For almost a decade, Swedish creator PewDiePie, or Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, has been the king of YouTube. It started on the platform by broadcasting video game content, before diversifying into vlogs.
Between August 2013 and November 2022, PewDiePie was the most followed individual creator on the platform. To date, it has 111 million subscribers.
PewDiePie loses first place
But as of this week, PewDiePie is no longer the king of YouTube. Indeed, it has just been overtaken by the American designer Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr Beast.
Since Google’s platform does not display exact subscriber counts for the channels, officially PewDiePie and Mr Beast both have 111 million subscribers. However, according to a tweet from Dexerto, which relays real-time data from mixerno.space, on November 15, Mr Beast exceeded PewDiePie’s subscriber count.
MrBeast has overtaken PewDiePie and is now the most subscribed YouTuber pic.twitter.com/YPXQ4ydWCX
—Dexerto (@Dexerto) November 14, 2022
Today, the same site also indicates that Mr Beast’s channel has already crossed the 112 million subscriber mark (YouTube may update later).
The creator who would soon weigh 1.5 billion dollars?
But who is Mr Beast, the creator who has just dethroned the king of YouTube? Now 24, he started posting videos when he was 13. Mr Beast also started out with gaming videos, but has branched out into other types of content, like estimating other YouTubers’ fortunes, and challenges like counting to 100,000.
The growth of the channel has been very rapid, at a rate which is said to be one million subscribers per week. The 100 million subscribers were reached recently, in July.
Moreover, the rate of growth of the number of subscribers of Mr Beast let predict the overtaking of the chain of PewDiePie for a while. In an interview in August, PewDiePie also admitted that he would soon be overtaken by his colleague, and declared that it would be deserved. It should be remembered that PewDiePie remained the king of YouTube despite the controversy aroused by some of his videos.
For his part, Mr Beast stands out today thanks to the competitions he organizes on his channel. For example, he organized a Squid Game, inspired by the Netflix series, and allowing the winner to pocket $456,000.
These videos generate very big income. Forbes magazine estimates that in one year, Mr Beast earns 54 million dollars.
And in addition to being a creator, this one is also an entrepreneur. He is behind the virtual restaurant chain Mr Beast Burger.
But the craziest thing is that the new king of YouTube could soon weigh 1.5 billion dollars. In an article published in October, Axios reveals that Mr Beast is planning to raise $150 million, which would value his business at $1.5 billion.
The king of YouTube, but not the most followed channel
It is important to differentiate between the most followed creator and the most followed YouTube channel. Indeed, the most followed chain is rather that of T-Series, a label and an Indian film production house (which started with cassettes). Today, T-Series has 229 million YouTube subscribers.
In front of the Mr Beast channel, there is also that of Cocomelon (yes, the nursery rhymes) which has 147 million subscribers. SET India Sony Entertainment Television’s YouTube channel has 146 million subscribers.
