With 40 million fans, YouTube star
Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg could have his pick of broadcasters if he decided
to move into television. But the man whose channel has more than 10bn video
views plans to stick with his online community.
Television is just another promotional channel for his
online work, rather than the next rung of the entertainment ladder, he argues
“I started doing YouTube videos and that’s what I want to
keep doing. It seems like maybe some traditional or old media feel intimidated
by YouTube being a new medium,” Kjellberg said.
“I feel like we are the lucky ones doing YouTube. So I’m
going to keep doing what’s fun.”
Kjellberg launched his YouTube channel in 2010, and has
built a huge audience for his vlogs and “Let’s Play” videos, in which he plays
a variety of games.
In 2014, his videos were watched nearly 4.1bn times and
according to documents filed in the Brighton-based Swede’s homeland, the
25-year-old earned $7.4m (£4.8m).
Now, the traditional media world has come calling – and with
it more mainstream attention. Kjellberg released his first book this week, This
Book Loves You, through a publishing deal with Penguin Random House, and was
recently a guest on high-profile US TV show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“It’s been a certain group that knows about me, for sure. A
lot of people are still like, ‘What is a PewDiePie?’ But it really is
interesting to see, as one of the bigger names on YouTube, that right now
there’s a transition phase where YouTube is becoming more popular and accepted
as a medium by itself,” said Kjellberg.
The online fandom for its stars extends to the offline world
too: 1,400 fans turned up to Kjellberg’s book signing in London last weekend,
while he has been mobbed when appearing at online-video industry award
ceremonies.
“I see the numbers that are there online: a lot of people
watching and commenting. But you go to these events and think, ‘Oh shit! It’s
actually real.’ It’s a really big transition,” he said.
That transition has also seen Kjellberg become an ambassador
of sorts for gaming in general, and the genre of Let’s Play videos in
particular. His Late Show appearance came shortly after a rival chat show,
Jimmy Kimmel Live, mocked the phenomenon. Colbert, by contrast, treated
Kjellberg and his
“It’s so easy to make fun of because it’s new and different.
But once you get into it and understand it more, you realise that it is
something cool and awesome,” he said.
Kjellberg is mulling over his next moves, including a plan
to experiment with new formats beyond Let’s Play videos on YouTube, perhaps
with live streaming that could bring him closer to traditional television, but
in his own way.
“A lot of people keep a looser approach to live streaming:
they can just play games and don’t have to worry about editing. That doesn’t
seem that appealing to me,” he said. “I’d do it shorter and really make a show
out of it.”
Kjellberg is also preparing to make a scripted horror series
with the producer of The Walking Dead, funded by YouTube for its newly-announced
YouTube Red subscription service.
He is also learning to exert his growing influence on the
platforms he operates on, from criticising YouTube for its often-toxic comments
section in 2014, to bucking the dominant trend in the apps industry for “freemium”
games that make their money from in-app purchases – Candy Crush Saga being the
most famous example.
Kjellberg’s mobile game Legend of the Brofist costs £3.99 up
front, with no in-app purchases. “I don’t think that all games that have
in-game purchases are bad, but we didn’t think it would fit the kind of game we
wanted to make. It was cool to maybe change people’s approach to mobile games:
they don’t always have to be Flappy Bird,” he said.
That game was a sudden (if short-lived) craze in early 2014:
Kjellberg’s videos of Flappy Bird were watched by tens of millions of people,
sparking its initial surge in downloads.
It was an early sign that PewDiePie and his fellow YouTube
gamers are the new influencers in the games industry, capable of turning
obscure, independent games into hits.
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“People think that YouTube is going to replace games
journalism. I don’t think that at all: they both have a place, and a different
approach to promoting games,” said Kjellberg.
“But when I released my own game, it was really cool to see
exactly what the impact of just one video of a game could do. It’s clear that
if a YouTuber plays a game, sales go up. That’s just how it is.”
Penguin Random House is hoping it will be a similar story
for This Book Loves You, which follows chart-topping books from fellow
YouTubers Zoe “Zoella” Sugg and Alfie Deyes.
But unlike Sugg’s novel, Girl Online, Kjellberg’s book takes
the form of a collection of mock-inspirational quotes, spoofing the kind of
over-solemn memes widely shared on Facebook.
The idea plays firmly to his core fans, who he said played a
key role in the original idea for the book.
Kjellberg’s communication with his fans has had to evolve
from the days when he published his personal email address for them to contact.
“That would be impossible now, it would just be ridiculous!”
he said, of the likely deluge of emails. “But I think they know I still care
and take their feedback incredibly seriously.”
Like a number of other YouTubers, Kjellberg has successfully
mobilised his online audience for charitable purposes, raising $446,000
(£288,294) for Charity: Water in 2013 and $630,000 (£407,232) for Save the
Children in 2014 through crowdfunding campaigns.
“The fans are so engaged, and I think that’s what’s cool
about YouTube: we have that engagement and we can use it for positive stuff
like that,” he said.
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