WATCH: PewDiePie shows off YouTube’s award for hitting 50 million subscribers

MANILA, Philippines – Online video star, PewDiePie, is the world’s most popular YouTube personality with 51 million subscribers as of posting. The Swedish comedian grew his subscriber base with his loud personality, lively reactions to videogames and penchant for uncensored humor. 

For his efforts, YouTube sent him a trophy commemorating his achievement. That’s in spite of the fact that the host threatened to delete his YouTube channel over claims that the video site was messing with the way subscribers see his videos. When he hit 50 million subscribers earlier in the month, he did delete a channel of his – just not the one with the massive following. 

YouTube has what it calls the “YouTube Creator Awards”, where they hand out rewards for subscriber milestones hit by YouTube channels: the “Silver Play Button” award for hitting 100,000 subscribers; the “Gold Play Button” for hitting 1 million; and the “Diamond Play Button” at 10 million.

PewDiePie is way past those numbers, so YouTube sent him a “Ruby Play Button” but as the unboxing video revealed it isn’t much of a play button. Instead, he received a big, ruby-colored “bro-fist”, modeled after his channel’s logo. It came with 8 smaller versions, which PewDiePie said he’d give out to his followers.

The comedian has done a complete 180-degree turn on his opinions on YouTube. He was very grateful for the chance that the site has given him. “It’s [YouTube] given me so many opportunities. It’s made my life from being in a very terrible place to an amazing life that I couldn’t ever have even dreamed of having,” he said. 

He added, “It’s thanks to you, bros, but without YouTube none of this would’ve happened. I don’t want to take that for granted. I don’t want to seem ungrateful in that way. YouTube really has given me so much and it has been an incredible journey that I will never ever forget.” – Rappler.com