Whether you love him, hate him or have never heard of him, PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg) leads the YouTube charts. His 38 million subscribers is a full 15 million more than the second place YouTuber and he boasts more than 9 billion (with a 'B') total views.
That's going to make the guy some money. Even if the vast majority of his videos revolve around playing video games and yelling in that way he does.
BBC reported July 7 that PewDiePie made $7 million in 2014. The story went around like things do and some vitriol was thrown his way like it does.
To his great credit, PewDiePie uploaded a video responding to some of the anger he received about the large paycheck. It's surprisingly frank, very respectful and ultimately charming.
From the beginning:
"I just feel like it's not important to anyone and I just want to make entertaining videos"
To the end:
"Conclusion, it seems like the whole world cares more about how much money I make than I do myself."
This new Internet economy is still not something understood or even accepted by a great many people. Especially when new public figures like PewDiePie inspire flame wars and derision. It's refreshing to have a blunt response about money come from one of the Internet's biggest stars.
