LOS ANGELES — The gamer behind YouTube's most-watched channel, PewDiePie (real name Felix Kjellberg), announced in his latest Pew News video that he is planning to take a break from the platform next year.
Toward the end of the video posted Saturday that slams YouTube for its inability to effectively enforce its latest policy updates, Kjellberg says: "I am taking a break from YouTube next year. I wanted to say it in advance because I made up my mind."
"I'm tired," he continued. "I'm feeling very tired. I don't know if you can tell. Just so you know, early next year I'll be away for a little while. I'll explain that later, but I wanted to give a heads up."
The controversial gamer had raised the prospect of taking a break from the platform back in August: "I do think it would be good for me to take a break at some point. It would be nice to not have YouTube in my brain for the first time in 10 years." Kjellberg married his girlfriend, Marzia Bisognin, a former YouTube personality, in the same month.
It was announced last week that PewDiePie, a comedian, game vlogger and meme aficionado, is the most-subscribed individual YouTube creator and the most-watched YouTube creator of 2019, currently with 102 million followers.
PewDiePie's video views for the year were boosted by the monthslong running battle stoked by Kjellberg and his fans to keep his subscriber count ahead of India's T-Series music channel, which has since surpassed him.
PewDiePie's popularity continues unabated, even though he has been the subject of ongoing controversies, including past criticism of anti-Semitic jokes that Kjellberg acknowledged had gone too far.