The highly publicized competition between PewDiePie and T-Series for the most YouTube subscribers went on for over a year. But who won?
Since early 2017, the music label T-Series has held the title for most viewed and subscribed to channel on YouTube. The company overtook independent Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie in subscriber count in 2019 and has since been steadily rising.
Find out more about the relationship, feud and outcome of the competition between two of the most popular YouTube channels below.
Background
Felix Kjellberg, commonly known as PewDiePie, is a Swedish YouTuber who first created his eponymous YouTube gaming channel in 2010.
The YouTuber became known for his Let’s Play series, in which he plays a variety of different horror, action and other games.
In July 2012, he quickly reached 1 million subscribers, following which he began to expand his content.
He quickly rose to popularity, and was the most subscribed to YouTuber for several years (2013 onwards), until he was challenged by T-Series.
T-Series is a music record label and Indian production company, mainly publishing Bollywood music videos.
In late 2018, T-Series’ subscriber count began to approach that of PewDiePie’s, and PewDiePie jokingly turned this into an online competition.
The Battle For Subscribers
Shortly after the competition commenced, PewDiePie released a diss track against T-Series titled B**** Lasagna.
This received backlash for its “anti-Indian” implications, leading many Indian YouTubers to publicly oppose PewDiePie, and T-Series to take legal action against him.
Popular YouTuber JusReign uploaded a video titled, “In Defense of T-Series.” He spoke about his childhood listening to their songs, and ended with a song in support of the company.
Many Indians also released their own diss tracks in retaliation. B**** Lasagna was eventually banned in India.
PewDiePie’s followers created the slogan “Subscribe to PewDiePie” in an attempt to increase traction to his channel so that it would not be overtaken by T-Series.
Several YouTubers announced their support for PewDiePie, including Logan Paul and MrBeast.
MrBeast even purchased several billboards around North Carolina to motivate people to subscribe to PewDiePie.
Unfortunately, the friendly competition quickly turned unethical.
Two hackers with the pseudonyms “HackerGiraffe” and “j3ws3r” discovered over 130,000 vulnerable printers worldwide, and instructed them to print, “PewDiePie is in trouble and he needs your help to defeat T-Series!”, as well as hacking into smart TVs.
A hacker under the pseudonym “SydeFX” hacked Nest cameras around the US, and demanded people subscribe to PewDiePie by speaking to them through their cameras.
Although PewDiePie told his fans not to do anything illegal, some activists vandalized a war memorial, defacing it with graffiti that read, “Subscribe to PewDiePie.”
Activism spread to other countries too, with several marches taking place around the world.
In February of 2019, hundreds of supporters gathered in a march to support PewDiePie in Estonia.
During a 2019 border dispute between India and Pakistan, T-Series took down several Pakistani songs.
Aggravated by this, Pakistanis held a march in support of PewDiePie, holding signs that read, “Unsubscribe T-Series.”
Unfortunately, the infamous Christchurch Mosque shooter, who videoed his terrorism, jokingly told horrified viewers to “Subscribe to PewDiePie” before his killing spree.
PewDiePie condemned the action, saying he was sickened by the shooter using his name.
In April of 2019, PewDiePie’s fanbase crowdfunded a plane to fly over New York City with the banner, “Subscribe to PewDiePie” as a wrap-up to the long competition.
In 2019, T-Series overtook PewDiePie in its subscriber count.
Who’s More Popular Now?
Felix eventually released a video asking his subscribers to end the campaign on his behalf, and by this time, T-Series had overtaken him.
T-Series has now overtaken PewDiePie in both views and subscribers. This may be due to the fact that it is a record company rather than an independent YouTuber.
Although PewDiePie may be more well-liked, with T-Series now holding a significant lead, the competition is considered over.