Pewdiepie has always been the ever-present personality in internet culture. Rising to fame on YouTube thanks to his lets plays of horror games, Pewdiepie has managed to consistently push out quality content over the years. Things move fast in the world of the internet and people move on if you’re not adept enough at adapting to the change. Pewdiepie, however, has adapted perfectly to the ever-changing conditions on YouTube and yet has still kept his brand and core comedy intact. He has been hit with controversy and drama from all directions as well but has still somehow managed to come out of it all unscathed.
The long battle against T-series for YouTube supremacy propelled Pewdiepie into something greater than just an internet personality. While it was a battle that he was inevitably always going to lose, the sheer publicity that he got out of it made him the actual winner of the whole situation. As a result, a Swedish guy making videos on the internet from his house is now a worldwide sensation that transcends the usual boundaries of the internet culture. With almost 100 million subscribers to his name (and the number rising consistently), Pewdiepie is the biggest independent content creator on the internet. However, since he is still technically a ‘YouTuber’, people often make the mistake of underestimating his actual influence over the masses.
Why is Pewdiepie at the top despite all controversies?
Meme Review
One good example of Pewdiepie’s influence can be explained via his show ‘Meme Review‘ in which he goes through the trending memes for the week and reviews them. The show has been a massive hit (much like most of the other stuff he does) thanks to his unique way of presenting and just some classic Pewdiepie humour. In fact, it has been so popular that it has become a thing for mainstream media celebrities to come on to the show and host it. For example, a few months ago, Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX hosted Meme Review alongside the Rick and Morty creator, Justin Roiland. Now, these two are pretty mainstream celebrities that most people know about.
However, someone living out in the middle of nowhere might still not have heard of these two. So, to up the ante, Pewdiepie got Dr. Phil on Meme Review. Now, Dr. Phil is an absolutely massive TV personality with his show running for almost two decades now. Someone as mainstream as Dr. Phil making an appearance on Meme Review speaks volumes about what Pewdiepie has achieved over the years. He has not only managed to tackle all the controversy around him, but has simultaneously built an empire that will eventually pave the way for new media to become mainstream.
New Media versus TV
At this point, most people would agree that new media is the way forward for the world. People have already gotten rid of their traditional cable networks and have moved onto streaming and other methods of media consumption. However, there still seems to be some kind of barrier that the world just isn’t managing to get over for new media to become just regular media. Maybe it is the restrictions of our internet infrastructure or maybe people are just apprehensive about accepting change. Whatever it is, we need to find a way to make the transition smoother. After all, consumption of new media is just so much more convenient and easier. This is where personalities like Pewdiepie come in. Thanks to his ever-growing influence, the word gets around town and the mainstream TV personalities want to get in on the new big thing.
The inclusion of mainstream celebrities into the new media, therefore, will pave the way for it to become the norm. We’ve already seen the likes of Will Smith and Jack Black join with Dr. Phil also now on board the YouTube train. Some people might argue that YouTube isn’t even new and streaming platforms like Twitch and Mixer are the next big things. However, as people who literally spend all day on the internet, our viewpoint of the media as a whole can get rather distorted. We live in our own little bubble of internet culture that has yet to expand out to the actual masses that probably don’t even know what Twitch is. Furthermore, YouTube is still very much growing at an incredible pace and there is still plenty of room for further expansion.
Watching YouTube and Pewdiepie come this far from humble beginnings has been quite an experience. There is absolutely no doubt that streaming and online media is the future for us. It is better in every single way and the sooner we can all transition to it (especially those who have not embraced the internet yet), the easier our lives would be.