If anything is going to roll up 2014, the internet and video games together in one single fact, this has got to be it.
Felix āPewDiePieā Kjellberg, one of the most well-known āLetās Playā gamers on the planet, now has over 25 million subscribers (heās doubled his tally in just a year). Compare that to Justin Bieber, with 8 million, or Rihanna, with 12.
OK, so while a tally of YouTube subscribers has always been as vaporous a metric for success/popularity as Twitter followers (most YouTubers begging for you to click subscribe even if it means you never watch another of their videos ever again), thereās little doubting the commercial reality of PewDiePieās status: a media analysis company estimates, based on his video views, that he makes between $130,000 and over $1 million a month from ad revenue.
Iāll give you a moment to let that sink in.
In case you need to see the big picture, heās currently ranked sixth on YouTubeās subscriber charts, behind only the general cumulative pages for music, sports, gaming, news and āpopularā.
This is all part of a great feature on The Atlantic on the rise of āLetās Playersā, which is as fascinating as it is equallyā¦well, maybe not gross, but itās tough to read stuff like āHeās otherwise unemployed, and hopes eventually to support himself by playing video gamesā and feel anything other than a mild sense of despair.
This Guy Makes Millions Playing Video Games on YouTube [The Atlantic]
