What is PewDiePie's Net Worth?

PewDiePie is a Swedish video game commentator, streamer, and internet celebrity who has a net worth of $45 million. At various points in recent history, the channel has been the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, and he has been the highest-earning YouTuber in the world. His YouTube channel typically features videos that show him playing various video games.

His typical video shows him playing the game and commentating on what he sees and experiences while also showing his reactions to what he is seeing on the screen. PewDiePie often refers to his fans as the 'Bro Army,' made up of his 'Bros,' and he typically performs a 'Brofist' at the end of each of his videos. Subscriptions to his YouTube channel have grown astronomically since he launched the channel in 2009. PewDiePie has also spoken at Nonick Conference 2012. In October 2012, OpenSlate ranked the PewDiePie channel as the #1 YouTube channel in terms of "SlateScore". In April 2013, PewDiePie's channel grew to 6 million subscribers. He moved to the United Kingdom in July 2013 for better Internet connectivity.

Key Facts
  • Is frequently the highest-paid YouTuber in the world
  • Earns $15-20 million per year
  • Has earned at least $73 million since 2013
  • A single video sponsorship can cost more than $450k
PewDiePie Net Worth's picture

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Highest Paid YouTube Star

PewDiePie isn't just YouTube's biggest star in terms of video views; he's also perennially one of the highest-paid personalities on the site. In 2013, we here at CelebrityNetWorth revealed that PewDiePie was the highest-paid YouTube star on the planet with earnings of $12 million. In 2014, his earnings topped $14 million. In 2015, he earned $9 million. In 2016, PewDiePie made a cool $15 million. In 2017, he made $12 million. In 2018, he made $15.5 million. In 2019, he earned $13 million. As of this writing, PewDiePie charges $450,000 for a single sponsored video.

Total it all up, and PewDiePie has made more than $73 million pre-tax off his YouTube empire since 2013. In an interview, he confirmed that his net worth is "much much" higher than $20 million.

Early Life

PewDiePie was born Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, in Gothenburg, Sweden on October 24, 1989. His parents are Lotta Kristine Johanna and Ulf Christian Kjellberg. His father is a corporate executive, and his mother is an award-winning Chief Information Officer.  He has an older sister named Fanny. In high school Felix would skip school to play video games. He graduated high school from Göteborgs Högre Samskola. He was originally focused on pursuing a degree in Industrial Economics and Technology Management at Chalmers University of Technology. However, he found himself uninterested in the courses, so he dropped out. He did not drop out to pursue a YouTube career, as has been widely reported over the years. While he was not interested in his school courses, he did have a passion for Photoshop and a continued love of video games. He sold photoshopped images to save enough money to buy a computer.

YouTube

Felix joined YouTube on December 19, 2006. His original channel was actually called "Pewdie." He explained his choice of the word "pew" as the sound a laser makes. His early videos consisted of Felix playing Call of Duty. He also mixed in some vlogging videos. For a time, he forgot/lost the password to his Pewdie channel, so he launched a new one called PewDiePie on April 29, 2010. On the PewDiePie channel, he focused on Call of Duty, Minecraft, and various other horror/action games. For example, he would play short clips of his best CoD kills with entertaining commentary and edits. For his Minecraft videos, he would post "Let's Plays," where one would simply play the game.

Early Success

At some point, PewDiePie began playing the game Amnesia. For whatever reason, his Amnesia Let's Plays videos struck a nerve with the greater YouTube audience, and his channel began to skyrocket in subscribers. PewDiePie's channel began to grow, reaching 1 million subscribers in July 2012 and 2 million subscribers in September 2012. He signed a representation deal with MCN Machinima and then, in October 2012, jumped to Maker Studios.

The Biggest YouTube Star On The Planet

In 2012 and 2013, PewDiePie was the fastest-growing channel on YouTube. In 2013 alone, the channel grew from 3.5 million subscribers to 19 million. He gained a new subscriber that year at a rate of 1.037 PER SECOND, the entire year. He earned 1.3 billion video views that year and ended as the most subscribed channel on YouTube.

With Maker Studio's help, he released a PewDiePie iPhone app. At various times, he expressed discomfort with Maker Studio's eventual parent company, Disney, but ultimately developed a website and online store to complement the app, which had become highly successful.

In 2014 his channel gained 14 million subscribers and earned 4.1 billion video views, by far more than any other channel. In 2015, he averaged 300 million videos per month.

PewDiePie Net Worth

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Return To Twitch

After signing an exclusive deal with YouTube to stream in May of 2020, PewDiePie made a surprise return to Twitch in March of 2023 after years of the channel being inactive. He employed an innovative new use of the channel with what he named PewDiePie Infinity. In what he calls an "infinite money glitch in real life," he set it up to broadcast an endless loop of his old streams and videos. He currently has 1.5 million followers on the platform.

Controversies

In February 2017, PewDiePie lost his YouTube Red show after it was revealed that several of his videos contained antisemitic references. PewDiePie claims the videos were sarcastic and merely meant to highlight how people will do anything for money, no matter how inappropriate or shocking. In the most obvious example, he paid two people $5 through the website Fiver to hold up a sign that said "Death to all Jews." There has also been a viral "subscribe to PewDiePie" challenge where people troll the world by getting that phrase to spread in public. At least two mass murderers have said "subscribe to PewDiePie" during their massacres or within their manifesto. PewDiePie has distanced himself from the meme and denounced the murderers.

Personal Life

PewDiePie met Italian Marzia Bisognin in 2011. They established an online friendship then eventually a romance. In 2012, PewDiePie set her up with a YouTube channel called CutiePieMarzia. Her videos focused on fashion, makeup, books, movies, and beauty. It eventually became one of the most popular beauty channels on YouTube. In 2018, she retired from YouTube. For several years, they shuffled back and forth between Sweden and Italy before settling in the English town of Brighton and Hove. They married in August 2019. They live relatively anonymously in the small seaside town with two pugs, one named Edgar and the other named Maya. In February of 2023, his wife announced they were expecting a baby.

In 2019, the couple bought a home in Japan that was robbed later that year, and their move was delayed due to the country's relocation regulations in response to COVID-19. In May of 2022, the couple moved to their home in Japan with a five-year business visa.