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YouTube star PewDiePie makes $4 million a year from playing video games

Narrating a video game playthrough is big business.

 

Dennis Scimeca

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Posted on Jun 18, 2014   Updated on May 31, 2021, 2:58 am CDT

In August, 2013, we reported that Felix Kjellberg, the Swedish video game YouTube user who goes by PewDiePie, ran the most subscribed-to channel on the service. He still holds that crown in June, 2014 with 27.7 million subscribers.

Now, thanks to the Wall Street Journal, it has been revealed that Kjellberg is making $4 million a year from his videos. The WSJ article claims that Kjellberg, whose videos are a personal travelogue of his video game adventures, doesn’t have an entourage and avoids the spotlight.

Running a YouTube channel with 27.7 million subscribers sure doesn’t sound like running away from the spotlight! In case you’re wondering what a PewDiePie video looks like, here’s Kjellberg’s Flappy Bird video, which went viral and played a role in the mobile game coming to everyone’s attention.

Warning: Kjellberg swears a lot while trying to learn the game, which went for anyone who tried to play Flappy Bird.

Screenshot via PewDiePie/YouTube

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*First Published: Jun 18, 2014, 8:32 am CDT