PewDiePie's quiet online decline: What it says about the evolution of YouTube

Swedish YouTuber Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, or 'PewDiePie', as the internet knows him, has been one of the most popular and influential YouTubers in the platform's history. 

He held the record for having the most-subscribed channel from 2013 to 2019, and the most-viewed channel from 2014 to 2017. 

Initially posting live-streamed gameplay videos for horror and action games—a format of internet videos he is credited with popularising—Felix later expanded his content to include vlogs, comedy sketches, music, and commentary content.

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However, today, for the first time in 12 years, Felix’s channel has dropped from YouTube's top 10 most subscribed channels, knocked out of the list by South Korean Shorts creator 'kimpro828'. This is largely due to PewDiePie’s semi-retirement, leading him to post more casually and focus more on his personal life than his channel's growth, ever since his move to Japan in 2022.

The channel that beat him, 'kimpro828', focuses mainly on YouTube Shorts: a form of YouTube videos that Felix has never used. 

In fact, this change represents YouTube’s growing shift towards short-form content and the algorithm promoting this shift as well—a change that prioritises speed, virality, and short-form content over the long-form, personality-driven videos that once ruled. 

This further relates to the younger generation’s changing attention spans, with users engaging more with fast-paced videos that require shorter retention. In fact, “the algorithm”, designed to maximise watch time and session duration prioritises short-form content.

This is because despite being shorter, YouTube Shorts lead users to watch more videos, increasing total screen time per one sitting, with each short video offering a dopamine hit. This is a trend that led to the popularity of Tik-Tok, that other companies are now following.

YouTubers also lean more towards corporate-backed content, with smaller YouTubers also trying to monetise their videos. Crators like Mr Beast have gained immense popularity and traction due to following algorithm-friendly structures with fast-paced videos, specifically designed to retain audience attention.

However, PewDiePie does not follow these methods, and for the most part has been out of the youtube game. Now he creates at his own pace, posting videos for fun, and  most importantly, on his own terms.

While his reign at the top may be over, PewDiePie has cemented his legacy on YouTube. 

He represents a golden era of internet content that was messy, human, and wildly entertaining. In many ways, his fall from the top 10 is less a defeat and more a passing of the torch: a sign that YouTube is entering a new phase—one shaped by faster content, younger creators, and evolving attention spans.

Yet for millions of fans, Felix Kjellberg will always be their No 1: even if the algorithm says otherwise.

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