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PewDiePie vs T-Series

April 21, 2023

PewDiePie vs T-Series was an online rivalry between two YouTube channels, PewDiePie (run by Felix Kjellberg) and T-Series (run by an Indian record company of the same name) for the title of the most-subscribed YouTube channel. T-Series has held the title of most-viewed YouTube channel since February 2017, and PewDiePie had been the most-subscribed YouTube channel since August 2013. The rivalry between the two YouTube channels began when T-Series' subscriber count began to near PewDiePie's in late 2018.

PewDiePie vs T-Series
PewDiePie in 2019
T-Series' logo
Date29 August 2018 – 28 April 2019
Type
Motive
OutcomeT-Series overtook PewDiePie as the most-subscribed YouTube channel, becoming the first YouTube channel to reach 100 million subscribers

Many YouTubers voiced their support for PewDiePie, including Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, MrBeast, DanTDM, KSI, H3h3Productions and Logan Paul. Many of his fans made efforts to gain subscribers for his YouTube channel in numerous ways, including organised marches and supportive YouTube videos. Supporters of PewDiePie often used the slogan "Subscribe to PewDiePie". The activism of some supporters extended beyond legal grounds; vandalism, hacking of websites, social media accounts, personal devices and the creation of malware had taken place to urge people to subscribe. "Bitch Lasagna", a diss track by PewDiePie against T-Series, and the use of anti-Indian remarks by some of his fans (which PewDiePie would later criticize), led to several prominent Indian Youtubers publicly opposing PewDiePie and backing T-Series with YouTube videos and response diss tracks.

T-Series temporarily overtook PewDiePie in subscribers on numerous occasions in 2019. On 28 April 2019, PewDiePie released a video calling for his supporters to end their efforts to keep him as the most subscribed YouTube channel, and with the significant lead now held by T-Series, the competition is generally presumed to have ended with T-Series winning.

Background and overview

Felix Kjellberg, better known online as PewDiePie, is a Swedish YouTuber who makes comedic videos. He has traditionally been known for his Let's Play videos, and his channel was the most subscribed on YouTube from 15 August 2013 until 22 February 2019, when he was surpassed by T-Series, although PewDiePie took back the title shortly after approximately 8 minutes.[1][2] His fan base at the time of the competition was generally known as the "9-year-old army".[3]

T-Series is an Indian music record label and film production company. On YouTube, it has a multi-channel network consisting of 29 channels (excluding Lahari Music),[4] run by a team of 13 people.[5] The main T-Series channel primarily contains Indian music videos (Bollywood music and Indi-pop) as well as Bollywood film trailers, and releases several videos every day, having uploaded over 13 thousand videos as of August 2019.[5][6]

The competition between the two channels began after T-Series began to near PewDiePie in subscribers in late 2018. T-Series temporarily overtook PewDiePie in subscribers on numerous occasions in early 2019, and on 27 March 2019, it became the most subscribed YouTube channel for five consecutive days,[7] before PewDiePie regained the lead. PewDiePie then held the lead for 2 weeks, before T-Series passed him permanently, reaching 100 million subscribers on 29 May 2019.[8]

Activism

Support of PewDiePie

From YouTubers

The first prominent YouTuber to support PewDiePie was MrBeast, who bought billboards and radio advertisements in North Carolina urging people to subscribe to PewDiePie's channel.[9] He also created a video of himself saying "PewDiePie" 100,000 times in a period of over 12 hours.[10] MrBeast and his friends attended Super Bowl LIII, wearing T-shirts reading "Sub 2 PewDiePie". The group was prominently displayed in an ESPN tweet after Stephen Gostkowski had missed a field goal during the first quarter.[11][12]

Other prominent YouTubers such as Markiplier, Jacksepticeye and Logan Paul made videos or tweets announcing their support for PewDiePie in the competition, often under the slogan "Subscribe to PewDiePie".[11][13][14][15] YouTuber Justin Roberts, a member of the group Team 10, bought a billboard in New York's Times Square reading the same.[16][17] Markiplier made a tongue-in-cheek live stream titled "I literally won't shut up until you subscribe to PewDiePie" urging his viewers to subscribe to PewDiePie's channel.[14][16][17] Jacksepticeye ran a live stream with the same purpose, jokingly threatening to delete his channel if T-Series surpassed PewDiePie.[12]

Smaller YouTubers also promoted PewDiePie. In reaction to MrBeast's advertising campaign, Saimandar Waghdhare, an independent Indian YouTuber with the channel "Saiman Says", responded to MrBeast's advertising campaign by posting a sarcastic video in which he pretends to support T-Series, later releasing a video in which he instead declares his support to PewDiePie.[18]

YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind, the 2018 video edition of the annual YouTube Rewind series, became the most-disliked video on the platform after heavy backlash. One of the cited reasons for the criticism was the lack of coverage of the competition between PewDiePie and T-Series.[19] YouTuber Jaiden Animations, however, had contributed to the video, and her animation included several hidden icons and objects related to PewDiePie.[20]

Hackings

A hacker under the pseudonym "HackerGiraffe" sent print jobs to around 50,000 vulnerable printers in November, and another hacker under the pseudonym "j3ws3r" did the same to around 80,000 printers in December.[21][22][23] Messages were printed out saying "PewDiePie is in trouble and he needs your help to defeat T-Series!" and urged printer users to subscribe to PewDiePie, unsubscribe from T-Series, and fix their printer's security settings. HackerGiraffe claimed that he had discovered more than 800,000 vulnerable printers using the search engine Shodan used for finding vulnerable devices.[17][24] In January 2019, more than 65,000 of Google's Chromecast streaming dongles were hacked by HackerGiraffe and j3ws3r, displaying a message on smart TVs urging people to subscribe to PewDiePie and adjust their security settings.[25][26] However, despite positive feedback from some people, one of the hackers anonymously revealed to the BBC that he suffered a breakdown due to the prospect of facing jail time and angry messages urging him to commit suicide, but did not regret lowering the number of vulnerable personal devices.[27] Also in January, dozens of Nest cameras were compromised by a hacker under the pseudonym "SydeFX" using credential stuffing, who spoke to victims through the cameras, demanding they subscribe to PewDiePie.[28]

Hacking was not limited to hardware. In December 2018, one of The Wall Street Journal's websites was hacked to display a message apologizing for articles accusing PewDiePie of antisemitism and to tell readers to subscribe to his YouTube channel.[17][24] The hacker j3ws3r also took down T-Series' website with a denial-of-service attack.[23] In February 2019, Bob Buckhorn, the mayor of Tampa, Florida, had his Twitter account hacked to post malicious tweets, one of these encouraging users to subscribe to PewDiePie.[29] On 22 March 2019, a user on the PewDiePie subreddit developed ransomware by the name PewCrypt that encrypted files on Microsoft Windows machines. The attacker claimed he would release an encryption key when PewDiePie hit the 100 million subscriber milestone, however, the author claimed that if T-Series claimed that goal first, the decryption tool would be deleted permanently.[30]

Other activism

On 4 November 2018, a group of young fans began to hand out posters in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh,[31] which PewDiePie acknowledged in a YouTube video.[32][33] On 27 February 2019, Basketball Club Žalgiris based in Kaunas, Lithuania, had cheerleaders performing "Bitch Lasagna" during a time-out.[34]

Several marches were held in support of PewDiePie. On 27 February 2019, a parade was held in Tallinn, Estonia in support of PewDiePie. Up to several hundreds of people took part in the march, which went through Tallinn's Old Town and other busy areas of the city centre.[35][36] During the 2019 India–Pakistan standoff, T-Series removed the music of Pakistani pop artists from its channel. In response, there was a march in Pakistan where protesters held signs reading "Unsubscribe T-Series" and expressed their support for PewDiePie.[37] On 10 March 2019, a rally was held in Moscow for internet freedom, coordinated by the Libertarian Party of Russia. During the rally protesters played "Bitch Lasagna" and held signs which read "Sub to PewDiePie".[38][39]

On 12 March 2019, indie game developer Thomas Brush released a video game on itch.io based on PewDiePie vs T-Series called Zero Deaths, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting where PewDiePie must defend Marzia Bisognin, his wife, from fake YouTube subscribers known as "sub bots".[40]

On 29 April 2019, a plane flew over New York City with a banner attached saying "Subscribe to PewDiePie".[41] More than 21,000 people watched PewDiePie's live stream on DLive showing the plane with its banner fly over the city.[41] During the live stream, PewDiePie said that the event (which happened after his request to end efforts against T-Series) was "a nice little wrap up" to the Subscribe to PewDiePie meme.[41] The flight and banner, which cost more than $4,500, were crowdfunded by PewDiePie's fanbase.[41]

The right-wing populist UK Independence Party announced their support for PewDiePie in a tweet.[42][43] In an October 2019 interview with Kevin Roose of The New York Times, Kjellberg said of UKIP's support that "It's kind of funny how a political party would post about a meme" but that "it's also kind of like, Ehh, don't drag me into your politics."[44]

Criminal acts

Although PewDiePie told his fans not to do "anything illegal" in their activism,[35] some supporters committed criminal acts of vandalism to spread the "Subscribe to PewDiePie" meme. In March 2019, the Brooklyn War Memorial was vandalized with graffiti reading "Subscribe to PewDiePie".[35] The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation said that they would remove it.[45] PewDiePie later condemned the action,[15][46] and stated that he had made a donation to the park.[47] Another vandalism case occurred two days prior when "SUB 2 pewdiepie" was written on a school's property in Oxford, United Kingdom.[48]

In the moments leading up to the 15 March 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, the perpetrator said, "Remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie", as he live-streamed the shootings.[49]

Support of T-Series

The rivalry between PewDiePie and T-Series received more attention in India due to controversial actions by PewDiePie and his fans. PewDiePie's "Bitch Lasagna" diss track contained some derogatory lyrics about Indian people that some Indians found offensive. Many of PewDiePie's fans had engaged in negatively spamming and trolling the T-Series channel,[50] which included swarming T-Series' videos with PewDiePie-related comments, disliking videos, and flagging their videos with false reports.[51] A number of PewDiePie's fans and supporters had also been making anti-Indian remarks and using racial slurs.[52][53]

The actions of such fans led to several independent Indian YouTubers announcing their opposition to PewDiePie and support for T-Series.[53][52] In November 2018, Indian-Canadian comedian and YouTuber Jus Reign uploaded a video called "In Defense of T-Series", where he talks about T-Series, mentions his childhood listening to their music, and shows a short music video at the end celebrating T-Series.[54] In response to PewDiePie's "Bitch Lasagna" diss track, several Indian YouTubers responded with their own Hindi-language diss tracks against PewDiePie. Tatva K released his diss track "Pew Ki Pie" in November 2018, followed by Asif Bantaye releasing his diss track "PENDUBHAI" in December 2018. On 1 January 2019, Indian YouTuber CarryMinati, released a diss track called "Bye PewDiePie", which garnered nearly 5 million views in 24 hours.[53][52]

Response

PewDiePie

In August 2018, PewDiePie posted a video titled "this channel will overtake PewDiePie" in which he jokingly rallied his fans against T-Series. The video also referenced the KSI vs. Logan Paul YouTube boxing match, which similarly involved a rivalry between two major YouTubers.[51] On 5 October 2018, PewDiePie, in collaboration with musician Party In Backyard, posted a diss track against T-Series, titled "Bitch Lasagna".[16][55]The title of the song is in reference to a viral Facebook Messenger screenshot, in which an Indian man, in broken English, demands nude photos of a Western woman, and when his requests remain unanswered, refers to her as "bitch lasagna".[56] In the song, he insults T-Series and their video contents, makes references to contemporary Indian stereotypes and accuses the company of using sub bots to gain false subscriptions.[57][58]

After he was asked about his "serious opinions" about the situation, PewDiePie said: "I don't really care about T-Series, I genuinely don't, but I think if YouTube does shift in a way where it does feel more corporate, [then] something else will take its place. I think people enjoy this connection so much, I think something else will just show up, if it feels too corporate."[59] He also blamed YouTube for a lack of support toward individual YouTubers.[9] Speaking to Metro in November 2018, PewDiePie said that he was "surprised no one has stepped up sooner", referring to T-Series competing for the most-subscribed spot.[60]

In December 2018, PewDiePie made a video calling on his viewers to support the Indian non-governmental organization Child Rights and You, in response to some of his fans' anti-Indian sentiment. In the video, Kjellberg says "No more 'f*** India', let's (instead) help India." He raised £173,682, including a donation by Minecraft creator Markus Persson, and also ran a charity live stream the next day.[14][61]

On 3 February 2019, PewDiePie live-streamed himself playing Fortnite on YouTube in an attempt to stop T-Series from surpassing him.[62] He later ran two more live streams for the same purpose, playing Roblox on one occasion,[63][64] and minigames in Minecraft on another.[65]

On 27 March 2019, T-Series surpassed PewDiePie. Following this, PewDiePie suggested through Twitter that the "winner" of the competition would be whoever reached 100 million subscribers first.[66] On 31 March, he posted another diss track: an upbeat synth-pop/hip-hop music video with YouTubers RoomieOfficial and Boyinaband, titled "Congratulations", which sarcastically congratulated T-Series for surpassing him.[15][67][68] In the music video, PewDiePie mocks how T-Series sent him a cease and desist letter alleging that his actions and lyrics of "Bitch Lasagna" were defamatory. The video also criticizes T-Series for alleged tax evasion and the fact that the company was founded through the selling of pirated songs.[68][15] Following PewDiePie's upload of the song, he regained the number one spot.[69][70]

On 28 April 2019, PewDiePie requested in a video that his viewers end the "Subscribe to PewDiePie" meme, stating that it "started out of love and support, so let's end it with that."[71] He also discussed the mental toll the Christchurch shooter's mention of his name had on him, stating "to have my name associated with something so unspeakably vile has affected me in more ways than I've let shown. I just didn't want to address it right away, and I didn't want to give the terrorist more attention. I didn't want to make it about me, because I don't think it has anything to do with me. To put it plainly, I didn't want hate to win … But it's clear to me now the 'Subscribe to PewDiePie' movement should have ended then."[71]

PewDiePie tweeted that he felt "sickened" to have his name uttered by the attacker, and expressed his condolences to the victims' loved ones.[72][46] Those who had helped to popularize the meme, like Ethan Klein, were repulsed that the phrase had been used as a call to arms by the attacker, and urged people to stop spreading the meme, hoping that it would die out.[73] The perpetrator of the 27 April 2019 Poway synagogue shooting also mentioned PewDiePie,[74] claiming without evidence that the shooting was planned and financed by PewDiePie.[75]

Following the 2019 Christchurch shootings, Kevin Roose of The New York Times wrote that the perpetrator's goal behind saying "subscribe to PewDiePie" during his livestream of the attack "may have been to pull a popular internet figure into a fractious blame game and inflame political tensions everywhere."[76] News18 reported a tweet cautioning that the shooter's intended consequence was that haters of PewDiePie would be inclined to blame PewDiePie rather than the shooter in order to "further [the accusers'] political agenda."[77]

T-Series

In September 2018, T-Series president and head of its digital division Neeraj Kalyan said "It's a matter of pride for all Indians that an Indian YouTube Channel will soon be world's biggest channel on YouTube".[78] He also addressed PewDiePie fans, stating "No amount of spamming will be able to hold back the power of good music."[79] Kalyan further added that the channel's overseas viewership had increased as a result of the subscriber race, stating that "people in the West, or in the East as far as Japan were not even aware of us. They now know about us because of all that controversy."[4]

T-Series chairman and managing director Bhushan Kumar, son of late founder Gulshan Kumar, told the BBC in December 2018 that he had never heard of PewDiePie until "a few months ago".[5] He stated he was "really not bothered about this race" and voiced his confusion as to why PewDiePie was "taking this so seriously", adding that they were "not competing with him."[17] In February 2019, Kumar was reported by The Washington Post to have said that "Everybody knows T-Series across the world now. If we had become number one on our own, nobody would have known about us."[43]

On 6 March 2019, Kumar tweeted "We're on the brink of becoming the world's biggest @YouTube channel. We can make history. We can make India win. Subscribe to @TSeries", posting a video encouraging Indians to subscribe to T-Series' channel. In the video, he stated "this is a historic movement for all of us, so let's come together and subscribe to T-Series' YouTube channel and make India proud."[80][81]

In April 2019, T-Series sought a court order from the Delhi High Court to remove PewDiePie's diss tracks from YouTube. Despite PewDiePie's statement that these diss tracks were "done in good fun", the court issued a temporary injunction in favour of T-Series on 8 April 2019. The complaint against Kjellberg claimed that his songs were "defamatory, disparaging, insulting, and offensive," and noted that comments on the videos were "abusive, vulgar, and also racist in nature." Access to the diss tracks on YouTube was blocked in India.[82][83] In August 2019, it was reported that T-Series and PewDiePie had settled their legal disputes outside of court.[84]

In an May 2019 interview with Sangeeta Tanwar from Quartz India, when asked the question "What does being the number one channel on YouTube mean to you? Does it help business?" Kumar said:[85]

"We were never in this tussle to become number one or two with anyone. But all along there were these sarcastic comments from PewDiePie. And that’s how we decided to respond to the comments. I launched the #BharatWinsYouTube campaign, seeking more subscriptions from Indians. For us, this status does not result in any change on the commercial front. However, it changes the perception about who we are. With these developments, T-Series gets promoted. What is heartening is that now we are seeing growth even in countries where people were not watching our channel earlier."

— Sangeeta Tanwar, T-Series chief says PewDiePie asked for a YouTube fight and got it, Quartz India (May 2019)

YouTube

Referring to T-Series' rise to prominence on YouTube, YouTube Asia Pacific's managing director Gautam Anand told The New York Times: "As more and more of India came along, video became the way that they were interacting with the internet", mentioning that 85 percent of Indian internet users used YouTube. He furthered, "Even if you're not literate, you still enjoy watching video",[86] and mentioned: "India is a really great bright spot. It's one of the fastest-growing markets even within Asia."[4]

On 13 December 2018, YouTube removed a large number of bot and inactive subscribers from the platform. The change affected the subscriber count of both channels in the competition: PewDiePie lost over 40,000 subscribers and T-Series lost more than 200,000 subscribers from its main channel.[87]

Media

Anthony Cuthbertson of The Independent described the rivalry as a shift in how established media companies viewed YouTube.[59] The Guardian's Nosheen Iqbal described T-Series as "a challenger from the streets of Delhi", referring to the origins of its founder Gulshan Kumar, who was a fruit juice seller when he founded the company.[17]

Vox's Aja Romano noted that the competition represented the growing divide of subcultures on YouTube—on one side were the creators who had developed their own channels over the course of YouTube's history, and on the other side corporations who used YouTube as a platform to advertise their shows from external platforms.[88]

Patricia Hernandez of The Verge compared the rivalry to the KSI vs Logan Paul boxing match. She described PewDiePie's antagonism as "all for show" and stated that "rivalries play a huge role on YouTube because they give viewers narratives where pseudo-heroes and villains exist with low (if any) stakes."[51]

The Washington Post reported that the success of T-Series represented the fast growth of Internet in India, with an increase from 20 million Indians with Internet access in 2000 to 560 million in 2018.[43] The Post noted that India became the second-largest mobile phone market in 2018, and highlighted mobile data plans in India, noting the importance of voice technology because of the low rate of literacy in India. Journalist Ravi Agrawal said that India quickly progressed to cheap mobile phones by skipping slower initial technological advances in the west.[43] Vice reported that T-Series' success lay in focusing on regional audiences and having no competitors in online music in India.[89]

Aftermath

As of November 2022, T-Series currently remains the most subscribed YouTube channel with more than 228 million subscribers. Meanwhile, PewDiePie is currently the fifth most subscribed YouTube channel, having been passed by Sony Entertainment Television's YouTube channel, MrBeast and Cocomelon.[90]

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External links

April 21, 2023
pewdiepie, series, online, rivalry, between, youtube, channels, pewdiepie, felix, kjellberg, series, indian, record, company, same, name, title, most, subscribed, youtube, channel, series, held, title, most, viewed, youtube, channel, since, february, 2017, pew. PewDiePie vs T Series was an online rivalry between two YouTube channels PewDiePie run by Felix Kjellberg and T Series run by an Indian record company of the same name for the title of the most subscribed YouTube channel T Series has held the title of most viewed YouTube channel since February 2017 and PewDiePie had been the most subscribed YouTube channel since August 2013 The rivalry between the two YouTube channels began when T Series subscriber count began to near PewDiePie s in late 2018 PewDiePie vs T SeriesPewDiePie in 2019T Series logoDate29 August 2018 28 April 2019TypeWord of mouth marketingadvertisingwebsite supportslogansactivismhackingspammingminor civil disobedienceMotiveSupport of PewDiePie or T Seriespublic competition rivalry about being the most subscribed YouTube channelOutcomeT Series overtook PewDiePie as the most subscribed YouTube channel becoming the first YouTube channel to reach 100 million subscribersMany YouTubers voiced their support for PewDiePie including Markiplier Jacksepticeye MrBeast DanTDM KSI H3h3Productions and Logan Paul Many of his fans made efforts to gain subscribers for his YouTube channel in numerous ways including organised marches and supportive YouTube videos Supporters of PewDiePie often used the slogan Subscribe to PewDiePie The activism of some supporters extended beyond legal grounds vandalism hacking of websites social media accounts personal devices and the creation of malware had taken place to urge people to subscribe Bitch Lasagna a diss track by PewDiePie against T Series and the use of anti Indian remarks by some of his fans which PewDiePie would later criticize led to several prominent Indian Youtubers publicly opposing PewDiePie and backing T Series with YouTube videos and response diss tracks T Series temporarily overtook PewDiePie in subscribers on numerous occasions in 2019 On 28 April 2019 PewDiePie released a video calling for his supporters to end their efforts to keep him as the most subscribed YouTube channel and with the significant lead now held by T Series the competition is generally presumed to have ended with T Series winning Contents 1 Background and overview 2 Activism 2 1 Support of PewDiePie 2 1 1 From YouTubers 2 1 2 Hackings 2 1 3 Other activism 2 1 4 Criminal acts 2 2 Support of T Series 3 Response 3 1 PewDiePie 3 2 T Series 3 3 YouTube 3 4 Media 4 Aftermath 5 References 6 External linksBackground and overviewFelix Kjellberg better known online as PewDiePie is a Swedish YouTuber who makes comedic videos He has traditionally been known for his Let s Play videos and his channel was the most subscribed on YouTube from 15 August 2013 until 22 February 2019 when he was surpassed by T Series although PewDiePie took back the title shortly after approximately 8 minutes 1 2 His fan base at the time of the competition was generally known as the 9 year old army 3 T Series is an Indian music record label and film production company On YouTube it has a multi channel network consisting of 29 channels excluding Lahari Music 4 run by a team of 13 people 5 The main T Series channel primarily contains Indian music videos Bollywood music and Indi pop as well as Bollywood film trailers and releases several videos every day having uploaded over 13 thousand videos as of August 2019 5 6 The competition between the two channels began after T Series began to near PewDiePie in subscribers in late 2018 T Series temporarily overtook PewDiePie in subscribers on numerous occasions in early 2019 and on 27 March 2019 it became the most subscribed YouTube channel for five consecutive days 7 before PewDiePie regained the lead PewDiePie then held the lead for 2 weeks before T Series passed him permanently reaching 100 million subscribers on 29 May 2019 8 ActivismSupport of PewDiePie From YouTubers The first prominent YouTuber to support PewDiePie was MrBeast who bought billboards and radio advertisements in North Carolina urging people to subscribe to PewDiePie s channel 9 He also created a video of himself saying PewDiePie 100 000 times in a period of over 12 hours 10 MrBeast and his friends attended Super Bowl LIII wearing T shirts reading Sub 2 PewDiePie The group was prominently displayed in an ESPN tweet after Stephen Gostkowski had missed a field goal during the first quarter 11 12 Other prominent YouTubers such as Markiplier Jacksepticeye and Logan Paul made videos or tweets announcing their support for PewDiePie in the competition often under the slogan Subscribe to PewDiePie 11 13 14 15 YouTuber Justin Roberts a member of the group Team 10 bought a billboard in New York s Times Square reading the same 16 17 Markiplier made a tongue in cheek live stream titled I literally won t shut up until you subscribe to PewDiePie urging his viewers to subscribe to PewDiePie s channel 14 16 17 Jacksepticeye ran a live stream with the same purpose jokingly threatening to delete his channel if T Series surpassed PewDiePie 12 Smaller YouTubers also promoted PewDiePie In reaction to MrBeast s advertising campaign Saimandar Waghdhare an independent Indian YouTuber with the channel Saiman Says responded to MrBeast s advertising campaign by posting a sarcastic video in which he pretends to support T Series later releasing a video in which he instead declares his support to PewDiePie 18 YouTube Rewind 2018 Everyone Controls Rewind the 2018 video edition of the annual YouTube Rewind series became the most disliked video on the platform after heavy backlash One of the cited reasons for the criticism was the lack of coverage of the competition between PewDiePie and T Series 19 YouTuber Jaiden Animations however had contributed to the video and her animation included several hidden icons and objects related to PewDiePie 20 Hackings A hacker under the pseudonym HackerGiraffe sent print jobs to around 50 000 vulnerable printers in November and another hacker under the pseudonym j3ws3r did the same to around 80 000 printers in December 21 22 23 Messages were printed out saying PewDiePie is in trouble and he needs your help to defeat T Series and urged printer users to subscribe to PewDiePie unsubscribe from T Series and fix their printer s security settings HackerGiraffe claimed that he had discovered more than 800 000 vulnerable printers using the search engine Shodan used for finding vulnerable devices 17 24 In January 2019 more than 65 000 of Google s Chromecast streaming dongles were hacked by HackerGiraffe and j3ws3r displaying a message on smart TVs urging people to subscribe to PewDiePie and adjust their security settings 25 26 However despite positive feedback from some people one of the hackers anonymously revealed to the BBC that he suffered a breakdown due to the prospect of facing jail time and angry messages urging him to commit suicide but did not regret lowering the number of vulnerable personal devices 27 Also in January dozens of Nest cameras were compromised by a hacker under the pseudonym SydeFX using credential stuffing who spoke to victims through the cameras demanding they subscribe to PewDiePie 28 Hacking was not limited to hardware In December 2018 one of The Wall Street Journal s websites was hacked to display a message apologizing for articles accusing PewDiePie of antisemitism and to tell readers to subscribe to his YouTube channel 17 24 The hacker j3ws3r also took down T Series website with a denial of service attack 23 In February 2019 Bob Buckhorn the mayor of Tampa Florida had his Twitter account hacked to post malicious tweets one of these encouraging users to subscribe to PewDiePie 29 On 22 March 2019 a user on the PewDiePie subreddit developed ransomware by the name PewCrypt that encrypted files on Microsoft Windows machines The attacker claimed he would release an encryption key when PewDiePie hit the 100 million subscriber milestone however the author claimed that if T Series claimed that goal first the decryption tool would be deleted permanently 30 Other activism On 4 November 2018 a group of young fans began to hand out posters in Dhaka the capital city of Bangladesh 31 which PewDiePie acknowledged in a YouTube video 32 33 On 27 February 2019 Basketball Club Zalgiris based in Kaunas Lithuania had cheerleaders performing Bitch Lasagna during a time out 34 Several marches were held in support of PewDiePie On 27 February 2019 a parade was held in Tallinn Estonia in support of PewDiePie Up to several hundreds of people took part in the march which went through Tallinn s Old Town and other busy areas of the city centre 35 36 During the 2019 India Pakistan standoff T Series removed the music of Pakistani pop artists from its channel In response there was a march in Pakistan where protesters held signs reading Unsubscribe T Series and expressed their support for PewDiePie 37 On 10 March 2019 a rally was held in Moscow for internet freedom coordinated by the Libertarian Party of Russia During the rally protesters played Bitch Lasagna and held signs which read Sub to PewDiePie 38 39 On 12 March 2019 indie game developer Thomas Brush released a video game on itch io based on PewDiePie vs T Series called Zero Deaths which takes place in a post apocalyptic setting where PewDiePie must defend Marzia Bisognin his wife from fake YouTube subscribers known as sub bots 40 On 29 April 2019 a plane flew over New York City with a banner attached saying Subscribe to PewDiePie 41 More than 21 000 people watched PewDiePie s live stream on DLive showing the plane with its banner fly over the city 41 During the live stream PewDiePie said that the event which happened after his request to end efforts against T Series was a nice little wrap up to the Subscribe to PewDiePie meme 41 The flight and banner which cost more than 4 500 were crowdfunded by PewDiePie s fanbase 41 The right wing populist UK Independence Party announced their support for PewDiePie in a tweet 42 43 In an October 2019 interview with Kevin Roose of The New York Times Kjellberg said of UKIP s support that It s kind of funny how a political party would post about a meme but that it s also kind of like Ehh don t drag me into your politics 44 Criminal acts Although PewDiePie told his fans not to do anything illegal in their activism 35 some supporters committed criminal acts of vandalism to spread the Subscribe to PewDiePie meme In March 2019 the Brooklyn War Memorial was vandalized with graffiti reading Subscribe to PewDiePie 35 The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation said that they would remove it 45 PewDiePie later condemned the action 15 46 and stated that he had made a donation to the park 47 Another vandalism case occurred two days prior when SUB 2 pewdiepie was written on a school s property in Oxford United Kingdom 48 In the moments leading up to the 15 March 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings the perpetrator said Remember lads subscribe to PewDiePie as he live streamed the shootings 49 Support of T Series The rivalry between PewDiePie and T Series received more attention in India due to controversial actions by PewDiePie and his fans PewDiePie s Bitch Lasagna diss track contained some derogatory lyrics about Indian people that some Indians found offensive Many of PewDiePie s fans had engaged in negatively spamming and trolling the T Series channel 50 which included swarming T Series videos with PewDiePie related comments disliking videos and flagging their videos with false reports 51 A number of PewDiePie s fans and supporters had also been making anti Indian remarks and using racial slurs 52 53 The actions of such fans led to several independent Indian YouTubers announcing their opposition to PewDiePie and support for T Series 53 52 In November 2018 Indian Canadian comedian and YouTuber Jus Reign uploaded a video called In Defense of T Series where he talks about T Series mentions his childhood listening to their music and shows a short music video at the end celebrating T Series 54 In response to PewDiePie s Bitch Lasagna diss track several Indian YouTubers responded with their own Hindi language diss tracks against PewDiePie Tatva K released his diss track Pew Ki Pie in November 2018 followed by Asif Bantaye releasing his diss track PENDUBHAI in December 2018 On 1 January 2019 Indian YouTuber CarryMinati released a diss track called Bye PewDiePie which garnered nearly 5 million views in 24 hours 53 52 ResponsePewDiePie In August 2018 PewDiePie posted a video titled this channel will overtake PewDiePie in which he jokingly rallied his fans against T Series The video also referenced the KSI vs Logan Paul YouTube boxing match which similarly involved a rivalry between two major YouTubers 51 On 5 October 2018 PewDiePie in collaboration with musician Party In Backyard posted a diss track against T Series titled Bitch Lasagna 16 55 The title of the song is in reference to a viral Facebook Messenger screenshot in which an Indian man in broken English demands nude photos of a Western woman and when his requests remain unanswered refers to her as bitch lasagna 56 In the song he insults T Series and their video contents makes references to contemporary Indian stereotypes and accuses the company of using sub bots to gain false subscriptions 57 58 After he was asked about his serious opinions about the situation PewDiePie said I don t really care about T Series I genuinely don t but I think if YouTube does shift in a way where it does feel more corporate then something else will take its place I think people enjoy this connection so much I think something else will just show up if it feels too corporate 59 He also blamed YouTube for a lack of support toward individual YouTubers 9 Speaking to Metro in November 2018 PewDiePie said that he was surprised no one has stepped up sooner referring to T Series competing for the most subscribed spot 60 In December 2018 PewDiePie made a video calling on his viewers to support the Indian non governmental organization Child Rights and You in response to some of his fans anti Indian sentiment In the video Kjellberg says No more f India let s instead help India He raised 173 682 including a donation by Minecraft creator Markus Persson and also ran a charity live stream the next day 14 61 On 3 February 2019 PewDiePie live streamed himself playing Fortnite on YouTube in an attempt to stop T Series from surpassing him 62 He later ran two more live streams for the same purpose playing Roblox on one occasion 63 64 and minigames in Minecraft on another 65 On 27 March 2019 T Series surpassed PewDiePie Following this PewDiePie suggested through Twitter that the winner of the competition would be whoever reached 100 million subscribers first 66 On 31 March he posted another diss track an upbeat synth pop hip hop music video with YouTubers RoomieOfficial and Boyinaband titled Congratulations which sarcastically congratulated T Series for surpassing him 15 67 68 In the music video PewDiePie mocks how T Series sent him a cease and desist letter alleging that his actions and lyrics of Bitch Lasagna were defamatory The video also criticizes T Series for alleged tax evasion and the fact that the company was founded through the selling of pirated songs 68 15 Following PewDiePie s upload of the song he regained the number one spot 69 70 On 28 April 2019 PewDiePie requested in a video that his viewers end the Subscribe to PewDiePie meme stating that it started out of love and support so let s end it with that 71 He also discussed the mental toll the Christchurch shooter s mention of his name had on him stating to have my name associated with something so unspeakably vile has affected me in more ways than I ve let shown I just didn t want to address it right away and I didn t want to give the terrorist more attention I didn t want to make it about me because I don t think it has anything to do with me To put it plainly I didn t want hate to win But it s clear to me now the Subscribe to PewDiePie movement should have ended then 71 PewDiePie tweeted that he felt sickened to have his name uttered by the attacker and expressed his condolences to the victims loved ones 72 46 Those who had helped to popularize the meme like Ethan Klein were repulsed that the phrase had been used as a call to arms by the attacker and urged people to stop spreading the meme hoping that it would die out 73 The perpetrator of the 27 April 2019 Poway synagogue shooting also mentioned PewDiePie 74 claiming without evidence that the shooting was planned and financed by PewDiePie 75 Following the 2019 Christchurch shootings Kevin Roose of The New York Times wrote that the perpetrator s goal behind saying subscribe to PewDiePie during his livestream of the attack may have been to pull a popular internet figure into a fractious blame game and inflame political tensions everywhere 76 News18 reported a tweet cautioning that the shooter s intended consequence was that haters of PewDiePie would be inclined to blame PewDiePie rather than the shooter in order to further the accusers political agenda 77 T Series In September 2018 T Series president and head of its digital division Neeraj Kalyan said It s a matter of pride for all Indians that an Indian YouTube Channel will soon be world s biggest channel on YouTube 78 He also addressed PewDiePie fans stating No amount of spamming will be able to hold back the power of good music 79 Kalyan further added that the channel s overseas viewership had increased as a result of the subscriber race stating that people in the West or in the East as far as Japan were not even aware of us They now know about us because of all that controversy 4 T Series chairman and managing director Bhushan Kumar son of late founder Gulshan Kumar told the BBC in December 2018 that he had never heard of PewDiePie until a few months ago 5 He stated he was really not bothered about this race and voiced his confusion as to why PewDiePie was taking this so seriously adding that they were not competing with him 17 In February 2019 Kumar was reported by The Washington Post to have said that Everybody knows T Series across the world now If we had become number one on our own nobody would have known about us 43 On 6 March 2019 Kumar tweeted We re on the brink of becoming the world s biggest YouTube channel We can make history We can make India win Subscribe to TSeries posting a video encouraging Indians to subscribe to T Series channel In the video he stated this is a historic movement for all of us so let s come together and subscribe to T Series YouTube channel and make India proud 80 81 In April 2019 T Series sought a court order from the Delhi High Court to remove PewDiePie s diss tracks from YouTube Despite PewDiePie s statement that these diss tracks were done in good fun the court issued a temporary injunction in favour of T Series on 8 April 2019 The complaint against Kjellberg claimed that his songs were defamatory disparaging insulting and offensive and noted that comments on the videos were abusive vulgar and also racist in nature Access to the diss tracks on YouTube was blocked in India 82 83 In August 2019 it was reported that T Series and PewDiePie had settled their legal disputes outside of court 84 In an May 2019 interview with Sangeeta Tanwar from Quartz India when asked the question What does being the number one channel on YouTube mean to you Does it help business Kumar said 85 We were never in this tussle to become number one or two with anyone But all along there were these sarcastic comments from PewDiePie And that s how we decided to respond to the comments I launched the BharatWinsYouTube campaign seeking more subscriptions from Indians For us this status does not result in any change on the commercial front However it changes the perception about who we are With these developments T Series gets promoted What is heartening is that now we are seeing growth even in countries where people were not watching our channel earlier Sangeeta Tanwar T Series chief says PewDiePie asked for a YouTube fight and got it Quartz India May 2019 YouTube Referring to T Series rise to prominence on YouTube YouTube Asia Pacific s managing director Gautam Anand told The New York Times As more and more of India came along video became the way that they were interacting with the internet mentioning that 85 percent of Indian internet users used YouTube He furthered Even if you re not literate you still enjoy watching video 86 and mentioned India is a really great bright spot It s one of the fastest growing markets even within Asia 4 On 13 December 2018 YouTube removed a large number of bot and inactive subscribers from the platform The change affected the subscriber count of both channels in the competition PewDiePie lost over 40 000 subscribers and T Series lost more than 200 000 subscribers from its main channel 87 Media Anthony Cuthbertson of The Independent described the rivalry as a shift in how established media companies viewed YouTube 59 The Guardian s Nosheen Iqbal described T Series as a challenger from the streets of Delhi referring to the origins of its founder Gulshan Kumar who was a fruit juice seller when he founded the company 17 Vox s Aja Romano noted that the competition represented the growing divide of subcultures on YouTube on one side were the creators who had developed their own channels over the course of YouTube s history and on the other side corporations who used YouTube as a platform to advertise their shows from external platforms 88 Patricia Hernandez of The Verge compared the rivalry to the KSI vs Logan Paul boxing match She described PewDiePie s antagonism as all for show and stated that rivalries play a huge role on YouTube because they give viewers narratives where pseudo heroes and villains exist with low if any stakes 51 The Washington Post reported that the success of T Series represented the fast growth of Internet in India with an increase from 20 million Indians with Internet access in 2000 to 560 million in 2018 43 The Post noted that India became the second largest mobile phone market in 2018 and highlighted mobile data plans in India noting the importance of voice technology because of the low rate of literacy in India Journalist Ravi Agrawal said that India quickly progressed to cheap mobile phones by skipping slower initial technological advances in the west 43 Vice reported that T Series success lay in focusing on regional audiences and having no competitors in online music in India 89 AftermathAs of November 2022 T Series currently remains the most subscribed YouTube channel with more than 228 million subscribers Meanwhile PewDiePie is currently the fifth most subscribed YouTube channel having been passed by Sony Entertainment Television s YouTube channel MrBeast and Cocomelon 90 References Binder Matt 24 February 2019 T Series finally surpassed PewDiePie in YouTube subscribers and barely anyone noticed Mashable Archived from the original on 24 February 2019 Retrieved 24 February 2019 T Series finally defeated PewDiePie in YouTube subscribers but for a very brief period Zee News 25 February 2019 Archived from the original on 25 February 2019 Retrieved 25 February 2019 Alexander Julia 30 August 2018 PewDiePie is about to be dethroned as YouTube s biggest channel Polygon Archived from the original on 26 November 2018 Retrieved 8 November 2018 a b c PewDiePie s Tumultuous Reign as YouTube King Is Almost Over Bloomberg 15 November 2018 Archived from the original on 17 November 2018 Retrieved 17 November 2018 a b c Biswas Soutik 20 December 2018 PewDiePie v T Series The battle to be king of YouTube BBC News Archived from the original on 26 December 2018 Retrieved 27 December 2018 Browne Ryan 26 October 2018 YouTube s PewDiePie set to be overtaken by Bollywood channel T Series CNBC Archived from the original on 28 December 2018 Retrieved 27 December 2018 PewDiePie finally loses world s most popular YouTube channel to Indian music label The Independent 18 March 2019 Archived from the original on 29 March 2019 Retrieved 29 March 2019 Alexander Julia 30 May 2019 T Series is the first YouTube channel to hit 100 million subscribers The Verge Retrieved 15 April 2020 a b Cuthbertson Anthony 29 October 2018 PewDiePie fans are desperately trying to keep his YouTube channel the site s most popular The Independent Archived from the original on 2 January 2019 Retrieved 27 December 2018 Spangler Todd 20 March 2019 PewDiePie vs T Series YouTube Channels Keep Battling for No 1 Spot Variety Archived from the original on 20 March 2019 Retrieved 20 March 2019 a b Alexander Julia 3 February 2019 Subscribe to PewDiePie campaign hits the Super Bowl The Verge Vox Media Archived from the original on 4 February 2019 Retrieved 4 February 2019 a b Jackson Ryan 17 February 2019 PewDiePie cracks 86 million YouTube subscribers in ongoing T Series battle CNET Archived from the original on 25 February 2019 Retrieved 25 February 2019 Sekhose Marcia 6 December 2018 PewDiePie vs T Series Logan Paul extends help to fellow YouTuber Hindustan Times Archived from the original on 28 December 2018 Retrieved 27 December 2018 a b c Farokhmanesh Megan 3 December 2018 PewDiePie urges his fans to donate to charity as T Series battle rages on The Verge Archived from the original on 4 December 2018 Retrieved 27 December 2018 a b c d Radulovic Petrana 31 March 2019 PewDiePie officially loses YouTube s top spot to T Series Polygon Archived from the original on 31 March 2019 Retrieved 31 March 2019 a b c Spangler Todd 3 December 2018 PewDiePie Zooms Past 73 Million YouTube Subscribers as Fans Rally to Keep Him Ahead of T Series Variety Archived from the original on 14 December 2018 Retrieved 27 December 2018 a b c d e f Iqbal Nosheen 23 December 2018 YouTube king PewDiePie faces a challenger from the streets of Delhi The Guardian Archived from the original on 27 December 2018 Retrieved 28 December 2018 Ramos Dalreen 11 December 2018 Say it like 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Street Journal and hijack printers The Independent Archived from the original on 28 December 2018 Retrieved 27 December 2018 Brewster Thomas Hackers Expose 72 000 Smart TVs In Honor Of PewDiePie And Terrible Security Forbes Archived from the original on 15 January 2019 Retrieved 15 January 2019 Ng Alfred 2 January 2019 Hackers are forcing smart TVs Chromecasts to promote PewDiePie CNET Archived from the original on 2 January 2019 Retrieved 2 January 2019 Tidy Joe Slater Jack 29 January 2019 The PewDiePie Hackers Could hacking printers ruin your life BBC News Archived from the original on 29 January 2019 Retrieved 29 January 2019 Cole Samantha Koebler Jason 23 January 2019 Watch a Hacker Access Nest Cameras and Demand People Subscribe to PewDiePie Motherboard Archived from the original on 24 January 2019 Retrieved 24 January 2019 Steer George 21 February 2019 A Hacker Took Over the Tampa Mayor s Twitter and Sent a Fake Ballistic Missile Warning and Bomb Threat Time Archived from the original on 21 March 2019 Retrieved 20 March 2019 Cuthbertson Anthony 25 March 2019 PewDiePie ransomware forces people to subscribe to his YouTube channel The Independent Archived from the original on 26 March 2019 Retrieved 25 March 2019 PewDiePie Fans in Bangladesh Have Taken to the Streets to Destroy T Series in YouTube War News 18 2 November 2018 Retrieved 10 May 2020 Bangladesh backs PewDiePie in YouTube battle with T Series despite him not realising it s a country Independent 8 November 2018 Retrieved 10 May 2020 Bangladeshis root for PewDiePie against Indian YouTube channel Dhaka Tribune 2 November 2018 Retrieved 9 May 2020 Katzowitz Josh 27 February 2019 PewDiePie s subscriber battle heats up with cheerleaders doing B tch Lasagna routine The Daily Dot Archived from the original on 28 February 2019 Retrieved 2 March 2019 a b c Cuthbertson Anthony 8 March 2019 PewDiePie fans vandalised a war memorial to promote his YouTube channel The Independent Archived from the original on 8 March 2019 Retrieved 10 March 2019 Kohlmann Sten 27 February 2019 Rongkaik maailma populaarseima juutuuberi toetuseks toi Tallinna tanavatele ohtralt innukaid fanne Ohtuleht in Estonian Archived from the original on 28 February 2019 Retrieved 27 February 2019 PewDiePie under fire for India Pakistan comments amid YouTube supremacy race with T Series Zee News 13 March 2019 Archived from the original on 21 March 2019 Retrieved 21 March 2019 Svetov IC3PEAK i Durov na ikone kak proshel miting za svobodu interneta mbk news appspot com in Russian 10 March 2019 Archived from the original on 2 April 2019 Retrieved 5 April 2019 Kuzmin Zhenya 13 March 2019 V socsetyah razoshlos rassledovanie chto miting za svobodu interneta proplatil PewDiePie Avtory parodijnyj kanal RT Internet na TJ TJ in Russian Archived from the original on 3 April 2019 Retrieved 5 April 2019 Alexander Julia 12 March 2019 PewDiePie s battle for largest YouTube channel is now an indie video game The Verge Archived from the original on 6 April 2019 Retrieved 29 April 2019 a b c d Alexander Julia 29 April 2019 There s a plane flying around New York with a subscribe to PewDiePie banner The Verge Archived from the original on 29 April 2019 Retrieved 29 April 2019 Trenholm Richard Jackson Ryan 11 March 2019 PewDiePie dethroned by T Series as YouTube s most subscribed channel CNET Archived from the original on 12 March 2019 Retrieved 12 March 2019 a b c d Masih Niha 1 February 2019 Meet the next king of YouTube An Indian music channel The Washington Post Archived from the original on 2 February 2019 Retrieved 3 February 2019 Roose Kevin 9 October 2019 What Does PewDiePie Really Believe The New York Times Archived from the original on 4 April 2020 Retrieved 4 April 2020 Chinn Natalie Brooklyn WWII Memorial Defaced With Call to Subscribe to Controversial Youtuber PewDiePie NBC New York WNBC Archived from the original on 8 March 2019 Retrieved 13 March 2019 a b Cuthbertson Anthony 15 March 2019 PewDiePie absolutely sickened after gunman tells people to subscribe to his channel during terror attack The Independent Archived from the original on 26 May 2022 Retrieved 15 March 2019 T Series briefly takes the top spot from PewDiePie for the third time Zee News 14 March 2019 Archived from the original on 7 April 2019 Retrieved 7 April 2019 Boys questioned over swastika graffiti BBC News 21 March 2019 Archived from the original on 7 April 2019 Retrieved 7 April 2019 Roose Kevin 15 March 2019 A Mass Murder of and for the Internet The New York Times Archived from the original on 21 March 2019 Retrieved 7 April 2019 T Series responds to PewDiePie s fans trolling as it inches towards becoming biggest YouTube channel Daily News and Analysis 1 September 2018 Archived from the original on 28 December 2018 Retrieved 3 January 2019 a b c Hernandez Patricia 30 August 2018 Pewdiepie s reign as the biggest YouTube channel may soon be over The Verge Archived from the original on 27 December 2018 Retrieved 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from the original on 3 June 2019 Retrieved 26 May 2019 a b Cuthbertson Anthony 24 October 2018 PewDiePie is about to be dethroned as YouTube s most popular channel The Independent Archived from the original on 28 December 2018 Retrieved 27 December 2018 PewDiePie is surprised no one has stepped up sooner to take YouTube s top spot Metro 7 November 2018 Archived from the original on 14 February 2019 Retrieved 13 February 2019 Sekhose Marcia 4 December 2018 PewDiePie vs T Series YouTuber urges fans not to post offensive comments about India Hindustan Times Archived from the original on 2 January 2019 Retrieved 1 January 2019 PewDiePie vs T Series YouTuber s campaign reaches Super Bowl Hindustan Times 4 February 2019 Archived from the original on 7 April 2019 Retrieved 7 April 2019 Gach Ethan 13 February 2019 PewDiePie Clashes With Roblox Which Appears To Have Banned His Name Update Kotaku Archived from the original on 14 February 2019 Retrieved 14 February 2019 Gerken Tom 15 February 2019 PewDiePie ban lifted after controversy BBC News Archived from the original on 17 February 2019 Retrieved 16 February 2019 PewDiePie presses the emergency button switches to Minecraft stream to stay ahead of T Series Zee News 18 February 2019 Archived from the original on 20 February 2019 Retrieved 20 February 2019 ƿ૯wძɿ૯ƿɿ૯ 21 March 2019 It s first to 100 mil right Twitter Archived from the original on 3 April 2019 Retrieved 4 April 2019 PewDiePie concedes defeat to rival T Series BBC News 1 April 2019 Archived from the original on 1 April 2019 Retrieved 1 April 2019 a b Alexander Julia 31 March 2019 PewDiePie concedes to T Series in battle for YouTube s biggest channel The Verge Archived from the original on 1 April 2019 Retrieved 1 April 2019 Tobin Ben 2 April 2019 PewDiePie back on top as largest YouTube channel over Indian music label T Series USA TODAY Archived from the original on 4 April 2019 Retrieved 6 April 2019 PewDiePie drops scathing Congratulations video for T Series 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The New York Times Archived from the original on 21 March 2019 Retrieved 15 March 2019 You Can t Blame PewDiePie Why New Zealand Shooting is Not The YouTuber s Fault News18 15 March 2019 Retrieved 15 March 2019 Move aside PewDiePie YouTube will have a new king soon T Series dna 16 November 2018 Archived from the original on 7 February 2019 Retrieved 23 February 2019 T Series vs PewDiePie Why Swedish YouTuber is fighting with India s music recording giant The Financial Express 9 December 2018 Archived from the original on 7 February 2019 Retrieved 23 February 2019 PewDiePie vs T Series YouTuber responds to Bhushan Kumar s appeal for support from Indians Hindustan Times 7 March 2019 Archived from the original on 12 March 2019 Retrieved 7 April 2019 T Series vs PewDiePie The battle for world s number one YouTube channel getting desperate The Times of India 8 March 2019 Archived from the original on 15 March 2019 Retrieved 7 April 2019 Battle between PewDiePie and T series now reaches Delhi High Court The Statesman 11 April 2019 Archived from the original on 11 April 2019 Retrieved 11 April 2019 Sekhose Marcia 11 April 2019 PewDiePie vs T Series YouTuber pulls diss videos after Delhi HC order Hindustan Times Archived from the original on 11 April 2019 Retrieved 11 April 2019 Ghosh Shona 13 August 2019 PewDiePie and T Series quietly settled a court battle over racist diss tracks following their epic YouTube battle Business Insider Retrieved 21 November 2019 Tanwar Sangeeta 2 May 2019 T Series chief says PewDiePie asked for a YouTube fight and got it Quartz India Archived from the original on 2 May 2019 Retrieved 22 February 2021 Chow Andrew R 14 November 2018 How a Bollywood Music Label Conquered YouTube The New York Times Archived from the original on 17 November 2018 Retrieved 11 April 2019 Sekhose Marcia 16 December 2018 PewDiePie vs T Series Crackdown on fake accounts helps YouTuber maintain lead Hindustan Times Archived from the original on 11 January 2019 Retrieved 11 January 2019 Romano Aja 14 December 2018 YouTube s 2018 Rewind is the site s most disliked video ever The implications are huge Vox Archived from the original on 17 December 2018 Retrieved 27 December 2018 PewDiePie is YouTube s most subscribed channel He s about to be dethroned Washington Post Archived from the original on 8 January 2019 Retrieved 7 January 2019 Top 50 YouTubers sorted by Subscribers Socialblade YouTube Stats YouTube Statistics socialblade com Retrieved 12 June 2022 External linksPewDiePie vs T Series live subscription count by Social Blade PewDiePie s channel on YouTube T Series channel on YouTube Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title PewDiePie vs T Series amp oldid 1149201653, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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