Felix Kjellberg, better known by his alias “PewDiePie”, recently made the public promise to delete his youtube channel as a sort of protest against many of the issues that he’s encountered with the platform. Voicing concerns shared by other big name YouTubers, PewDiePie has been frustrated with a number of changes that have been made to the web service over the last couple of years.

Number one: Youtube unsubing you from a channel even though you didn’t unsub. Number two: videos not appearing for the person you subscribed to. Remember the sub feed?

The replacement of the Subscribed bar on in favor of a list of recommended videos has seen many prominent Youtube channels dip in views. PewDiePie also made a few satirical “click bait” videos by making the thumbnail image and the title controversial with intent on pointing out that these aspects are now more important in driving viewer traffic than the content of the videos themselves. In light of these frustrations, Kjellberg stated that he would be getting rid of his Youtube channel so that he could “start fresh”.

It feels like a kick in the face when they make changes and don’t tell anyone about it, because this site means so much to YouTubers like me and everyone else. The only way to stop my channel from dying is, I know you’re going to think I’m joking right now, but I’m going to delete my channel. I swear to you, at 50 million subs, a huge landmark coming up, a huge deal, never been done before, no-one’s even close, I am deleting my channel.

As promised, PewDiePie did delete his channel once he reached 50 million subscribers, it just wasn’t his PewDiePie channel. Instead, he trashed his Jack Septiceye2 account. Many were frustrated over this outcome as it felt like a big publicity stunt to try to push his main channel over 50 million subscriptions.

What do you think about PewDiePie’s little prank? Were you excited to see the worlds most famous YouTuber disappear from the airwaves, or were you relieved that he didn’t follow through? Let your voice be heard in the comments section!