PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, addressed the viral meme on his YouTube channel on Sunday night. The YouTuber had made it a competition to get to 100 million followers before another channel, T-series. The phrase has since been adopted by many of his fans including a terrorist who said to ‘subscribe’ during a livestream of a horrific attack at Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch.
Mr Kjellberg said on his YouTube channel: “But then something happened that I don’t think anyone would have predicted.
“A Christchurch shooter said subscribe to PewDiePie.
“Out of respect to those involved I chose not to address it any further than on Twitter where I disavowed the actions taken that day and gave my sincerest condolences to everyone affected.
“To have my name associated with something so unspeakably vile has affected me more ways than I have let show.
READ MORE: PewDiePie v T-Series subscriber count: PewDiePie loses battle for 100m
“I just didn’t want to address it right away and I didn’t want to give the terrorist any more attention.
“I didn’t want to make it about me, to put it plainly. I didn’t want hate to win.
“But it’s clear to me now the subscribe to PewDiePie moment should have ended then.
“This was made to be fun and it’s clearly not fun anymore. It’s gone too far.”
The terrorist killed 50 people in two attacks on March 15.
His manifesto included several references to memes and video games to grow to try and spread hate, Vox reported.
The shooter has been charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 counts of attempted murder.
New Zealand has since voted to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons in the country.
Prince William recently visited the troubled town to pay his respects to those affected there.
Addressing survivors of the massacre the future King gave an emotional address where he opened up on his experiences of grief in what was seen as a veiled reference to his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.