Felix Kjellberg is better known as PewDiePie, the most popular celebrity — gaming or otherwise — on Youtube. He shut off comments for his videos back in September, and he discussed the decision in a video posted today.
"When Youtubers hit these benchmarks ... they usually make some kind of video, myself included, saying thank you for subscribing and showing support. We didn't really hit a number, I mean we hit more numbers than I ever thought," he started, explaining a video that celebrated his 31,970,288th subscriber.
"It's really hard having so many fans, it used to be so much easier having a smaller fanbase. My point is I appreciate regardless that you bros just watch my videos. That means the world to me. I put my heart and soul into this channel," he said.
"Before I turned off my comments, I think things were going downhill, I would say. Making that change I feel like we're going back up. It's been making me really happy, and making me really enjoy what I do, which is something very important to me."
He mentioned only doing horror games in the early days of the channel, and the anger from fans when he did other types of games. "But I wasn't enjoying doing only horror games, so I had to switch." Even without looking at the angry comments, and even without that means of communication, the subscription base still grew.
"Even though something may not be exactly the way you want it to be, you still support me, which is my point.," he continued. Commenting and discussion has been moved to a forum, while the comments on the videos themselves have been disabled.
This is an interesting look at what happens when a popular online personality tries to exert a bit more control over how they receive feedback. You can talk about this in our comments, which I may or may not read.
