PewDiePie, a Swedish individual content creator, who was in a months-long Great Subscriber War with Indian music label T-Series, has recently announced that the epic battle for the most subscribed YouTube channel has come to an end.
American Twitch streamer and extremely popular internet personality Tyler Blevins, known under his online alias Ninja, has apparently weighed in on the subscriber race between PewDiePie and T-Series in a direct message to YouTube news show host Daniel “Keemstar” Keem.
“Only issue with that, CHIEF, is that PewDiePie created content to mess around and have fun. T-Series took full legal action LOL”, Ninja wrote, according to Dexerto.
Ninja alluded to an alleged court order issued by the Delhi High Court in response to a complaint by T-Series claiming that PewDiePie’s diss tracks on the Indian powerhouse were "defamatory, disparaging, insulting and offensive", and contained "repeated comments which are abusive, vulgar and also racist in nature".
As part of the ruling, his viral songs, “B*tch Lasagna” and “Congratulations” which were recorded by Pewds in his pursuit of the No. 1 spot on YouTube, have been removed from Indian YouTube.
Ninja’s remark came shortly after T-Series CEO Bhushan Kumar told Quartz India that his company never intended to engage in the Great Subscriber War, but that changed after PewDiePie, who was dubbed YouTube King, started sneering at the label’s skyrocketing popularity.
“We were never in this tussle to become number one or two with anyone. But all along there were these sarcastic comments from PewDiePie. And that’s how we decided to respond to the comments. I launched the #BharatWinsYouTube campaign, seeking more subscriptions from Indians”, Kumar said.
With all the controversy surrounding their rivalry, PewDiePie, who has recently announced the end of the long-lasting subscription battle, told comedian Saiman Says that he’s considering going to India to record another track on T-Series, although this time it would be a “redemption song”.
"Alright that's cool, I'll come to India. I'm shooting another song there. My redemption song. It will be a sad 'I'm sorry India' song, like a ballad", he said after Says promised Pewds the highest level of security in the country of his arch-enemy.
While it remains to be seen whether it’s yet another stunt or a serious desire, PewDiePie is lagging far behind T-Series, which has amassed over 97 million followers, while the Swede has slightly under 95.4 million subscribers.
PewDiePie has had the most subscribed channel since 2013, but has since been repeatedly overthrown by T-Series, who entered the race several months ago after witnessing a massive surge in its follower base last year due to the country’s recent, expanding Wi-Fi procurement.