PewDiePie zooms ahead in war with T-Series, Mr Beast to the rescue

Swedish gamer Felix 'PewDiePie' Kjellberg once again surged ahead in its online battle against Indian production firm T-Series for the most subscribed channel, all thanks to popular American YouTuber Mr Beast.

This is how it all unfolded.

Nearly 48 hours ago, the subscriber count between PewDiePie and T-Series narrowed down to 20,000. As Pewds (fans of PewDiePie) fretted on how to extend the gap, Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast took to the Super Bowl 2019 match on February 4 with a ‘Subscribe to PewDiePie’ campaign.

Taking the online war to a whole new level, Donaldson and his friends donned “Subscribe to PewDiePie” shirts during the match.

“WE MADE IT ON THE SUPER BOWL,” he later tweeted in all caps.

WE MADE IT ON THE SUPER BOWL pic.twitter.com/il1E4ie94Y — MrBeast (@MrBeastYT) February 3, 2019

Soon, it was breaking the Twitter and even managed to feature on sports channel ESPN.

Our shirts are right behind the missed field goal https://t.co/UX34ZheRAR

— MrBeast (@MrBeastYT) February 4, 2019

He even lamented, “We want to be on tv more but no one is kicking field goals.”

Later, explaining his strategy, Donaldson wrote on Twitter, “We bought seats right behind the field goal, every kick on the end zone with rams paint will have our sub 2 Pewdiepie shirts.”

We bought seats right behind the field goal, every kick on the end zone with rams paint will have our sub 2 Pewdiepie shirts. — MrBeast (@MrBeastYT) February 4, 2019

When a Twitter user asked why Mr Beast didn't opt for an official commercials, he said, “My plan was to sell sub to pewdiepie shirts and use the money to buy the commercial (like a 10 second one) but once I started setting the plan into motion I learned that the network might deny the ad and I got scared I’d raise lots of money and get stuck with it.”

My plan was to sell sub to pewdiepie shirts and use the money to buy the commercial (like a 10 second one) but once I started setting the plan into motion I learned that the network might deny the ad and I got scared I’d raise lots of money and get stuck with it.

They are pretty strict on what they show.

I just didn’t want to raise a million dollars and then not deliver (aka scam people) so I did the next best thing with the shirts. pic.twitter.com/QmBFhTCmuJ — MrBeast (@MrBeastYT) February 4, 2019

Nonetheless to say, Mr Beast's campaign worked brilliantly and PewDiePie is now 1,47,000 subscribers ahead.

This neverending battle for the most subscribed YouTube channel spot between PewDiePie and T-Series has been going on for more than 10 months now.

PewDiePie, the one-man army known for his gaming commentary and controversial views, held the most subscribed channel for years now.

Suddenly, entered T-Series – a thirty-decade old leading music and movie production company in India. The firms' YouTube channel – which hosts top Indian musicians and movie trailers – is already the most-watched channel on the video platform with over 60 billion views. Within months, it's followers exploded from some 30 million to 80+ million propelled by some gamechanging data connectivity in India and the Centre's push to equip 1.3 billion Indians with smartphones.

While analysts predict it's just a matter of time that T-Series overtakes the independent Swedish content creator, PewDiePie has successfully been able to keep a lead in the war so far.