PewDiePie, the popular YouTuber whose real name is Felix Avrid Ulf Kjellberg, announced over the weekend that he’s taking “a break” from the platform in 2020.
“I wanted to say it in advance because I made up my mind. I’m tired, I’m feeling very tired,” the Swedish star said before noting “early next year I’ll be away for a little while.” He added he’d “explain that later.”
With over 100 million subscribers, PewDiePie has the second most subscribed-to YouTube channel and he regularly tops lists of highest-paid creators, but his career has been dogged by controversies, some of which are of his own making. In 2017, Disney’s Maker Studios cut ties with him over videos of his featuring anti-Semitic Jones were uncovered by the Wall Street Journal. A few months later, he used the n-word while live-streaming himself playing a video game.
In March, after he was mentioned by the shooter in the live-streamed video of a massacre at a New Zealand mosque, the gamer tweeted, tweeted, “Just heard news of the devastating reports from New Zealand Christchurch. I feel absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person. My heart and thoughts go out to the victims, families and everyone affected by this tragedy.”