PewDiePie signed an exclusive video game streaming deal with YouTube in a major blow to Twitch
- PewDiePie, one of the biggest stars on YouTube, has signed an exlusive streaming deal with YouTube Gaming.
- "YouTube has been my home for over a decade now and live streaming on the platform feels like a natural fit as I continue to look for new ways to create content and interact with fans worldwide," Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg said in a press release.
- The news comes amid the long battle among top esports platforms to gain exlusivity with the industry's biggest influencers.
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YouTube megastar Felix Kjellberg, better known by his username PewDiePie, has signed an exclusive video game streaming deal with YouTube.
Kjellberg has 104 million subscribers on YouTube, where he's been one of the platform's most popular creators for nearly a decade. He currently has the second-most subscriptions of any channel. In a press release announcing the news on Monday, YouTube said Kjellberg had "generated over 25 billion views to date, far and away the most of any individually operated YouTube channel in history."
Last April, Kjellberg, who has been a controversial and often polarizing figure in his years on the internet, had entered another exclusive streaming deal with DLive, a livestreaming platform that uses blockchain cryptocurrency.
"YouTube has been my home for over a decade now and live streaming on the platform feels like a natural fit as I continue to look for new ways to create content and interact with fans worldwide," Kjellberg said in a YouTube press release. "Live streaming is something I'm focusing a lot on in 2020 and beyond, so to be able to partner with YouTube and be at the forefront of new product features is special and exciting for the future."
The contract comes amid the long battle among top esports platforms to gain exclusivity with the gaming industry's biggest influencers. The deal is a huge blow to Twitch, where Kjellberg had previously streamed, which has been a top live-streaming platform in recent years.
YouTube's esports additions have quickly made it a top competitor to Twitch. The platform also signed Jack "CouRage" Dunlop last November, while Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, one of esports' biggest stars, departed Twitch for Microsoft's Mixer platform last August.
Ryan Wyatt, the head of gaming at YouTube, told The Hollywood Reporter last November that the platform wasn't intentionally "poaching and stealing" creators streaming on other platforms. "We're going to continue to invest in YouTube creators moving forward," he said.
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