Pewdiepie fans: Where the heck are they?
Swedish YouTuber Felix Kjellberg ( aka Pewdiepie ) is one of the most subscribed channels in the world. He has 109 million subscribers on youtube, 3.5 million members on Reddit, and has entertained the internet world for over 15 years. A famous personality wouldn’t have such a big following if his fans didn’t support and care for him and his content. So the question is, where is his community?
Pewdiepie fans, or “19-year-olds”, can be found in many avenues of the internet. From the member's chat in live streams to his comments on his youtube posts or to his subreddit. The r/Pewdiepiesubmissions Reddit is where you will find the most frequent and current activity from his loyal fans. Members can post various things; most seen are current memes, fan edits, and inside jokes from the youtube videos. Anyone can look at these posts, comment on them, or even give them awards. These awards are even custom-made by mods for the channel, just like the upvote button on his page. Normally you would see an arrow, but the “bros” (another name for fans) can give it a “big pp” yes, you read that right. This is what is put in place instead of the normal set buttons. This Reddit gets even MORE interactive because Pewdiepie himself will go through it and record his reaction to the posts. He actively gives awards and votes in the videos, which he calls LWIAY videos. (Last Week I Asked You). This gives him more of a connection to his fans and helps build this specific online community. This became his most popular community recently and hasn’t stopped growing since he made it. Pewdiepie now has a very high 3.5 million followers on Reddit, which is a lot for a Youtuber. You can compare this to other Reddit communities for YouTubers like:
- Cody Ko, with 87.1k members (r/codyko)
- KSI, with 1.7m members (r/ksi)
- JackSepticEye, with 534k members (r/jacksepticeye)
CLEARLY, this is a huge fanbase for Pewdiepie compared to other content creators.
Many could argue that his community is the ones subscribed to his youtube channel or paying the monthly subscription to his members-only youtube content. (Which I might add he donates all those proceeds to a different charity each month) BUT, looking at the information on his Reddit, I would have to disagree completely. Yes, the people subscribed to him are fans, but you have to look at where they are most active in an online community. The Reddit gets many posts related to his content and gets lots of feedback directly from him. This is the most sacred online community Pewdiepie is a part of, but if you need another example to prove, I got one more. Pewdiepie sponsors Gfuel, and one specific fan bought 69 cups with his design on them. (yes 69, you can laugh) This fan got a reaction on LWIAY, and then the meme kept going on till the fan eventually proposed to his girlfriend on Reddit. Pewds responded, and it became a whole active meme for a while on his channel. This is an interaction that livens up an online community and makes it an official site for someone, in this case, Pewds.
BUt WHerE cAN ThEy NoT be FOUnd?
Well, this whole post is about where they are, which makes it easier to tell you where they CAN’T be found. One place is Facebook; the older generation on this form would not subscribe to his content. It is famously known that older people don’t like Pewdiepie. This can be seen in the video linked below.
The typical “Facebook” grandma is more than likely not watching Pewdiepie. To get the real fan experience, the best place to find them is his subreddit. The memes may not make sense to people who are not fans, but anyone can get a sense of his community from this place. So, to understand him, watch a video or two, then browse his Reddit.
