The Truth About PewDiePie's Exclusive Streaming Deal
This year has been an unusually quiet one for the man known to scores of YouTube fans as PewDiePie. Though business is still good for the PewDiePie brand, the YouTuber himself has managed to keep pumping out videos while avoiding negative press — something he's traditionally been drawn to like a moth to a flame.
As it happens, someone at YouTube must've noticed PewDiePie's good behavior, because the platform is now throwing even more money at the Swedish entertainer. In a press release put out yesterday, it was announced that PewDiePie has signed an exclusive streaming deal with YouTube Gaming that, let's be honest, is probably worth a large bucket of cash.
"YouTube has been my home for over a decade now," PewDiePie said in the release, "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."
The YouTuber also stated that live streams are something he's "focusing a lot on in 2020 and beyond," so if you enjoy PewDiePie — and his gaming content in particular — you'll be able to enjoy everything the popular video star puts out on one single platform.
For what it's worth, the rest of the press release goes on to play up PewDiePie's many achievements on YouTube, while going out of its way to not mention that time the company canned a pretty major partnership with him. Still, it looks as though both YouTube and PewDiePie are ready to put that era in the past. Handing someone like Pewds a live audience is not something any company would or should do lightly. That YouTube is doing it now says a lot about how it feels about the risk.
So, what can you expect from PewDiePie's livestreams on YouTube? If his soon-to-be-abandoned channel on DLive is any indication, you can expect PewDiePie to dip his toes into more gaming content. This should please a whole bunch of fans who've been wishing for years the YouTuber would play more games.
And as for what PewDiePie might jump into, you can probably expect a heavy dose of Minecraft, the game that essentially put him on the map. Terraria is also a favorite of Pewds, so that's another one we might see him stream on the platform. Don't be surprised, though, if we see some other titles make their way into the PewDiePie feed now that he's officially partnered with YouTube Gaming. PewDiePie was apparently playing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice over on DLive. Perhaps we'll see bigger titles like that in the future.
The big question that remains is, will PewDiePie stream content that isn't related to gaming? Some of the YouTuber's DLive streams were known to slip into other areas — the kind more associated with his YouTube videos. While that probably won't be forbidden, it would open the door for something potentially controversial to sneak through.
Such is the danger of any live broadcast, though. You can have years of perfectly fine content that pushes a few boundaries here and there. Then one wardrobe malfunction happens and you get Paul McCartney. We're not expecting that particular issue to pop up on a PewDiePie stream, but with a live, captive audience, there still exists the tiniest bit of danger.
As we mentioned earlier, YouTube has probably done the assessment and concluded the reward outweighs the risk. But it's still something you might want to watch out for.
So when does the live PewDiePie show begin, you ask? It seems as though we could get a livestream at any time now. PewDiePie originally had a streaming deal with DLive that was inked in April 2019. If that deal was only for a year, it's already wrapped up. Further, the press release put out by YouTube doesn't mention any start date in particular.
There could be some loose ends that need to be tied up. YouTube's statement does say "the platform will be the exclusive live streaming home for Felix Kjellberg" — and the "will be" portion of that could point to some date in the future. We wouldn't be entirely shocked, though, if PewDiePie decided to go live sometime within the next few days.
The PewDiePie partnership with YouTube Gaming is definitely a huge deal for PewDiePie, his fans, and YouTube. PewDiePie finally gets to do his live broadcasts in front of his huge YouTube audience. Fans hopefully get to see some of that gaming content they've been begging for. And YouTube adds another big name to its roster at a time when both Twitch and Mixer are making big moves.
How will this all turn out? We'll have to wait for an answer on that one.