YouTube star MrBeast has just overtaken PewDiePie to become to most-followed individual YouTube creator in the world.
The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has been gradually gaining subscribers in recent years, and his fans have long been expecting that he would become the most-followed YouTuber in the world.
A screenshot of a YouTube channel tracking the dueling follower counts via the Livecounts.xyz site.YouTube/subscriberWars1
He initially caught up with PewDiePie on November 11, hitting 111 million subscribers to equal PewDiePie’s subscriber count, and he shared his reaction on Twitter.
In the tweet, he said that he decided to buy 1,111 lottery tickets as a way of celebrating the milestone, sharing a picture that appeared to show a stack of tickets for the “North Carolina PowerBall” lottery.
Donaldson became the second YouTuber to reach the 100-million subscriber mark, behind PewDiePie, on July 28, celebrating by live streaming his reaction for his followers.
“I appreciate every single one of you that watches the videos. This is literally all I’ve ever done with my life,” he said in the live stream, adding: “All I do is wake up every day and obsess over how to make the best videos possible. It’s all I care about. It’s the only thing that’s ever really made me happy.”
Donaldson has been active on YouTube since 2012, but rose to fame in 2018 by donating thousands of dollars to small Twitch streamers and YouTubers. More recently, he has filmed elaborate competitions where fans take part in videos with the chance to win large prizes. Last year, he recreated the Netflix show “Squid Game” for a competition involving 456 supporters, and in June, he gave away $500,000 to a fan in a competition inspired by “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”
PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, has been active on YouTube since 2010 and is primarily known for posting gaming content on the platform. He officially became the most subscribed individual YouTuber in 2013, and in August 2019, he became the first individual creator to hit the 100 million subscriber milestone.
Four months later, Kjellberg announced that he was planning on taking a break from YouTube after saying he was dealing with burnout, and since then, he has posted less frequently on the platform overall. In May, he revealed that he had moved to Japan from his previous home in Brighton, England, and has been sharing vlog-style updates with fans on his life in a new country.
In August, Kjellberg said he was aware that Donaldson was likely to overtake him as the most-subscribed individual YouTuber, saying in a video that he thinks Donaldson “deserves it.”
“Come on, I’ve been retired for like two years now. I can’t wait for it to be over,” he added. (Insider)
