PewDiePie v T-Series subscriber battle finds its way to Super Bowl as fans rally around the Swedish vlogger

The gap between the channels is closing as both pass 83 million subscribers
King: PewDiePie is losing his lead at the top of the YouTube tree - so fans are helping out
Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty
Natasha Sporn4 February 2019

The biggest YouTube battle took a trip to the Super Bowl on Sunday night as one vlogger rallied his friends to wear t-shirts promoting PewDiePie.

The Swedish vlogger, real name Felix Kjellberg, has held the title for most subscribed to channel for several years but recently had his position threatened by Indian channel T-Series, which posts Bollywood trailers and songs.

According to Social Blade, both channels have over 83 million but the gap keeping PewDiePie on top – at the time of writing – is only just over 130,000.

To help, YouTube star MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, got together with some friends and went to the Super Bowl on Sunday night with t-shirts reading “Subscribe 2 PewDiePie”.

The five friends managed to get their message across during the thrilling NFL game as they constantly made it into shot with their customised attire.

MrBeast made sure to keep his followers up-to-date with the clever marketing ploy, sharing photos of themselves crashing the shots on social media.

He wrote: “We bought seats right behind the field goal, every kick on the end zone with rams paint will have our sub 2 Pewdiepie shirts.”

Last year, MrBeast bought every billboard in North Carolina to support PewDiePie when news of T-Series’ challenge first emerged to encourage people to check out the gaming blogger’s channel.

And it isn’t just fellow YouTubers trying to help PewDiePie stay on top. In December, one ardent fan hacked into 50,000 printers to spread the word about the channel.

Stars at Super Bowl 2019 - In pictures

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A message read: “PewDiePie, the currently most subscribed to channel on YouTube, is at stake of losing his position as the number one position by an Indian company called T-Series that simply uploads videos of Bollywood trailers and campaigns.”

The unsolicited printout urged people to “tell everyone they know” and featured a “brofist”, a symbol associated with PewDiePie.

In a later video, the YouTuber thanked his fans for their support, but asked them not to break any laws in the battle for the crown.

A hacker by the name of TheHackerGiraffe later claimed responsibility for the hack but said they were highlighting issues about printer security, having found their targets online.

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