The War Between PewDiePie And T-Series For The Most YouTube Subscribers

04/12/2018

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, or better known as PewDiePie in the internet world, is famed for his comedic formatted shows when reviewing video games.

He is also the most-subscribed YouTuber since 2013, to only being surpassed a few times momentarily before regaining the throne. As of December 2018, his YouTube channel has more than 73 million subscribers with over 19 billion video views.

Quickly catching up, is T-Series, an Indian music production which is primarily known for Bollywood music soundtracks, as well as Indi-pop music.

Knowing this, fans of PewDiePie have taken desperate measures to keep the Swedish YouTube star in top spot on the video site, with one fan believed to have hacked 50,000 printers around the world to print paper messages asking people to subscribe to PewDiePie on YouTube.

Over the week, people have been posting surprised messages on Twitter claiming that their printer had been hacked, with them sharing the following images:

Save PewDiePie - Printer hack
Part of the message sent to the hacked printers to print

The message asked the surprised recipients to unsubscribe from T-Series and subscribe to PewDiePie instead, and spread awareness by using the hashtag #SavePewDiePie in their social media messaging

A Twitter user named TheHackerGiraffe claimed responsibility for the hack, and posted a thread detailing exactly how it worked. He said: "I was bored after playing Destiny 2 for a continuous 4 hours, and decided I wanted to hack something."

Using Shodan.io, a search engine to find out devices connected to the internet, he was "horrified to see over 800,000" unprotected printers, and said that: "I was baffled, but determined to try and fix this. So I picked the first 50,000 printers I found...and downloaded the list.

"It didn't take me long to realize that the most perfect thing to print would be a message supporting our dear overlord PewDiePie himself!"

He said that it just took him only 30 minutes to learn, code, and take control of the printers.

"People underestimate how easy a malicious hacker could have used a vulnerability like this to cause major havoc," said TheHackerGiraffe. "Hackers could have stolen files, installed malware, caused physical damage to the printers and even use the printer as a foothold into the inner network."

The subscriber war between PewDiePie and T-Series started a few months prior when the Indian music company’s channel experienced a rapid growth in numbers and reached 59 million subscribers. In October, the two channels were close, as more people joined T-Series’ channel.

This raged PewDiePie’s fans, as they subsequently started several campaigns to help their king reign on his crown.

While PewDiePie didn't encourage the hack or any of the campaigns, he didn't stay put.

Besides buying ads and posting fliers, including in India, to increase his subscribers count, he also started a GoFundMe campaign to raise £150,000 for Indian charity Child Rights and You (CRY). But this apparently, gave him a growing number of people leaving racist comments on videos related to his cause.

"Sometimes in these comments, you see comments like ‘f-ck Indians,’ […] just really distasteful, unnecessary comments," he said. "And I obviously make Indian jokes and stuff like that, but I do that of all countries, and this is not what I’m about."

But still, his subscribers count kept on increasing.

He managed this also with the help of his fellow YouTubers who promoted him, most notably Markiplier, another popular game-focused YouTuber whose real name is Mark Fischbach. One YouTube even claimed to buy a $1 million Billboard ad in Times Square.

In just 30 days of war, PewDiePie has increased his subscribers to about 4.4 million. T-Series is close, but is also increasing.

Nevertheless, PewDiePie said that he is enjoying all the support.

Months later, on March 31sth, 2019, PewDiePie ended his war with the Bollywoord powerhouse, by issuing a music video with a series of his personal confessions and accusations against the rival.

Title “Congratulations,” Kjellberg accuses T-Series executives, including chairman Bhushan Kumar, of multiple misdoings. One of which, the YouTuber references a Times of India article, which reported that Kumar is being investigated for "alleged evasion of huge tax and siphoning off hundreds of crores to foreign countries to purchase properties in the names of his employees."

The video is also meant to thank his fanbase who helped him kept his reigning title.

Kjellberg got sentimental in the video as he speaks about how much his fans mean to him, and opens himself up about past issues with alcohol.

"So this is it, thanks for sticking with my channel."

"Ever since I was a nobody, screaming at barrels. This is it, it’s been an adventure. It’s the end of the reign of Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg. Through all the change and controversy you’ve been by my side, there’s no army in the world I would rather give me watch time. It’s been a wild ride, so while I can still be heard, here’s one last bro fist, from the number one in the world."

Fans and the YouTube communities see the video as his last stand against T-Series, the war between independent personalities and corporate entities, in which the latter won.

Kjellberg losing his reign as the top performer on the platform was enough to send the YouTube ecosystem into a frenzy.

PewDiePie vs. T-Series was one of the few times that the YouTube communities were joining forces.

At the time Kjellberg uploaded the video, both PewDiePie and T-Series have more than 92 million subscribers, with the latter having more than three times the video views.

On August 2019, PewDiePie became the first solo content creator to reach 100 million subscribers.