PewDiePie makes over $4m per year

YouTube superstar Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg is reportedly making in the region of $4m per year.

That’s according to The Wall Street Journal, which cites the figure – apparently derived from ad sales and representing ‘mostly’ pure profit – in a rare interview with the Swede.

It’s cool to have this kind of influence, but at the same time it’s kind of scary," Kjellberg said. "I’m so central to YouTube now, and that puts me in the spotlight and raises a lot of questions like ‘Why is he so big?’. I’d much rather prefer to have something like five million subscribers.

"Unlike many professionally produced shows, I think I’ve established a much closer contact with my viewers, breaking the wall between the viewer and what’s behind the screen.

"What I and other YouTubers do is a very different thing, it’s almost like hanging around and watching your pal play games. My fans care in a different way about what they are watching."

Kjellberg also revealed the origins of his obscure username on the video channel. Apparently his original YouTube account was called PewDie – ‘pew’ to sound like a laser gun, and die for death” – but when he forgot the password he was forced to create a new account, so added the ‘pie’.

PewDiePie was the most watched person on YouTube in the second half of 2013. In March Disney acquired Maker Studios – which Pew signed up to in late 2012 – for $500m.