PewDiePie appears to have lost his ongoing battle against record label and film production company T-Series to reach the next level on YouTube. Despite T-Series’ leadership being inconsistent and PewDiePie temporarily surpassing the Bollywood music label after posting a number of diss tracks, the Swede has now placed second with a gap between the two contenders growing to roughly 700,000 people.
At this rate, T-Series is expected to reach a milestone of 100 million subscribers on 21 May, compared to 1 June forecasts for PewDiePie, according to the tracking site Social Blade.
However, Twitter users are challenging the forecasts by showing their support for PewDiePies’ online future, and are even offering their own advice to help the Swede win.
"Yes, T-Series lost no matter which way you slice it at this point," one Twitter user said. "You don't win by cheating. Numbers mean nothing now. [PewDiePie] IS #1. End of story".
Others rushed in to defend the throne of their crowned and conquering king of social media, stating that even if T-Series had won the "100 million race", PewDiePie would still be number one on Youtube as T-Series "is a company".
— Sarah Mohr (@scmartin27) 21 апреля 2019 г.
— Brennen Becker (@SlothDuckford) 22 апреля 2019 г.
— NateOne23 (@nateone23) 23 апреля 2019 г.
— JAAMTheAnimated (@JAAMTheAnimated) 22 апреля 2019 г.
— ACE (@RNG_Ace) 21 апреля 2019 г.
But others defended T-Series as the reigning champion of YouTube, stating that PewDiePie had "lost".
— GAMERGAMES (@GAMERGA98553979) 22 апреля 2019 г.
PewDiePie, aka Felix Kjellberg, and India’s T-Series have been locked in a tight race to grab the YouTuber crown as the top-subscribed video channel since September, with both rivals mobilising all of their available techniques, including livestream gaming videos and PR stunts to boost their popularity. PewDiePie recently attempted to gain a foothold on another promising livestreaming platform, DLive, which is powered by blockchain technology.
READ MORE: PewDiePie Challenges Viewers to Help T-Series DISS Beat Out Post Malone's Video
As the top-subscribed YouTube channel as an individual creator since 2013, PewDiePie increasingly became challenged by T-Series, which started to rapidly gain subscribers due to India’s growing internet presence. But the Swedish vlogger’s fans have continued sharing positive forecasts of the individual creator rather than his profit-seeking competitor as the face of social media's most popular video hosting website.