The Real Reason PewDiePie Is Stepping Away From YouTube
YouTuber Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg made a big announcement regarding his channel in a recent video titled "YouTube's New Update has A BIG FLAW!" At some point in early 2020, PewDiePie will take a break from YouTube. This will snap a pretty lengthy streak of continuous uploads from YouTube's most popular creator, but his reason for it is simple: He's exhausted.
"I wanted to say it in advance because I've made up my mind," he said. "I'm tired. I'm tired, I'm feeling very tired."
Add that to the fact that PewDiePie recently deleted all of his tweets and, yeah, you can sense that the famous YouTuber is fed up with all things social media. He's still squatting on that @pewdiepie Twitter handle, for what it's worth, so there's a chance he could make a return at some point; perhaps when his leave of absence from YouTube comes to an end. But it looks like PewDiePie intends on disconnecting from the digital world for a while, and understandably so.
We'll get more of an explanation about his break sometime later, according to PewDiePie. There's no word yet on how long it'll last. However, there's more than meets the eye here. While making daily video content is no easy feat, other external factors might be tying into PewDiePie's exhaustion. Despite having a pretty consistent online presence, he might have some things to take care of in real life. More importantly, he could be completely over YouTube's newest policies.
PewDiePie might need to deal with real-world issues
On the other hand, PewDiePie might need to work on some personal issues in the real world. Recently, some thieves stole a majority of the belongings from his new home in Japan. Marzia, his wife, estimated that nearly 90% of their belongings were lost in the affair.
Losing all your belongings isn't an easy thing to deal with, especially on top of the busy schedule of being a daily YouTuber. This upcoming break from the platform could give him the time he needs to get that issue sorted out. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the popular YouTuber has dealt with people coming to his home. In 2016, he had to make a video asking his subscribers to stop coming to his home, claiming that parents were even bringing their kids to his front door.
Combine these real-life issues with content creator burnout, and you've got a fine cocktail of reasons for him to take a vacation.
YouTube could be grinding PewDiePie's gears
It's no secret that YouTube's policies make things harder for content creators to do what they love. Recently, the service pushed out an update to its harassment policy, making it more stringent than it was previously. Harassment, hate speech, and otherwise offensive behavior will now be more strictly policed, and YouTube will take down videos and comments that violate the policy. Content creators who continuously break these rules will be suspended from the YouTube Partner Program, which is where PewDiePie makes his YouTube money.
This policy was the focal point of PewDiePie's recent video, which, as a reminder, was named "YouTube's New Update has A BIG FLAW!" Clearly, PewDiePie has a problem with this policy, and in the video, he goes into detail about how other channels have been suffering from this update.
PewDiePie argues that the policy change is too little, too late. The YouTube landscape is anarchy, and content creators have been left to call each other out for inappropriate content. He points to fellow YouTuber iDubbbzTV, who lost his Content Cop video about Leafy because of YouTube's new policy. It now seems — to PewDiePie, at least — that YouTube is going after those who call out others, instead of the ones who cause trouble in the first place.
PewDiePie announcing that he's taking a break from YouTube in a video calling out its new policies seems like perfect timing.
PewDiePie could also be trolling us all
At the same time, PewDiePie could just be pulling our legs. Part of his popularity stems from his comedy, and he's pulled stunts like this before. Back when he was reaching the 50-million subscriber milestone in 2016, he said he would delete his channel after passing that mark. After reaching 50 million, he delivered on his promise and deleted his channel, although it was actually just another channel he created called Jack Septiceye2.
PewDiePie has a flair for theatrics, often being able to build hype over virtually nothing. This upcoming break could be part of a similar prank, where he won't actually take a break at all in early 2020. Alternatively, he could record a lot of videos ahead of time and schedule them to go live, meaning we wouldn't even notice if he went on a vacation in the first place. Nonetheless, it's hard to take this announcement of his without a grain of salt, as it could be a red herring for some sort of epic punchline.
If we're able to dig up more details on PewDiePie's upcoming break, we'll be sure to update you.