disable comments on his YouTube videos.
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Felix Kjellberg cited most comments being spam and self-advertising and was not what he wanted to see.
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Felix Kjellberg stated in a later video that disabling comments made him happier.
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Felix Kjellberg co-hosted the series with Kenneth Morrison, better known as CinnamonToastKen, who is a video game commentator.
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In October 2014, Felix Kjellberg hinted at the possibility that he would not renew his contract with Maker Studios upon its expiration in December 2014.
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Felix Kjellberg had expressed his frustrations with the studio's parent company, Disney.
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In 2014 alone, Felix Kjellberg's account amassed nearly 14 million new subscribers, and over 4.
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Felix Kjellberg continued playing video games, but he started experimenting.
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Felix Kjellberg did viral challenges, made fun of other YouTubers, and reviewed meme submissions from his fans.
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One video cited as being representative of this change featured Felix Kjellberg reading erotic fan fiction about characters from the Disney film Frozen.
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Later in the month, Felix Kjellberg teased about having a role in a web television series, stating that he was in Los Angeles for the show's shooting.
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In January 2016, Felix Kjellberg announced a partnership with Maker Studios to produce Revelmode, a sub-network of Maker, that would showcase Felix Kjellberg and his friends on YouTube in original series.
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Felix Kjellberg examined his older videos, and while noting the stylistic changes he had undergone, he expressed specific regret for his casual use of words like gay or retarded in a derogatory sense.
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Ultimately, Felix Kjellberg did not delete his PewDiePie channel, and instead deleted a smaller second channel he had then-recently created.
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Some videos addressed what Felix Kjellberg saw as negative effects to viewership for content creators caused by the new algorithm.
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Felix Kjellberg followed that video with one asking his viewers to have the video reach 1 million dislikes.
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In January 2017, Felix Kjellberg uploaded a video where he used the racial slur "nigger".
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Felix Kjellberg alleged his intent was not against Jews, but to "showcase how crazy the website was".
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The Wall Street Journal alleged that this was not the first time Felix Kjellberg had used anti-Semitic language and imagery in his videos.
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Felix Kjellberg commented that his decision to create Netglow was in the works prior to the aforementioned allegations of anti-Semitic themes in his videos.
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In September 2017, Felix Kjellberg drew criticism again when he used the racial slur "nigger" during an outburst at another player while live-streaming PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
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Furthermore, Felix Kjellberg began a book club-styled series, with his own enjoyment with the series being noted.
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Felix Kjellberg began Pew News, a satirical series where he presents and discusses recent news stories while in-character, often as fictional characters named after CNN hosts, such as Gloria Borger, Poppy Harlow, or Mary Katharine Ham and sometimes, an amalgamation of these names.
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Felix Kjellberg later deleted the meme, and apologized for the incident.
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Felix Kjellberg said he was largely unaware of E;R's content apart from the Death Note video essay, revoked his recommendation of the channel, and edited his video to remove the reference.
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On 5 October 2018, Felix Kjellberg uploaded a diss track against Indian record label T-Series titled "Tseries Diss Track" in response to their YouTube channel being projected to surpass his in subscribers.
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Felix Kjellberg made allegations against T-Series using subscribing bots but failed to prove so, as YouTube claims to have a strong policy against fake-engagement.
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On 12 March, Felix Kjellberg uploaded an episode of his show Pew News in which he mentioned the 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack, where 40 Indian paramilitary troops were killed by a member of a Pakistan-based jihadist group.
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Felix Kjellberg issued a clarification on Twitter, expressing that he was not attempting to speak on the broader India–Pakistan relations, but rather on the more specific context of T-Series removing artists' songs from its YouTube channel.
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The New York Times suggested that Felix Kjellberg's mention in the shootings was a ploy for the news media to attribute blame to Felix Kjellberg, and to otherwise inflame political tensions.
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The following day, during a live stream, Felix Kjellberg showed a plane flying over New York City with a banner attached saying "Subscribe to PewDiePie".
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Felix Kjellberg stated that the event was "a nice little wrap up" to the Subscribe to PewDiePie meme.
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Remainder of 2019 saw further controversies for PewDiePie; in early June, Felix Kjellberg uploaded a video on YouTube sponsored by social media application Nimses.
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The Pirate Party Germany criticized his promotion of Nimses, warning that Felix Kjellberg was promoting a potentially harmful app to a large audience.
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Felix Kjellberg himself responded to the allegations in a video, dismissing them as "rumors", and claimed that Nimses was no more invasive than other social media apps.
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Felix Kjellberg largely centered his videos around Minecraft in the following months, with the content featured in his series Meme Review and LWIAY becoming focused on the game.
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In December, Felix Kjellberg was acknowledged as the most-viewed creator of the year, with more than 4 billion views in 2019.
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Felix Kjellberg continued to upload videos fairly frequently on the platform afterwards, albeit, inconsistently.
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In January 2021, Felix Kjellberg signed a distribution deal with Jellysmack, a content creation company.
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Felix Kjellberg clarified that the children appearing in the music video were provided with a clean version of the lyrics to mime to while they were being filmed, and that their parents allowed them to participate in the video.
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Felix Kjellberg stated he "[didn't] actually care about Cocomelon" and did not want the pretend-rivalry with the channel to "get out of control", as his rivalry with T-Series had previously.
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Unlike conventional walkthroughs, Felix Kjellberg devoted his Let's Play videos to communicating more personally with his audience.
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Felix Kjellberg begins each video introducing himself in a high-pitched, goofy voice, drawing out the vowels of his YouTube moniker, then delves into the videos.
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Felix Kjellberg has uploaded music onto his channel, often accompanied by animation, fan art, or live footage.
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Felix Kjellberg has been noted by both himself and media outlets as prolific on the platform, having uploaded videos with a high frequency.
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Media writers have noted that Felix Kjellberg's content has been largely built up "methodically, " as opposed to him having risen to fame through a viral video.
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In March 2012, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported that Felix Kjellberg had uploaded at least one video per day for the seven months preceding their report.
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Additionally, the publication noted that Felix Kjellberg's channel accumulated 71 million total video views to that point and 25 million video views in February 2012 alone.
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Felix Kjellberg's subscriber count surpassed that of the leading channel, Smosh, on 15 August 2013.
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In 2014, Felix Kjellberg's channel was the most-viewed in January, and then for seven consecutive months from March to September.
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The day after "Congratulations" was uploaded, Felix Kjellberg temporarily regained his lead over T-Series as the most subscribed channel.
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Felix Kjellberg was the most-viewed creator of 2019, with his channel receiving over 4 billion views during the year.
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Felix Kjellberg nicknamed his Custom Creator Award the Ruby Play Button, which he received in 2016.
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In 2019, Felix Kjellberg's channel became the second overall, and the first run by an individual creator, to receive the Red Diamond Creator Award.
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Felix Kjellberg's content has been described by various outlets as goofy, energetic, and filled with profanity, and his on-camera personality has been generally received as genuine, unfiltered, and self-aware by various outlets.
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Felix Kjellberg's content has been received negatively by the media, with detractors describing it as "obnoxious" and often reporting his popularity as an "inexplicable phenomenon".
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Since breaking through on YouTube with his Let's Play-styled videos, Felix Kjellberg has emerged as one of the most noted, influential, and controversial online personalities.
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Felix Kjellberg has been cited by various publications as largely influential for digital content creation and Internet culture, particularly relating to video gaming subcultures.
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Eurogamer noted that Felix Kjellberg was cast by media reports as a "figurehead" of YouTubers, and for being nearly synonymous with gaming YouTubers in general.
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Felix Kjellberg continued to be popular with this demographic by the end of the 2010s, with research by Morning Consult detailing that Kjellberg's name recognition and favorable opinions of him are of a comparable or higher level to mainstream athletes and entertainers such as LeBron James and Justin Bieber.
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At the 2013 Social Star Awards, Felix Kjellberg greeted his fans personally despite security warning him against doing so.
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Felix Kjellberg has been noted to support video games from indie developers, often having played through such titles in his videos.
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Felix Kjellberg agreed to allow the developers of Surgeon Simulator 2013 to use his likeness in GOTY IDST, a showering simulation video game.
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Felix Kjellberg was included as an NPC in the indie game Party Hard, and had a voice acting role in Pinstripe, a puzzle adventure game.
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Felix Kjellberg relies on external revenue sources rather than YouTube's ad model, which he has stated is common for most YouTube content creators; Felix Kjellberg commented that YouTube's ad revenue model is inefficient, unstable, and insecure.
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On 24 September 2015, Felix Kjellberg released his own video game, PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist, on iOS and Android.
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Felix Kjellberg helped Ibrisagic with the core concept of the game and provided him with feedback and creative direction.
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In 2019, Felix Kjellberg released two more video games: PewDiePie's Pixelings on 15 November and Poopdie on 12 December.
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The challenge involved Felix Kjellberg searching for three keys in the catacombs to open a container holding "the Philosopher's stone".
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Felix Kjellberg stated he felt he made enough money from YouTube and found endorsing too many brands to be disrespectful to his fans.
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In January 2019, Felix Kjellberg announced a partnership with energy drink company G Fuel.
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Felix Kjellberg appeared in YouTube's annual year-end Rewind series each year from 2013 to 2016; he appeared in YouTube Rewind in 2019.
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On 3 June 2014, Sveriges Radio announced that Felix Kjellberg was chosen to host his own episode of the Swedish radio show Sommar i P1.
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In December 2014, Felix Kjellberg guest-starred in two episodes of the 18th season of South Park.
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In July 2015, Felix Kjellberg was announced as a voice actor in the Vimeo fantasy series, Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures.
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Felix Kjellberg's popularity has allowed him to stir support for fundraising drives.
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Felix Kjellberg organized another charity drive for Charity: Water in February 2016.
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On 3 December 2018, Felix Kjellberg announced that he had started a fundraiser on GoFundMe for Child Rights and You to help Indian children, partially in response to racist comments left on his videos directed toward Indians.
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On 21 July 2019, Felix Kjellberg started a fundraiser on GoFundMe with American actor Jack Black for National Alliance on Mental Illness, in the wake of the suicide of the internet personality Etika in June 2019.
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Felix Kjellberg has previously spoken on the topic of mental health, including his struggles with his own, and as part of the UK's Mental Health Awareness Week in 2017, he highlighted various resources to help one's mental health in a video.
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Part of Felix Kjellberg's fanbase criticized his decision, citing controversial actions and stances of the ADL.
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Two days after his initial announcement, Felix Kjellberg announced in another video that he had decided to withdraw his donation.
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Felix Kjellberg expressed that he was advised to donate to the ADL, and did not hand-pick an organization that he was passionate about, as he had done with previous donations.
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Felix Kjellberg married his long-time Italian girlfriend Marzia Bisognin on 19 August 2019.
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Felix Kjellberg explained that they moved to the UK in July 2013 for preference to live close to the sea and for better Internet connectivity.
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Felix Kjellberg said he enjoyed the general anonymity that living in Brighton granted him.
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In June 2014, Felix Kjellberg stated that he is an agnostic atheist.
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Felix Kjellberg has frequently mentioned in videos that he adheres to a pescetarian diet for various reasons.
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In July 2019, Felix Kjellberg talked about his past whiskey addiction during a Cold Ones podcast interview.
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