End of an era: PewDiePie is no longer the most subscribed channel on YouTube

There’s been a change of the guard in the YouTube hierarchy: MrBeast has dethroned PewDiePie as the most subscribed YouTuber.

Ending an era which has lasted almost half of YouTube’s lifespan, the Swedish YouTuber has been one-upped by MrBeast after a massive shift. In significantly less videos and time on the platform, American Jimmy Donaldson’s channel has now become the most-subscribed individual channel on the platform.

Now boasting 111 million subscribers, MrBeast narrowly squeezes past PewDiePie by gaining roughly 1 million subscribers per week, while his rival has stagnated. Both of them are still fifth and sixth, respectively, to other channels such as Indian entertainment channel tseries, YouTube Movies, Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes, SET India, and YouTube Music.

Millennials and zoomers will remember a long-standing battle between PewDiePie and Tseries which ended in a comprehensive win for Tseries, with the entertainment channel symbolizing a change in how the platform is used by corporations; since YouTube’s early golden age of content, which was created essentially by amateurs, it’s now one of the most powerful platforms for big companies.

No longer is the trending page dominated by original content made in people’s bedrooms, it’s now almost entirely populated by late night show clips, movie trailers, sports, and straight-up ads. MrBeast has been one of the few channels who has consistently broken through the deluge, and now sits firmly at number one.

Gaining subscribers at the aforementioned rate, the 24 year-old YouTuber could potentially overtake YouTube Music by the end of 2022 as the fourth most subscribed. PewDiePie falling off is no real surprise, with a sense the internet may have just moved past him and his antics. Huge in pop culture for the mid-to-late 2010s, his core demographic are potentially coming of age, and no longer have the time to remain as faithful.

MrBeast is the face of a new generation of people growing up in the internet age, a remarkable feat considering his age. Donaldson was only six when the site first went live.