PewDiePie About to Lose Crown as YouTube King

PewDiePie's long reign as the king of YouTube is about to come to an end. The Swede, who turned 29 on Wednesday, has had the most popular channel on YouTube since 2013, but he is just days away from being overtaken by T-Series, a Mumbai-based entertainment company that posts several Indian music videos a day, Business Insider reports. Both channels have around 67 million subscribers but T-Series added around 4.2 million subscribers last month, compared 863,000 for PewDiePie, and T-Series is expected to take PewDiePie's crown by Monday. PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, made an estimated $15 million last year.

PewDiePie became a YouTube star with video game commentaries on a channel that was a one-man operation, while T-Series is a major entertainment firm, and the contrast has caused plenty of debate about the future of YouTube. "It’s incredible to see how media companies like T-Series are flourishing in this space," a spokesperson for the Tubular Labs analytics firm tells the Independent. One reason is pretty simple, notes Business Insider: A largely one-man operation simply can't keep up with a media company's output. (Disney cut its ties with PewDiePie last year after he posted videos with anti-Semitic content.)