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PewDiePie concedes to T-Series in battle for YouTube’s biggest channel

PewDiePie concedes to T-Series in battle for YouTube’s biggest channel

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With an accusation-filled music video

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Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg ended his months-long, facetious war with Bollywood powerhouse T-Series today, acknowledging that T-Series had taken over as the largest user-created channel on YouTube by issuing a music video filled with a series of personal confessions and accusations against his rival.

The video, “Congratulations,” is being released after a months-long battle over subscriber count, with T-Series staying ahead of PewDiePie for increasingly long periods of time over the past week. As Kjellberg mentions in the video, the subscriber race was seen as a fight for the soul of YouTube — whether an individual creator can be more important than the stars and corporate entities, like T-Series, increasingly succeeding on the platform.

The conflict has also led to PewDiePie supporters making racist comments against Indians, because T-Series is an Indian label focused on Bollywood music. While Kjellberg has criticized those remarks in the past, he makes several of his own in the video. Kjellberg also makes a joke about genocide, referencing the multiple controversies he’s had over anti-Semitic content. The video comes just two weeks after a shooter in New Zealand referenced PewDiePie before killing 50 people.

In his new music video, Kjellberg accuses T-Series executives, including chairman Bhushan Kumar, of multiple misdoings. Kjellberg references a Times of India article, which reported that Kumar is currently being investigated for “alleged evasion of huge tax and siphoning off hundreds of crores to foreign countries to purchase properties in the names of his employees.” The Verge has reached out to T-Series for comment.

Kjellberg also says that T-Series sent him a cease and desist letter following the release of his original diss track against the company, “Bitch Lasagna.” Kjellberg released the video toward the beginning of the war between their channels, and it has since racked up just under 170 million views. He uses the cease and desist letter to talk about issues with people filing notices over videos that they regard as defamatory, but aren’t. Kjellberg has dealt with legal issues with videos in the past, including people sending copyright strikes or takedown requests for videos they didn’t like. Using “Congratulations” to both reveal and air his grievances with T-Series’ cease and desist letter makes perfect sense — it’s how he’s addressed his concerns in the past.

“Through all the change and controversy you’ve been by my side.”

It’s not all accusations and poop jokes, though. “Congratulations” seems to represent to him a chance to say thank you to that fanbase who stuck around. Kjellberg gets sentimental in the video as he speaks about how much his fans mean to him, and seemingly opens up about past issues with alcohol. It’s not the first time that Kjellberg has been open on his channel; many of his videos play like conversations with viewers about his mental health, burnout, and issues he encounters on YouTube.

“So this is it, thanks for sticking with my channel,” Kjellberg says in the video. “Ever since I was a nobody, screaming at barrels. This is it, it’s been an adventure. It’s the end of the reign of Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg. Through all the change and controversy you’ve been by my side, there’s no army in the world I would rather give me watch time. It’s been a wild ride, so while I can still be heard, here’s one last bro fist, from the number one in the world.”

Unlike “Bitch Lasagna,” Kjellberg’s previous diss track aimed at T-Series, “Congratulations,” acknowledges that one of India’s most recognizable music corporations has defeated him by becoming the most subscribed to channel on YouTube. It’s a war, which Kjellberg has repeatedly said he doesn’t care about beyond it being a funny meme, that’s raged for close to seven months.

But whereas he saw it as a meme, Kjellberg’s fans, and many creators within the community, viewed the battle between Kjellberg and T-Series as the last stand on YouTube between independent personalities and corporate entities. YouTubers were already feeling pushed out by late night show dominance and music videos; Kjellberg losing his reign as the top performer on the platform was enough to send the YouTube ecosystem into a frenzy. Creators like MrBeast bought signs in his Ohio hometown telling people to subscribe to PewDiePie before performing a similar stunt at this year’s Super Bowl game; Justin Roberts, a vlogger in Jake Paul’s Team 10 collective, bought ad space in Times Square also telling people to subscribe to PewDiePie; other creators tricked out their cars or performed impressive feats on livestreams all in the name of PewDiePie. One game developer even made a platformer dedicated to the battle.

“It was one of the few times the YouTube community has joined together almost completely in unison to support one of their own creators.”

It was one of the few times the YouTube community has joined together almost completely in unison to support one of their own creators. In the face of YouTube resembling MTV more than a safe haven for misfit creatives and talented personalities who didn’t quite fit in traditional Hollywood, subscribing to PewDiePie became a form of rebellion against YouTube as well as just a popular meme. There was talk amongst the community whether the meme should stop following a violent terrorist attack in New Zealand, in which a shooter killed more than 50 people on a livestream after saying, “Remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie.” Kjellberg tweeted about the incident, calling it disgusting, but never addressed it on his channel. While the meme’s connotation has changed in wake of the New Zealand shooting, and many creators have stepped back from it, fans continue to support him in spite of the controversies.

At the time of this writing, T-Series has 88,000 more subscribers than Kjellberg. His “Congratulations” video, however, garnered more than two million views in less than six hours.