Felix 'PewDiePie' Kjellberg has become the 1st YouTube user to exceed 10billion views

Paramite Pie

MarkY91 wrote: »

He's an internet celebrity. Celebrities are rich. What's the problem?
He's got the personality people like and he's a very talented man at what he does. He started off doing it as a hobby. People forget the editing that goes into each video takes hours..so he doesn't just sit and shout at s video game.

There are some amount of bitter people here it's unreal.

As someone who learning Editing in college I don't think most of his videos require much editing.
In traditional video, 1 minute of footage takes 1 hour to edit, including all the different camera angles, sound effects etc... We're talking a documentaries and basic shows here (like Soaps that have no background music/ few camera angles and need to be edited quickly to air).

News, Gossip & Sports shows would have maybe 15mins per 1 minute, not many camera angles, mostly cutting down recorded footage, trimming out filler in interviews, standardised music and transitions. Adding 'a box' in the corner to show footage and presenter.

That would be the most similar to let's players. The longer the take, the less editing required. Those basic flash games that he plays probably don't require much editing. I don't hate pewds -- i think it's amazing (but strange!) that people can make money doing this -- but I do think he oversells how hard the editing is.

Junkyard Tom

I'm mostly subscribed to news and educational channels on youtube like Vsauce, School of Life etc but there is one personality I follow; Eric Jacobs who travels around the US in an RV with his cat.

Every few days this guy uploads a well edited video of his travels and travails (see what I did there?) and I find it quite fascinating and I'm not even sure why. Anyhoo so do nearly 50,000 other subscribers who have allowed his lifestyle to become his job - I think he gets a cut of youtube's income from advertising on his channel. More power to him I say.

CliCliW

mdwexford wrote: »

Cop on to yourself.

I'm really amused that you find my opinion so offensive that you're telling me to cop onto myself. I don't understand why that's leveled at me, and I don't think you've given much justification as to why you think I should "cop on to myself"? Oh well.

Deleted User wrote: »

I believe another one, called Total Biscuit, came out to talk about depression and how much this can affect his life. These are largely normal run of the mill people that wouldn't have received the same training that other personalities would have. He was saying how comments on videos were bringing him deeper and deeper, because some of them were extremely mean and dark.

This sounds really interesting actually. Especially since a lot of Youtubers (especially let's players) seem to have really vocal people who like to abuse them about anything and everything. Maybe it's because it's so visually concentrated in one area. But it's an important subject. You can even see it a bit here on this thread I think.

Paramite Pie wrote: »

As someone who learning Editing in college I don't think most of his videos require much editing.
In traditional video, 1 minute of footage takes 1 hour to edit, including all the different camera angles, sound effects etc... We're talking a documentaries and basic shows here (like Soaps that have no background music/ few camera angles and need to be edited quickly to air).

News, Gossip & Sports shows would have maybe 15mins per 1 minute, not many camera angles, mostly cutting down recorded footage, trimming out filler in interviews, standardised music and transitions. Adding 'a box' in the corner to show footage and presenter.

That would be the most similar to let's players. The longer the take, the less editing required. Those basic flash games that he plays probably don't require much editing. I don't hate pewds -- i think it's amazing (but strange!) that people can make money doing this -- but I do think he oversells how hard the editing is.

Granted, I don't know much about editing (the most I did was a minute long video of footage of my Shrimp and putting music behind it). I don't know if you've watched Pewdie's videos much at all, but I definitely think there's a big change in style and quality between a couple years ago and now. I would imagine that the videos take a little longer to edit than your average let's play footage.

It's just, the fact that he does everything from filming and recording to editing himself, spends hours on Twitter interacting with his followers, and everything else is what baffles me. I just can't fathom how anyone can devote so much of themselves to their livelihood and the people, be constantly accessible on Twitter, and have a private life with friends and whatnot. It's lonely and it's hard.

mdwexford

CliCliW wrote: »

I'm really amused that you find my opinion so offensive that you're telling me to cop onto myself. I don't understand why that's leveled at me, and I don't think you've given much justification as to why you think I should "cop on to myself"? Oh well .

Was just jesting about, don't take it too serious, it's after hours after all.

Calibos

Haven't read through the thread. Has our very own JackSepticEye been mentioned yet? irish lad with millions of subscribers and hundreds of millions of views. Must be pulling in serious coin at this stage.

CliCliW

mdwexford wrote: »

Was just jesting about, don't take it too serious, it's after hours after all.

I'm from the generation that understands smiley faces and infers the tone of a sentence from them. :P I'm now offended and you shall be faced with a letter from my solicitor suing you for everything you're worth :P

_CreeD_

I cannot think of anything more useless and ridiculous than regularly watching someone else play a game (beyond as a preview for a purchase)...spend that time playing it yourself. It reminds me of of Blizzard's old "Game of Game of Warcraft" joke made real. I mean we're at the point now where video capture and sharing tech is built into the latest consoles and OS's....just how fkn vain are current gamers who constantly stream, think they're the next big Twitch star....how little imagination, skills or effort do their audience actually have?

Paramite Pie

CliCliW wrote: »

Granted, I don't know much about editing (the most I did was a minute long video of footage of my Shrimp and putting music behind it). I don't know if you've watched Pewdie's videos much at all, but I definitely think there's a big change in style and quality between a couple years ago and now. I would imagine that the videos take a little longer to edit than your average let's play footage.

Before posting that comment I went to his channel and watched two vids, one of a Sonic.exe parody (his most recent vid) and a story based game called Until Dawn (part 10). Granted Felix was very caught up in the game and didn't comment as much but it appeared to be one long take of him playing.
That being said, good editing is barely noticeable but cutting down a story-heavy game is hard to do unless your not making progress as a player.
The montage videos that are featured would have taken quite a while to do. The happy wheels vids could require a lot of editing because of so much trial and error.

I don't watch a lot of his stuff so I could be missing something. Trying to find a narrative in hours of recorded in open world gameplay could require lot's of editing. It also depends on how decisive or indecisive he is when editing. Perhaps the lack of planning/prep-work (how much can you plan gameplay?) could bite him in the ass in the editing.

CliCliW wrote: »

It's just, the fact that he does everything from filming and recording to editing himself, spends hours on Twitter interacting with his followers, and everything else is what baffles me. I just can't fathom how anyone can devote so much of themselves to their livelihood and the people, be constantly accessible on Twitter, and have a private life with friends and whatnot. It's lonely and it's hard.

The promotion and maintaining subscribers is very time consuming I imagine! I still think youtubers like Nigahiga are put in waay more work. Especially in generating ideas. I like Felix's personality but I'm neutral/disinterested in his content.

Pewd's has Marzia (and some dogs), he's not that lonely -- but any work from home is lonely anyways. It's the other Let's Players, especially the struggling to make it ones who might suffer loneliness the most.

However, I'm shocked that he hasn't taken a holiday in years!!

Orim

_CreeD_ wrote: »

I cannot think of anything more useless and ridiculous than regularly watching someone else play a game (beyond as a preview for a purchase)...spend that time playing it yourself.

Anything on Sky Sports that's not actually a sports.
Soaps
Car programs
Ed Sheeran and other similarly dull musicians.
Horse racing, dog racing and anything that only exists to bet on.
Any reality programs.

Just off the top of my head, all can be thought as equally ridiculous if you're not interested in them. In fact the argument can be made for pretty all forms of entertainment.

Why watch Jeremy Clarkson drive a car when you can go out for a drive yourself? Or think about in that context for anything you are interested.

Massimo Cassagrande

entropi wrote: »

That is absolutely ridiculous. That lad you describe, gets paid that much for doing something a two-year old child could, and would, do.

What the hell is wrong with people?

The Dumb has evolved. Basically. I blame X-Factor.

_CreeD_

Orim wrote: »

Anything on Sky Sports that's not actually a sports.
Soaps
Car programs
Ed Sheeran and other similarly dull musicians.
Horse racing, dog racing and anything that only exists to bet on.
Any reality programs.

Just off the top of my head, all can be thought as equally ridiculous if you're not interested in them. In fact the argument can be made for pretty all forms of entertainment.

Why watch Jeremy Clarkson drive a car when you can go out for a drive yourself? Or think about in that context for anything you are interested.

I disagree. I think we could agree however that the vast majority of people that like a particular artist/celebrity do not have the skills, business acumen, looks or whatever to be in that position. The folks who watch the likes of Jeremy Clarkson do no have access to those cars, or some of the more exotic environments. Even if you're into watching eSports at least you should be watching pros at the top of their game.
As much as I do not, and have never bought into the cult of celebrity I can see why others do, there's a certain amount of wishful thinking and fantasy going along with the actual show. But a game...that's a download or quick trip to the rental shop away. The difference (to me) is one is watching someone with a lifestyle you do not have access to and the other is within your immediate grasp...watching the latter again just seems pointless to me...play the game yourself .

riclad

The best youtubers know about games ,
love games,
are funny ,entertaining ,witty .
Try and play a game and be funny and talk about the game at the same time .
Its not easy .
They also have to edit hours of videos and upload them to youtube .
its not an easy job.
See funhaus podcast or kindafunny games .
Those people are really funny and entertaining and love to play games .
if you like a game ,eg metal gear phantom pain ,its fun to see other people
play it ,and talk about it .
And see how thy play it .
I would have no wish to watch cricket or soccer or gaa football ,even if sky sports was free .
People watch top gear cos its funny ,not just for info on cars .
i watch top gear even though i dont drive and have little interest in cars .
Games now are more dramatic with hd video ,different characters .
You can watch after dawn the game as a film based on teen horror films like scream even if you never play it .
its amazing to see some youtubers started out 4 years ago making videos in a bedroom and
now they are buying large houses with the money from making videos .
eg syndicate makes call of duty videos .
He is a very good cod player but he is also very funny to watch .

Billy86

Andre 3000 wrote: »

Besides winning the lottery or inheritance, it's the easiest way to make an absolute killing tho. And they're playing bloody games, it's not like they're doing something they don't love. Tough? Get out of it.

I'm assuming you've never edited video before. :pac:

It's not easier than being a singer, actor, director, etc. In fact if anything, it's probably a lot harder than that since this guy has to create, develop and market all his own content.

CliCliW

Calibos wrote:

Haven't read through the thread. Has our very own JackSepticEye been mentioned yet? irish lad with millions of subscribers and hundreds of millions of views. Must be pulling in serious coin at this stage.

TOP OF THE MORNING TO YA LADDIES! I quite enjoy JackSepticEye, not sure how much he makes from it and they're not actually allowed to say but I think it's a nice bit. He must be on about 5Mil subs. He gets a lot of "you make me ashamed to be Irish" comments though, which is something I don't understand. Be ashamed because our country is stereotyped as a nation of raging alcoholics, not because of some random guy on YouTube who shouts at video games!

Orim

_CreeD_ wrote: »

I disagree. I think we could agree however that the vast majority of people that like a particular artist/celebrity do not have the skills, business acumen, looks or whatever to be in that position. The folks who watch the likes of Jeremy Clarkson do no have access to those cars, or some of the more exotic environments. Even if you're into watching eSports at least you should be watching pros at the top of their game.
As much as I do not, and have never bought into the cult of celebrity I can see why others do, there's a certain amount of wishful thinking and fantasy going along with the actual show. But a game...that's a download or quick trip to the rental shop away. The difference (to me) is one is watching someone with a lifestyle you do not have access to and the other is within your immediate grasp...watching the latter again just seems pointless to me...play the game yourself .

But you may not be able to play the game because you don't have the console or a good enough PC. Trying to play everything is a fairly hefty investment. Especially considering that some of the audience are young and wouldn't have much in disposable income.

And it's not just wish fulfillment. There's an entertainment factor. With Clarkson it's not just about the cars but it's about him and the others being funny. It's why they have sections when they build their own cars and it's the reason top gear was so successful and other car shows are more niche.

We don't hugely disagree but sometimes you need to be open to people getting their dopamine fix in different ways. I mean in Scandinavia there's wife carrying competitions and more bizarrely, people keep giving Brendan O'Carroll money for Mrs Brown's Boys.

Billy86

skipper_G wrote: »

Last week, my 12 year old nephew said he wants to be a YouTuber when he grows up. Just like PewDiePie
When I was 12 I wanted to be a racecar driver, it's sh1t like this that's destroying the world a little bit more every day

Yep, kids being interested in technology is going to be the ruin of the world. Why can't it be like it used to in your day, when kids were interested in some real stuff... like technology!

riclad

You need to edit video, buy all the right equipment ,
be funny ,entertaining, talk and play games at the same time .
Have something interestingor funny to say .
Its like being a singer or an actor .
Theres lots of girls on xfactor, i,m gonna be the next rihanna, popstar .
95 per cent of them dont make a career as a singer .
Most people who put up videos on youtube never make a penny from it .
ITS like being a stand up comedian, making it look easy is part of the job.
Its not an easy job ,if you want to do it as a career .
There were kids who wanted to be singers ,actors before youtube came along .

Calibos

CliCliW wrote: »

TOP OF THE MORNING TO YA LADDIES! I quite enjoy JackSepticEye, not sure how much he makes from it and they're not actually allowed to say but I think it's a nice bit. He must be on about 5Mil subs. He gets a lot of "you make me ashamed to be Irish" comments though, which is something I don't understand. Be ashamed because our country is stereotyped as a nation of raging alcoholics, not because of some random guy on YouTube who shouts at video games!

High Fives All Round!!

Just checked there. 6.5 million Subscribers and 2.5 billion views!! Holy Fcuk!!

As a 41yo his general playthrough content wouldn't be my kind of thing but with his online persona and bad language I can see why the teens might love it. PewDiePie style but laden with Fcuks, Jaysus and Bollix's. The few I watched I did find myself laughing at. I came across him because of some of the Oculus Rift VR playthroughs he's done. Liked his style in those vids but will admit he lays it on a bit thicker in the general game playthroughs. When I saw how popular he was getting and how quickly it was happening I couldn't help but think 'Fair Fcuks Laddy!!' Defer the last year or two of your degree and milk the ever loving fcuk out of this while you can. While his earnings likely don't scale linearly with PieDiePie's, so despite 1/4 the views hes probably not earning 1/4 of PieDiePie's 7 million a year, He is probably at a minimum starting to pull in the high hundreds of thousands if not a million this year.

the_syco

paleoperson wrote: »

All he does is just play videogames and shout at them, that's the whole thing. Sometimes he's a bit funny, it's not any more or less funny than people everywhere. What has this world come to? It's just ridiculous. Such a waste of time.

People watch football. Then watch other people who have also watched the football give their opinion.

paleoperson

the_syco wrote: »

People watch football. Then watch other people who have also watched the football give their opinion.

Yes and I've watched competitive gaming and listened to commentary through it and people giving their opinion on it afterwards. Noone is saying anything about there can't be discussion about a game, just the same as you can discuss/review a movie or anything else you just watched.

I can safely say I have NEVER watched football or any other sporting event where some guy's face is in a picture-in-picture taking up part of the screen, having hysterical over-the-top reactions, and trying to come up with crude jokes as much as he can (which often turns into implying something is sexual).

If someone told me ten years ago, this is what the future was going to be, this is what people would want to see, I'd have told them they'd been sniffing too much funny stuff.

Orim

paleoperson wrote: »

I can safely say I have NEVER watched football or any other sporting event where some guy's face is in a picture-in-picture taking up part of the screen, having hysterical over-the-top reactions, and trying to come up with crude jokes as much as he can (which often turns into implying something is sexual).

Sky Sports has been running fan commentary for years and that is pretty much what you describe.

J. Marston

He's made shítloads of money by playing videogames and acting like an eejit.

I'm seething with jealously.

Calibos

paleoperson wrote: »

...........

If someone told me ten years ago, this is what the future was going to be, this is what people would want to see, I'd have told them they'd been sniffing too much funny stuff.

It isn't what people want to see. Its what 10-14yo Boys want to see. Its a demographic that have always been into weird stuff that leaves the rest of us scratching our heads about. Its a limited demographic, but with global reach those 10-14 year old boys still adds up to a huge number. Marketeers know in 4 years time most of those will be in the goldmine male 18-30 demographic so it pays to grab them now. Thats how acting the eejit in your youtube vids aimed at the weird tastes of a male 10-14yo audience is worth so much money and has made millionaires out of a lot of these youtubers. Its irrelevent that the other 95% of us cant see the attraction.

Calibos

J. Marston wrote: »

He's made shítloads of money by playing videogames and acting like an eejit.

I'm seething with jealously.

I can imagine yer man JacksepticEye calling round to the parents house to tell them he was dropping out of college, his parents reacting in horror and asking why, him telling them that it was because he wanted to devote more time to his youtube gaming channel, his parents reacting in terror and asking him has he gone totally stark raving mad......well mad enough to have come here to see them straight from the bank after paying off their mortgage.

Theres actually a few youtube vids floating about of similar. Guys making a packet on an appstore app and clearing his working class hispanic parents mortgage etc. Heart warming.

No begrudgery from me. Fair play to the lot of them.

smoking_kills

Deleted User wrote: »

He makes between $3m - $4m a year from YouTube/Google.

Not even close.

Plenty of websites calculate that wrong. They just take his yearly views, take a estimated CPM (What he gets paid per 1000 views) and do the math.

You have to take into account......

1) Not all videos will have a add on them. Go click a video of his, then another and another and another. you wont get an add on every video. You-tube does this deliberately. They know having adds on every single video will piss folk off, so they don’t put ad’s on every video. Ad-block is thought to be used by about 10% of people who watch you tube. then there is the skip add button, which I'd imagine does not pay the full CPM. Some estimate total views that pay anywhere from as low as 30% to 50% of actual views.

2) His Network, I believe its Maker Studios takes a cut as does you-tube.

3) The Swedish government take their pound of flesh. And I think the tax rates in Sweden are pretty high.

4) He will have at least some costs. Though for what he does they should be pretty low, but are costs non the less.

So all in he's not making 3-4 million a year, Now by no means is on baked beans and water. But NOT 3-4 million a year. Plenty of ex you-tubers have talked about it and for the reasons i pointed out, the money is not what it's made out to be. I heard a podcast for a ex you-tuber, who despite having 500,000+ subs,getting 80,000 views per video and uploading 3-4 videos per week say a minimum wage job would have paid better over the years.

Lirange

Many of his followers are teenage girls that don't play video games.

Mountainsandh

My kids watch Pewdiepie, Stampy, etc... and like a lot of other kids these days, want to become Youtubers when they grow up.

It's a mad shift from TV and radio to Youtube really, it's strange when you're a grown up to see it happening, but I don't see it as a doomed-dumbing-down-kids trend.

My kids are pretty well rounded and they get plenty of education and learning elsewhere in their lives, but for easy going, brainless entertainment, they turn to Youtube and video games, no big deal.

From a parent's point of view though, what annoys me the most is the bad language, although my kids tell me that they hear it but they "ignore it", and promise they won't start using it. :P

I wouldn't begrudge Youtubers the money either, after all, the successful ones have more talent in their field than mass produced (boy)(girl)bands members.

It's one of these situations when one can smuggly say to begrudgers : well, if you're so upset over it, if you think there is no skill and work involved, off you go and give it a try, and make your fortune. It's open to anyone really.

KungPao

Gamers are odd. Not the normal people who play a bit of FIFA, Golf, GTA etc, but these people who live to play stupid fantasy games and dress up as characters need to get a grip on reality.

I'm with Jimmy Kimmel on this. Watching people play games is a very strange use of your time.

Mountainsandh

Calibos wrote: »

It isn't what people want to see. Its what 10-14yo Boys want to see. Its a demographic that have always been into weird stuff that leaves the rest of us scratching our heads about. Its a limited demographic, but with global reach those 10-14 year old boys still adds up to a huge number. Marketeers know in 4 years time most of those will be in the goldmine male 18-30 demographic so it pays to grab them now. Thats how acting the eejit in your youtube vids aimed at the weird tastes of a male 10-14yo audience is worth so much money and has made millionaires out of a lot of these youtubers. Its irrelevent that the other 95% of us cant see the attraction.

My daughter loves the vids and games too ! Not just boys.
But she's never been into the alternative, which seems to be One Direction, Xfactor all singing all dancing dolled up extravaganza I suppose, so maybe she's a current version of a tomboy.

Mountainsandh

KungPao wrote: »

Gamers are odd. Not the normal people who play a bit of FIFA, Golf, GTA etc, but these people who live to play stupid fantasy games and dress up as characters need to get a grip on reality.

I'm with Jimmy Kimmel on this. Watching people play games is a very strange use of your time.

My kids don't dress up as characters neither do they seem to have any inclination to do so ?

The Youtube gameplay vids are a form of entertainment, similar to TV games, series, music videos... They get tips for their own playing, and have a laugh. I really don't see what all the fretting out or spite is about.
Like, what about Crystal Maze (and all such), wasn't that all about watching people playing games ?