Famous People Who Can't Stand PewDiePie
When it comes to YouTube success stories, it's hard to beat Swedish sensation PewDiePie. Back when things like Lets Plays and gaming channels were hardly a whisper on the wind of the internet, PewDiePie — whose real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg — set out to carve a brand new niche into the landscape of the world's most popular video platform.
Whether you like his wild, wacky videos or not, you can't argue with his success. The colorful internet personality was the first individual YouTube channel to reach 100 million subscribers, and along the way, he got a partnership with Disney, a variety of product sponsorships, and even a full season of a professionally produced television series.
You don't achieve that kind of fame and fortune without butting a few heads along the way, however, and when it comes to PewDiePie, he has sparked plenty of drama and rivalries over the years. While his career was founded on video games, the YouTube star has dipped his toes into plenty of other affairs and news stories. As a result, PewDiePie has come to inspire hate and backlash from plenty of big names.
Trisha Paytas thinks PewDiePie is 'irrelevant' and 'disgusting'
One of the most recent cases of a big-name YouTuber outside of his circle of influence taking shots at him comes from a modeler on YouTube named Trisha Paytas. It all started back in May 2019, when PewDiePie uploaded a 'Cringe Thursday' video in which he called the influential YouTube starlet a "liar, manipulator, playing victim," and "aggressive." The reason for calling her out like this? She had convinced a fellow YouTuber to fly to from Colombia to L.A. in order to collaborate with her, only to ghost the foreign creator and leave him high and dry.
While Paytas responded to PewDiePie's comments within days via a response video and seemed apologetic and torn up over the entire thing, she would later make an appearance on Logan Paul's Impaulsive podcast, where she tore the Swedish YouTuber apart, saying "Ew. F–k him and his declining views."
Alinity doesn't forgive PewDiePie for calling her a 'twitch thot'
PewDiePie has a pretty solid relationship with a lot of the biggest video creators in the world games, even being close friends with Markiplier and Jacksepticeye. Unfortunately, an insensitive video released by PewDiePie back in May 2018 found him in a venomous online battle with one of the biggest names on Twitch: Alinity.
PewDiePie uploaded a video in which he watched a compilation of videos sent to him by his fans involving female live streamers caught in revealing clothes, sexual positions and more. During the video, PewDiePie insinuates that "If a girl dresses like that, she wants you to look," even going so far as to call the women "Twitch thots" multiple times.
One of the women featured in the video was Alinity, who took umbrage with the content of the video and filed a copyright claim to get it removed. Unfortunately, her actions against PewDiePie only made a bad situation worse, as the YouTuber and his fanbase went on to continuously criticize her for her actions, leading to plenty of bad blood between the two.
KSI and PewDiePie started drama over drama
While PewDiePie is known by many for his video game commentaries and various gaming streams, the popular online personality has also made a career out of producing non-video game-related content. Regular videos of his like Meme Review and Pew News tackle all sorts of content and issues outside of the realm of gaming. Some of this content has involved the Swedish star being very vocal about the changing landscape of YouTube and the ever-growing trend of YouTubers using drama for views. Ironically, this critique of internet drama stirred up plenty of that exact kind of drama between PewDiePie and internet personality KSI.
It all started back in 2018, when PewDiePie called KSI and Logan Paul "scumbags" while covering their upcoming boxing match. KSI, in turn, responded by saying that "[PewDiePie] ruined a lot of people's lives on YouTube with his comments and his whole anti-semitism." While their beef in 2018 seemed to eventually cool off, it was reignited a year later when the two butted heads over some other drama that KSI was involved in.
TV Producer Ekta Kapoor slammed PewDiePie on Twitter
PewDiePie is an internet celebrity and, as a result, much of the drama he gets roped up in involves other internet creatives and influencers. As his audience has grown, however, so too has his reach and influence in the world. His audience is so big, in fact, that when he uploaded a video poking fun at an Indian television show, the actual creator of the show found out about his video and was none too impressed with him.
Back in May 2018, PewDiePie uploaded a video titled "YOU INDIA YOU LOSE," in which he did a You Laugh You Lose-style challenge by watching a compilation of clips from various Indian television programs. One show in particular, Kasamh Se, was slammed by the YouTuber in his reaction video. International television mogul and creator of Kasamh Se, Ekta Kapoor, wasn't delighted about this at all. She took to Twitter to slam the internet star, chastising him for his rude and racist comments. Their feud would continue for months, as PewDiePie uploaded videos calling Ekta Kapoor out and she continued to respond via Twitter.
Indian music company T-Series took PewDiePie to court
By far, the biggest feud PewDiePie has been involved in wasn't with a single YouTube creator or wealthy celebrity. Instead, it was with the Indian music label T-Series, which ran the only other channel on YouTube to ever come close to the number of subscribers that PewDiePie has.
PewDiePie and T-Series had a long-running rivalry to see which channel would reach 100 million subscribers first, and their neck-and-neck race quickly represented the greater battle happening on YouTube between independent creators and massive corporations. Things soon turned a shade darker, however, as PewDiePie released music video diss tracks aimed at T-Series that contained more than a few racially charged remarks. T-Series didn't take this lightly, filing cease and desist orders against PewDiePie. That court order eventually led to these PewDiePie videos being blocked in India entirely.
YouTube wanted nothing to do with PewDiePie
PewDiePie was at an all-time high with his career in 2016. He had just become one of the first people on YouTube to get a television series produced by the company, as their newly formed service YouTube Red was creating a series starring the Swedish YouTuber titled Scare PewDiePie. The series, produced by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, was a big enough hit to immediately secure a second season. This massive success, however, was just as quickly snatched away due to some of the biggest drama in PewDiePie's career.
In early 2017, The Wall Street Journal put out a piece chronicling a number of anti-Semitic videos that PewDiePie had uploaded over the last few months. The content of the videos was shocking, and led to a wave of negative press for the YouTuber. That press reached the ears of YouTube itself, which swiftly decided to cut professional ties with the creator and cancel the second season of Scare PewDiePie. The platform even went so far as to remove PewDiePie from its Google Preferred advertising platform.
PewDiePie's relationship with Disney went up in flames
Did you know that PewDiePie once had a partnership with Disney, the otherwise squeaky-clean House of Mouse? The creative mega-corporation owns a subsidiary called Maker Studios, which PewDiePie partnered with to produce videos, mobile apps, merchandise and more. The company was a huge part of making the Swedish sensation the star that he is, helping him gain countless professional boons that he wouldn't have been able to make happen on his own.
That helpful relationship came to a close in 2017, though. The same three anti-Semetic videos posted to PewDiePie's YouTube channel — the ones that made YouTube decide to cut ties with the creator — rubbed Disney the wrong way, too. The company announced that it would be severing ties with the video creator, as a spokeswoman for Maker Studios stated: "Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case and the resulting videos are inappropriate. Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward."
Firewatch's creators refused to let PewDiePie profit from their game
PewDiePie has made a lot of his living by playing video games, and lots of them. The YouTuber has made a career out of playing a wide variety of different titles on his channel, and those videos in turn help him earn a pretty penny. When it comes to one game in particular, though, he isn't allowed to make a single dime off of videos about it.
The game, in particular, is Firewatch, the first-person narrative experience from Campo Santo. When PewDiePie landed in hot water for using a racial slur during a live stream in September 2017, Campo Santo co-founder Sean Vanaman decided that enough was enough. The game developer filed DMCA takedowns on every Firewatch video PewDiePie had made and vowed to do the same for any future Campo Santo games. In a damning multi-part Twitter thread, Vanaman stated that he was "sick of this child getting more and more chances to make money off of what we make."
Bear Simulator's developer cancelled the game because of PewDiePie
While one video game developer has stifled the monetary success of PewDiePie, things went in the opposite direction for another budding indie creative who crossed paths with the incredibly influential video game YouTuber. PewDiePie plays a lot of different games, and his opinion on these games can often end up echoing across the millions of viewers who tune in to his channel, whether those opinions are positive or negative.
In the case of a game called Bear Simulator, they were definitely negative. When the Kickstarter-funded animal simulator came to Steam on Feb. 26, 2016, backers and Steam players reacted favorably, loving the weird and comedic tone of the janky game. Unfortunately, PewDiePie had the opposite sentiment, expressing mostly frustration with the game.
PewDiePie stated "This video is more of a PSA of 'don't buy this game,'" and his fans listened, boycotting the game and adding many negative reviews to it on Steam. This led to Bear Simulator creator John Farjay announcing that he would be ceasing development of the game, thanks to the "drama" surrounding its launch.
A Division 2 developer called for PewDiePie to be cancelled
While PewDiePie has gotten plenty of flack from vocal indie video game creators, he's also landed in hot water with members of the industry involved in much larger and more well-known games. One such piece of drama popped up near the end of 2018 when an Ubisoft developer working on The Division 2 called out PewDiePie.
On Dec. 10, 2018, Ubisoft employee Dianna Lora went to Twitter to express her disdain for PewDiePie, who'd recently given a shout-out to a YouTube channel that expressed incredibly hateful, anti-Semitic views. While Lora isn't a mega-influential YouTube influencer, she is an employee of one of the biggest video game companies in the world. After she called for the gaming industry to "end this dude" and "cut ties with him," fans of PewDiePie attacked Lora and called for boycotts of The Division 2. There were even rumors that Lora got fired for her comments, but those were quickly proven false.