LOS ANGELES — The gamer behind YouTube’s most-watched channel, PewDiePie (real name Felix Kjellberg), announced in his latest Pew News video that he is planning to take a break from the platform next year.
Towards the end of the video posted Saturday that slams YouTube for its inability to effectively enforce its latest policy updates, Kjellberg says, “I am taking a break from YouTube next year. I wanted to say it in advance because I made up my mind.”
“I’m tired,” he continued. “I’m feeling very tired. I don’t know if you can tell. Just so you know, early next year I’ll be away for a little while. I’ll explain that later but I wanted to give a heads up.”
The controversial gamer had alluded to taking a break from the platform back in August: “I do think it would be good for me to take a break at some point. It would be nice to not have YouTube in my brain for the first time in 10 years.” Kjellberg married his girlfriend and former YouTube personality, Marzia Bisognin, in the same month.
It was announced last week that the comedian, game vlogger and meme aficionado is the most-subscribed individual YouTube creator and most-watched YouTube creator of 2019, currently with 102 million followers.
PewDiePie’s video views for the year were boosted by the months-long running battle stoked by Kjellberg and his fans to keep his subscriber count ahead of India’s T-Series music channel, which has since surpassed PewDiePie.
PewDiePie’s popularity continues unabated even though he has been the subject of ongoing controversies, including past criticism of his anti-Semitic jokes that Kjellberg acknowledged had gone too far.