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YouTuber PewDiePie Gets Fans To Donate ₹1.6 Cr To Indian NGO As Battle With T-Series Gets Uglier

byJinal Bhatt
5th December 2018
3 minute read

Social media is serious business these days. From BFF fights to political battles, everything is fought on or over social media. And if you need proof of how crazy or ugly it can get, just follow the war between Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie and Indian music record label and production company, T-Series.

ICYMI, there’s an intense race raging between PewDiePie and T-Series for the title of the most subscribed channel on YouTube.

Swedish YouTuber and gamer Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie has been the most subscribed YouTube channel for like forever now. He even came up #9 on Forbes’ list of highest paid YouTubers of 2018.

However, recently, T-Series began inching closer and closer to surpassing PewDiePie’s then massive subscriber count of 68 million, thanks to the video of Guru Randhawa’s Lahore.

This scare sparked a crazy bid amongst fans of the independent content creator to ensure his No. 1 standing continues. And a series of the most craziest campaigning for PewDiePie subscribers ensued.

From pasting flyers and posters to graffiti on walls, fans of the YouTuber began an intensive campaign to get more subscribers!

Musician and fellow YouTuber Davie504 went on a 10-hour spree playing PewDiePie’s diss track on his guitar!

https://twitter.com/pewdiepie/status/1067765784368295937

If you think that’s crazy, check out this one where a fan hacked printers worldwide to print papers that asked people to subscribe to PewDiePie.

https://twitter.com/pewdiepie/status/1068628752173858817

And even this happened!

Another YouTuber, Justin Roberts, purchased a $1 Million billboard in New York’s Times Square to urge people to subscribe!

For a brief while, it looked like the battle was coming to an end, with both channels being in the vicinity of 73 million subscribers, and cutting it quite close.

But then another effort from another supporter turned the game in PewD’s favour.

These were only some of the bigger, more decent campaigns. Turns out, there were many who decided to tread the less noble path by insulting India and Indian fans, and asking people to unsubscribe to T-series.

Owing to all the hate that was brewing, PewDiePie this morning took to social media, urging his fans to divert all their love to charity. He started a GoFundMe campaign for CRY India (Child Rights and You).

He called out to his 9-year-old band of followers to support Indian children in need by donating to CRY.

https://twitter.com/pewdiepie/status/1069669860798541829

And the campaign has already managed to raise more than Rs. 1.6 crore!

https://twitter.com/pewdiepie/status/1070032245711388672

One of the biggest donations, of about Rs 9 lakh, came from the creator of the highly popular game Minecraft, and fellow Swede, Markus Persson.

https://twitter.com/pewdiepie/status/1069700022122491909

The original goal of £150,000 has been surpassed and the campaign is no longer accepting donations!

CRY India also tweeted about the overwhelming donations it had received.

The real-time count of PieDiePie v. T-Series subscribers can be followed live here:

Wondering how much more intense this craziness is going to get! But hey, if it’s helping those in need, then shall we say, godspeed?

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