An ongoing battle between two of YouTube’s most subscribed channels intensified this weekend with rumors that PewDiePie would have a commercial shown during the Superbowl. The current campaign by the Swedish YouTuber has been spurred on by T-Series, an Indian music label and movie studio, which also has a massive presence on the video channel.
No PewDiePie Superbowl Advert
While PewDiePie, at the time of publication, has 83,876,783 subscribers, T-Series has 83,777,185 followers, so it couldn’t be much closer. Rumors gathered ahead of the Superbowl that PewDiePie was looking to widen the gap with a commercial, but it didn’t materialize as the New England Patriots beat The Lost Angeles Rams by 13 to 3.
Instead, PewDiePie was backed by fellow YouTuber MrBeast and some friends, who took their seats behind the field goal, promoting the YouTuber by wearing shirts that spelled out: “Sub 2 Pew Die Pie”. The promotional campaign didn’t quite have the impact that was intended, with a lack of action behind the goal meaning that the shirts were rarely spotted.
However, ESPN did tweet out the following picture.
Stephen Gostkowski misses the 46-yard FG! pic.twitter.com/jEUct0ObCr
— ESPN (@espn) February 3, 2019
Meanwhile, PewDiePie decided to rack up some extra subscribers by playing Fortnite during the Superbowl, enjoying 300,000 watchers as he played live. Reports suggest he gained approximately 50,000-100,000 extra followers over the weekend.
The campaign by PewDiePie and his followers to retain the top spot on YouTube has been ongoing and backed by friends and followers. Recently Justin Roberts, a YouTuber with over 1 million subscribers, advertised PewDiePie’s channel on a billboard in Times Square, while fans of the Swedish star continue to promote him vigorously around the web.