Pewdiepie makes $4 million a year.

[LobsterFeng]

http://online.wsj.com/articles/youtube-star-plays-videogames-earns-4-million-a-year-1402939896?mod=e2fb

So yeah, I'm greatly surprised by how popular he is and by how much money he makes. I've watched some of his videos and didn't really see what makes him better than any other let's players so yeah I'm surprised.

 

[Elfgore]

Damn, wish I could make that much screaming into a mic. Not trying to belittle his success here, but that is a very high amount of money for doing what he does. Kinda wish I could read the whole article, but it's locked until I make an account.

Edit: And in his draw my life thing, didn't he say he used to be poor as crap? Good to see him get to where he is.

 

[Roxas1359]

Edit: And in his draw my life thing, didn't he say he used to be poor as crap?

Things change. Since he's the most subscribed to YouTuber Polaris probably cut him the best deal when it comes to his contract. What sad is people are gonna use this and think that they can make that much money, when in reality they won't even make probably a single percent of that much.

 

[Frission]

Not that familiar, but that's the sort of thing with people in creative media. Alot of them are poor, but those who do well make a lot of money. The problem is that they're not indicative of the majority.

It's amazing that someone can make so much money from new media. Good for him.

EDIT: Did they have permission to print his name? Privacy and the Internet can be a bit weird.
Felix also means luck, so his name is appropriate.

 

[Andy Shandy]

By all accounts he's a nice guy outside of his videos and has raised plenty of money for charity, but by god, after watching a few of his videos, it boggles my mind as to how he's so popular. Chalk it up to one of life's great mysteries I suppose.

But fair play to him I suppose. I know I'd love to be doing what he does for a living.

 

[LobsterFeng]

Damn, wish I could make that much screaming into a mic. Not trying to belittle his success here, but that is a very high amount of money for doing what he does. Kinda wish I could read the whole article, but it's locked until I make an account.

Edit: And in his draw my life thing, didn't he say he used to be poor as crap?

Sorry I didn't realize it was locked up for everyone. I thought it was just for me because I'm on my phone and needed a mobile subscription or something.

 

[Weaver]

Edit: And in his draw my life thing, didn't he say he used to be poor as crap?

Things change. Since he's the most subscribed to YouTuber Polaris probably cut him the best deal when it comes to his contract. What sad is people are gonna use this and think that they can make that much money, when in reality they won't even make probably a single percent of that much.

I've made $5 from 4 years of youtube. Woooo!! All aboard the money train!

 

[BrotherRool]

To be honest, it's lower than I was expecting. Its kind of disappointing that the person absolutely on top of the youtube pile who entertains literally tens of millions of people for hours and hours every week is making what is petty change for a lot of the world. He's the biggest, it means everything else is making do with a lot less

It does change how I would feel if I were to see him though. I bet a lot of his fanbase would feel alienated to realise he might literally be slumming it in a mansion with his own sports car and stuff. It makes you wonder the extent to which youtubers might cultivate their personas for their audience. You like to think of them being genuine people, but maybe Pewdiepie takes off his italian designer closed and puts on a cruddy t-shirt before making his videos. A lot of youtubing is based on the (illusion?) of seeing a real person share himself with his audience

 

[Roxas1359]

I've made $5 from 4 years of youtube. Woooo!! All aboard the money train!

According to my Analytics, I've made 3 cents after 2 years. Now I find that weird, because none of my videos are monetized and have never been monetized. I also never got these supposed 3 pennies.
But with a news story like this I can see some people thinking it's easy money, when in reality if you actually see all the audio equipment PewDiePie uses as well as the editing it is a lot. Plus, I do know that PewDiePie donates quite a large sum of that to charity as well.

Really you just have to get lucky if you want instant YouTube fame. Want YouTube fame but aren't lucky, that requires a lot of hard work. Chuggaconroy, NintendoCapriSun, Somecallmejohnny, Super Gaming Bros, etc. have between 3-6 years of work put into LPs, and that's how they got where they are today. Mainly I just waiting for those inevitable "LPing isn't a real job"/"these people shouldn't be paid at all"/"It takes no work to make LPs" quotes that tend to come out whenever stories like this one come out. They make me depressed about being an LPer because apparently editing videos well, as well as audio quality is easy and I've just been making it difficult over time.

God help you if you have multiple audio tracks and are doing a call over Skype or Google Plus as the audio due to delays will become apparent in editing. I've had instances in which the audio of one person became out of sync over time by about 4 seconds, and we all had a sync point at the beginning.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

pfff Game Grumps is Greater, that Guy is a Gooey Glop of a Gaming... errm, channel, ok i got nothing


actually i dont mind the guy, i cant stand his videos but he donates money to charity so i dont really care

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

pfff Game Grumps is Greater, that Guy is a Gooey Glop of a Gaming... errm, channel, ok i got nothing


actually i dont mind the guy, i cant stand his videos but he donates money to charity so i dont really care

 

[LobsterFeng]

To be honest, it's lower than I was expecting. Its kind of disappointing that the person absolutely on top of the youtube pile who entertains literally tens of millions of people for hours and hours every week is making what is petty change for a lot of the world. He's the biggest, it means everything else is making do with a lot less

It does change how I would feel if I were to see him though. I bet a lot of his fanbase would feel alienated to realise he might literally be slumming it in a mansion with his own sports car and stuff. It makes you wonder the extent to which youtubers might cultivate their personas for their audience. You like to think of them being genuine people, but maybe Pewdiepie takes off his italian designer closed and puts on a cruddy t-shirt before making his videos. A lot of youtubing is based on the (illusion?) of seeing a real person share himself with his audience

Well you got to think about the payoff. I mean when you think about how much he spends to get the content out compared to what he gets back then holy cow he's loaded.

 

[Liquidprid3]

I'm not a big fan of Pewdiepie, but the videos I have seen from him had me laughing. And guess what? He wasn't screaming into a mic the entire time. Sure he shouts sometimes, but I think every channel does that. He comes up with some hilarious shit, the situations he gets in are great, and his terrible puns are amazing. I've always had a good time watching his videos, so I think the main reason why people hate him is that there are youtubers who are better than him, yet they have far less success.

Seriously, just take your pre conceptions of Pewdiepie, throw them away, and watch one of his photoshopping celebrities videos. I swear to God, even the simplest shops are so funny from him. Not to mention the amount he raises for charity. Same with Markiplier, they are both excellent people, who create quality content for their fans.

I honestly think that most people have only seen Pewdiepie's Slender videos (which are like 2 years old now) because he screams the whole time in those videos.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I suppose that's pretty impressive for a guy with one of the most idiotic screen names I've ever heard that doesn't have a bunch of superfluous X's in it.

 

[prpshrt]

Damn never heard of him. I must be living under a rock if he's so popular.

 

[Zhukov]

I don't watch his videos, but I've seen him in some co-op stuff with other Youtubers I watch and, really, I don't see what people have against him. He didn't scream all the time. He even made me chuckle from time to time.

I'm not about to hail him as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I've got nothing against the guy.

So I say good for him.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I don't have anything against the guy. He's not harming anyone or anything. His videos, as uninteresting as I find them, make a lot of people happy.

 

[Strazdas]

he is the 6th most subscribed and 5th most viewed user on youtube ever. he is the most subscribed and viewed gaming related user on youtube. of course hes making a lot of money, duh. estimates of advertisement show that he could easily be earning 1 million per month [http://socialblade.com/youtube/user/PewDiePie]. his viewers DOUBLE every year.

Personally, i once went to his channel to find out who he was, his featured video was him trying to get his girlfriend naked on camera based on SC2 game bet. nope, not interested in that kind of crap.

 

[A-D.]

Mainly I just waiting for those inevitable "LPing isn't a real job"/"these people shouldn't be paid at all"/"It takes no work to make LPs" quotes that tend to come out whenever stories like this one come out. They make me depressed about being an LPer because apparently editing videos well, as well as audio quality is easy and I've just been making it difficult over time.

To be blunt there, Let's Play is not hard, nor really a "job". What is hard work is what comes after you finished recording what you just played. You have to cut that up, resync it, do alot of new voice-over stuff in case something got all borked, check the quality, compile it, upload it etc. That is work and worthy of being called a job given how much work and effort goes into making the videos. But simply sitting there and just playing while recording it isnt exactly hard to do. Same goes for streaming where the work is really how you entertain the audience WHILE you are playing your game, if you just sit there and play silently it would be boring as fuck and nobody would watch it.

So yeah, by itself..it isnt work, its everything around it that actually is work and people deserve to be paid for entertaining their audience which is really why they get paid at all. Nobody would pay anyone a cent just to watch them play a random game after all, you gotta entertain them.

 

[Evonisia]

"Mr. Kjellberg also is inadvertently helping to shape the industry, as developers have started making games that aren't just fun to play, but also to watch others play on YouTube, like indie horror games."

Given the recent Jimquisition, I find this quite funny.

"Jens Orjeheim, 44, has an 11-year-old son who is a big fan of PewDiePie, but he fails to appreciate the appeal. "I think there are things in society that can be seen as contributing to a positive development," he said. "PewDiePie isn't one of them." He is critical of the fact that Mr. Kjellberg makes money from encouraging children to spend more time in front of screens and elevating the importance of videogames."

Oh, oh dear.