How Pewdiepie Achieved a Net Worth of $20 Million

If the name Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg is unfamiliar to you, then the YouTube screen name Pewdiepie will almost definitely be familiar if you are a serious gamer or gamer fan who is an active YouTube user. The name is Swedish, and Felix happens to be a 28 year old Swede who currently lives in England, and continues to create YouTube content for gamers. That net worth figure of $20 million is an estimate, but based on current records we know that Pewdiepie made at least $14 million in 2015 and $15 million in 2016. That means he made a lot more than the total net worth, the rest being absorbed through taxes, expenses, and likely his romantic Italian interest who goes by the YouTube name of CutiePieMarzia.

Pewdiepie didn’t accumulate his net worth overnight. He put up his first YouTube video more than 7 years ago and has been putting them out online ever since. He is one reason why so many people believe they can find fortune (and maybe fame) on the Internet if they just find the right buttons to push in their audience. His YouTube statistics are quite impressive. He has more than 57 million subscribers and has more than 16 billion views of his videos – and counting. He is the Number One YouTuber in the rankings. But don’t stop on just one social media outlet. He has more than 13 million Instagram followers, 12 million Twitter fans, and 7 million Facebook friends.

These statistics alone should tell you a lot about where his makes his money. But with his Internet fame came a flurry of other media and money making opportunities. He was actually on the cartoon series South Park for a couple of episodes, wrote a book “This Book Loves You” in 2014, and ended up as a guest on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show. But all of this was likely to strengthen his brand because the lion’s share of his income will come from that group of loyal YouTube gamer followers. His very first video, Minecraft Multiplayer Fun, has been viewed more than 6 and a half million times. But he is not sitting still with his fame, creating an app for Android and IOS – Pewdiepie: Legend of the Brofist a bit more than a year ago.

For those not familiar with how making money on YouTube works, all you need to know is that

Pewdiepie made an estimated $9 million from advertising on his channel in 2017. He has struck up a deal with a manufacturer to sell HappySocks, which are, um, socks. That adds a cool quarter million a year to his revenues. He promotes a number of video games, the exact number is unknown, but each deal is reported to be worth about $125,000 a year.

Keep in mind that he is only 28 and is continuing to learn about how to not only improve his brand, but to avoid losing fans and followers. For example, last year he took a hit and lost more than 2 million subscribers stemming from accusations of him being racist. Now he is known not to be the most politically correct person on the planet, but this accusation of racism had to be ended before it caught on fire. The bleeding seems to have significantly abated and he is now back to normal business. But that loss of subscribers also resulted in a loss of revenue for 2017.

Another thing Pewdiepie has learned is how to begin working the middleman out of his potential profits. To this end, he has worked with Outerminds to develop an app that has netted him an estimated 10 million downloads. Initially, the app was monetized on a paid app basis, but now has changed its format to in-app purchases. That makes the revenue stream primarily a straight line from purchaser to Pewdiepie. Estimates are that he is making between $5 and 10 million a year for this change in business approach.

At 28, it is almost certain that we have not seen the last of Pewdiepie. After last year’s temporary downward spiral, he has recovered and learning to focus on profit rather than political correctness. Some estimate his net worth closer to $30 million. If you read this article carefully, you will see why. But knowing what the net worth of a YouTube superstar only has value if you can do something with that knowledge. Aside from having a hot girlfriend, Pewdiepie has taken his basic success and continues to spread it out over several different brands, but always connecting it to his origins.