Why Is PewDiePie So Blooming Popular?

Having read this article from The Guardian, it staggered me just how popular PewDiePie is on YouTube. We all know that the guy’s got a fan base big enough to populate a small country, but 449 million views in a month makes what the Cosby Show used to get look like chicken feed.

This got me thinking, what is it about this guy that makes him so incredibly popular? I've only watched a couple of his videos, but I really can’t see the hook that makes him particularly entertaining. My apologies if there’s already a thread about this and this isn't me bashing the guy. He’s obviously doing something right as his numbers just keep going up, but does anyone actually have any idea what is it that actually makes people keep watching his videos?

I'm pretty sure Bill Cosby could bring in billions. I don't get it either. I guess the character must resonate with the masses in ways which I can't comprehend.

Kids are dumb and on drugs. It's the only way to explain the success of most big YouTube personalities.

Kid's got charisma that kids love. It's one of those things where if you grew up with youtube he's probably the equivalent to Mr. Rogers.

...now I've suddenly dated myself.

Kids like loud and 'crazy' characters, look at the top 10 YouTubers, they're probably all loud and act like that.

@gatehouse: I think I read somewhere (I could just be making this up) that his channel was featured way more than it should've been due to some bug with Youtube's recommendation thing. And it just kinda snowballed from there.

Since he's always on the front page due to the sheer amount of subscribers he picked up, all he needs is a crazy thumbnail and video title and he'll pull views from anyone who happens to visit Youtube that day. I like to think it's some sort of meta scenario where millions of people are watching his videos trying to figure out why millions of people are watching his videos...

Like you, I also don't see the allure of his videos, but I don't actively dislike him. He does also sometimes show off games which I think deserve more attention, so props for that.

BECAUSE YELLING IS FUN

For the same reason Adam Sandler movies are so popular. People like blunt and loud comedy.

I'd guess I'm not in the target demographic but I've only ever watched maybe three of his videos to see what the fuss was about, not for me.

My guess is he's somewhat attractive, there are people who find his exaggerated reactions comical, and he caters to a growing base of younger girls who like video games and don't have a lot of other outlets.

He attracts the lowest common denominator. His low brow but excessively loud humor attracts children, because his over the top reactions to most things resonate with people in such a way that they think he's "just like us".

He seems like a pretty alright dude in my opinion. Outside of his fake "Youtube persona", he seems like a pretty affeble fellow, I just don't like his videos because it's clearly so forced. If you can exploit the masses for hundreds of thousands of bucks a year, why not? I'd do it.

@mwng: It's featured in this video kinda explaining how that all worked out to his benefit:

Even if that's true, it doesn't explain anything. It's not like a lot of people just watched some videos because they accidentally stumbled upon them - he has an enormous cult of personality following. There are plenty of things that are promoted a lot and aren't nearly as popular; Gauntlet would be the top seller on Steam if popularity was only about promotion...

Anyway, I have no idea. I watched the entirety of one of his videos once. I would not wish that upon anyone.

Is exploit the right word? I mean he's basically giving them what they want without any ulterior motive and with no harm to his audience.

Also I think you can change that "hundreds of thousands" to millions now, but hey there are people making bank doing worse things in the world.

I think me using the word "exploit" is a bit sensational, granted, but that's what it feels like. He's clearly putting on a stupid fake persona to attract people in and get money, which is why I used the terminology I did, but I guess he isn't causing any harm. I guess I just don't care for what the internet is nowadays. Too many people just watch people do...things. There's a world out there for people to live, but they're content to just watch. It's weird but I am older now so eh, works for me .

It's pretty simple: A lot of people find him funny.

It's not purely children, either. I don't really find him amusing, but I know several people my age (late 20s) who do.

He's put out a few funny videos that I liked, but for the most part.... eugh. Just not for me.

I certainly don't get the hate-on that people have for him, though. He knows his audience and caters to it well. He also seems extremely nice, and probably a nifty person to get to know. His "yell offensive things about barrels" shtick just isn't my cuppa.

He uses rape as a punchline too often. Did like his Cards Against Humanity video but then I like Cards Against Humanity.

an elaborate botnet to bilk advertisers is my guess

Man, Bill Cosby is great.

Whoa whoa. Mr. Rogers was an angel!

The oi polloi, amirite?

I'm 25 and he can be funny at times. Sometimes, though, he just sounds like an obnoxious jackass that cusses liberally and says some pretty offensive stuff that kind of seems rote at this point. All in all, he hit the right nerve with today's growing generation - to sum it up.

This is the part that kind of turns me off of them real fast. I'll watch a couple of videos then I'll be like ok... I can't... listen to this anymore. Now you're just yelling for the sakes of yelling, and my old man ears don't like that. I just wanna chill out.

He's a demon of some sort or something to do with nano machines.

The internet is full of obnoxious teenagers, PDP's demographic are obnoxious teenagers. It's like dropping a piece of meat in to a barrel of Piranha's.

He reminds me of a group of 10 year old kids who who discover a silly voice to make and find it hilarious for a few weeks before getting tired and moving on. Except he didn't move on.

I think he comes across as the cooler older brother that lets you hang out to watch him play games you can't play and hear language that's forbidden by your parents. He obviously have a lot of older fans as well that probably just finds him funny, but I think the majority is kids that simply find him cool. I don't find him that entertaining, but there is a lot things that is extremely popular with a younger audience that I don't find entertaining.

The hate he seem to get from a lot of people isn't surprising, but still a bit stupid. It's like sitting in front of your TV as an adult every saturday morning and hating on saturday-morning cartoons.

He knows how to hustle. He picked the right medium and works his ass off to constantly be putting out content that is of a consistently high quality, at least from a production standpoint. His stuff may be obnoxious and not particularly funny, but his appeal is to people who are not you or me. You can hate him for putting out loud, tasteless crap content, but you really can't hate him for being popular because he's worked hard and played it smart on the business side.

I think we tend to steer towards negative terms like "exploit" because it's very disappointing to see such minimalistic, slapstick material bring in way bigger numbers than shows into which people put in genuine effort and research. It's knowing that acting like an idiot appeals to a broader audience which makes me personally a little upset. I can't blame him for sticking with it because obviously it has crafted a very comfortable life - the guy gets invited to red carpet movie premieres for goodness sake. I guess it's just a shame that dumb tends to win over smart.

Darn right...

People underestimate his worldwide appeal. His material may be lowest-common-denominator, but it's not just for the sake of kids, it cuts across language as well.

A lot of you sound like old people...I don't care about PewDiePie but I imagine 30 years ago people wondering what's so funny about this "Eddie Murphy" guy cuz all he does is curse and yell...it's very simple he's popular because a lot of people find him funny.

Why is he so funny to people? Well no one knows, because if we knew exactly why he was so popular everyone would imitate him and be just as popular. He's got something special that people enjoy and unlike some popular stars (Justin Bieber etc) he wasn't propped up by the industry to be a money-generating star...he came about fairly naturally on his own through his own hard work.

There was a PDP video on the front page of YT yesterday that was literally "I React To My Old Videos". It had 10 million views. We are through the looking glass here people.

If you tried watching some of his videos and were going into them with the perspective of "this guys is insanely popular, and I don't know why, so I'm going to try and find out", then you're obviously not going to "get it". You'll be watching it to judge it, not to enjoy it.

Don't underestimate the power of the teenage zeitgeist. Remember what a stupid sense of humour we all had when we were thirteen, and you'll "get" why PewDiePie is popular.

@counterclockwork87: Actually, Justin Bieber kinda got popular on his own too. He obviously worked pretty hard to learn to sing as well as he does (and yes, he can sing his ass off even if his music blows). He was putting up videos on YouTube from his home in a tiny town in Canada that were getting a lot of attention and Usher saw dollar signs and scooped him up from there. Honestly, his success is probably even a little less likely than the average pop star's. A much better example would be somebody like Miley Cyrus, whose musical talent is pretty marginal, but grew up with the giant advantage of having platinum-selling musician father who helped get her her own TV show at a very young age, which allowed her to be part of this giant Disney multimedia marketing machine that just churns out young music/movie stars relentlessly.

I'm in my 30s and was a sub on his channel for quite awhile until I tired of his shtick. Kids like the loud and gregarious - PDP's had the expected blowback due to popularity/vocal fanbase and he has trawled in some questionable humor (rape jokes, which I think he apologized for) but by all accounts he's an all right dude who's given quite a bit to charity. Good on 'em, says I.

I dunno, I only watch high brow SOPHISTICATED video game videos like... uh... that Creeper Cam one.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHYYHYWHEAGWDYASgdfjasbdj abwOAswmdoowwwwooooaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH dafuuuuuuuuuuuckis tgHAWET???W?R!RGHHRRRrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's why.

Two reasons:

One - Kids have horrible taste regarding EVERYTHING. Just look at kid-friendly music.

Two - He's pretty good looking. Hey, even if you're not into dudes, you have to admit that this is always a plus.

Other than that, I have no freaking clue. Then again, I can't stand most of these hyper lets play guys on youtube.

Gonna echo a lot of people here and say: Because people are different. What you find funny might be something others think is dumb. What you think is dumb is something others might find funny.
PewDiePie does some funny things, but I quickly got over his stuff. Maybe I just got older, as I am 27 now. But I still find Game Grumps to be hilarious. Sure, they are crass, childish, might scream some now and then. But they are funny. They kinda make Quick Looks with more swearing and more childish humor. And I am sure a lot of you who think PewDiePie is stupid also think Game Grumps are stupid. So yeah. Everyones taste is different.

That creeper cam video is improve genius from Jeff mixed with great commentary from the staff and incredible calls from the community.

PDP's character

1-is always the same

2-is incredibly loud, blunt and annoying

3-doesn't rely any comedic craft or timing whatsoever

Good humor is original and surprising, PDP is none of these things.

Because children. Because lowest common denominator. Because noise.

In particular, I like this explanation.

People are morons.

Go onto a Twich stream with more than 2000 viewers. The types of nonsensical madness that you witness in chat is what is happening in Pewdiepie's head at all times. He's just regurgitating this kind of mindless drivel for public consumption and everyone is eating it up.

Me? I turn twich chat off and whatever exposure to Pewdiepie I've had was very short lived. I prefer my insanity to be finely tuned and shaped like Dan Rickert.

While I don't enjoy his humor the dude is smart and knows what he is doing and raises more than any of us ever will for charities and such. I won't get on some high horse that my sense of humor is superior to his and that everyone who watches him is dumb, people can enjoy whatever they want. After all this website is full of dumb shit and we all enjoy it so.

@pyrodactyl: It's true, Jeff's comedy actually takes way more talent than people give him credit for.

There's a guy in the PS4 twitch list calling himself Phildiepie. He dances in his bedroom like a problem child. This is why global warming is a good thing.

You summed it up well for me. Thanks!

It is called the zeitgeist. You see, he is so popular that he gets new viewers because he is popular, which increases his popularity and nets him new viewers.

It doesn't hurt that he looks like he could be featured in an issue of Seventeen though.

I stumbled upon one of his vids a few years ago and thought he was quite funny. I still do but ive not watched any for quite some time and maybe that tells its own story. Small doses and all that.