PewDiePie Hits 50-Million Subscriber Mark; Did The YouTube Star Really Delete His Account?

So what does it take to get 50 million subscribers? For YouTube star PewDiePie, the answer is simple and straightforward. That is, find a valid issue, make a video and talk about it, and finally make an outrageous promise.

Born Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg and based in Sweden, PewDiePie had his start in 2010 showing videos of him playing computer games and making commentary. By 2013, he reached 5 million subscribers and by year-end, this number increased to 19 million. With more than 50 million subscribers, he has more than The Ellen Show.

What may be surprising to some is that just last week, PewDiePie was hovering just below the 50-million mark. To make this achievement, he posted a video tirade against YouTube last December 2. In it, he argued that the video sharing site may have made some changes to the algorithm resulting in some of his videos getting below-expected total views.

PewDiePie also commented that another problem was that accounts appeared to be automatically unsubscribed from certain channels. To make it appear that he was serious about his complaints, he promised to delete his channel should he reach the 50-million subscriber limit. As one of YouTube's biggest star and original content creator, his rants were reported in a number of major dailies like Forbes.

He later posted a second video claiming that while YouTube reached out to him, he alleged that the company was adamant no changes were made. The company in fact came out with a statement likely in the hopes of assuring content creators. So did PewDiePie make good on his promise?

The quick answer is, sort of. As if to emphasize that he was serious, he even posted on his Twitter account the time for the supposed account deletion. That time came and went and the PewDiePie account was still available.

So what exactly was deleted? It was his second channel which had only 2 videos. To be fair to PewDiePie though, that channel had around 1.4 million subscribers, something other creators would find difficult to reach.

While some fans are fuming for being taken so easily, there are those who say that the move is to be expected from someone like PewDiePie. The next objective appears to be reaching 100 million subscribers. Only time will tell if he can go that high without resorting to this kind of tactic.