It appears to be an unfortunate (and very vicious) cycle of life. PewDiePie does something, certain hostile quarters of the Internet vent their frustration, everybody cries. This time, it’s over the obscene amount of cash he’s raking in, which, in reality, really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Going by the alias PewDiePie, Felix Kjellberg is one of YouTube’s most popular faces. His over-the-top reactions, bizarre expressions and nasally voice have led to a split in public opinion; by and large, most people either love him or hate him.
With PewDiePie’s YouTube channel becoming so outrageously popular, and with opinion on a knife edge, the news that Kjellberg had bagged $7 million last year was not well received. This figure - which was brought to light by Swedish newspaper Expressen - is an estimated ad revenue, based upon the number of hits his YouTube channel had generated for that year.
Many of PewDiePie’s videos generate over five million hits. Heck, the July 7 video of him explaining his massive commercial and financial success has, as of writing, already clocked in at 1.9 million views. Entitled, “Let’s Talk About Money,” PewDiePie explains how he was once a hungry student living on the breadline, working at hotdog stands, and peddling artwork to get by.
As much as I appreciate Kjellberg’s openness - and I genuinely think his willingness to do so speaks volumes about his character and integrity - he shouldn’t need to discuss his financial affairs. Equally, he shouldn’t need to feel obliged to describe his past struggles to distract the Internet’s angry mobs.
He earned the money through legitimate means, doing something he clearly loves. He created content that attracted more than nine billion views and nearly 40 million subscribers. In turn, this has provided him with the opportunity to make a killing from advertiser revenue.
So, for most people, where does the problem lie? I would assume there are two camps of people, members of which flitter between each camp: Camp One maligns the type of content PewDiePie produces, while the Camp Two resents its own lack of wealth.
Just because Camp One doesn’t like his videos, the videos don’t immediately lose value. Just take a look at Kjellberg’s latest vid, which has a viewer count just shy of two million; the content has almost 245,000 likes, but fewer than 2,000 dislikes. The majority of people who choose to offer their opinion have voted in favor of PewDiePie. This isn’t somebody fluking success. This is somebody consistently delivering content to a core fan base that loves his work.
Let’s look at the shear amount of money PewDiePie is earning. Yes, $7 million is more money than most people make in a lifetime. It’s not a year’s salary, it’s a Lotto win. But I think Kjellberg explains it best:
“What people, I guess, don’t really think about, until it’s in their face, is that I have nine billion views. And that translates to something. There’s ads on my videos, and I make money out of those.”
Simply put, he’s earned a boat load of money because he’s dumped a massive revenue stream at Google’s doorstep. Google doesn’t pay people out of the goodness of its own heart, it does this because those people are responsible for earning said money, and are rightfully entitled to it.
Taking this argument as far as it will go, we might ask the following: “Should PewDiePie earn more than a doctor?” Obviously not. But that may be a sad reflection of how our society works, where doctors, engineers are researchers are considered of lower importance than YouTube personalities, Hollywood stars and football players. Maybe the fault lies with us, not PewDiePie.