Why did PewDiePie semi-retire from YouTube? Decline in posting frequency explored

MrBeast may be the first YouTube content creator to cross the 200 million subscriber mark, but the Swedish-born Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, was the reigning king of the platform for most of the last decade. From 2013 to November 2022, Felix was the most-subscribed non-corporate YouTuber. However, over the last couple of years, his frequency of new videos has fallen drastically.

PewDiePie's channel has essentially stagnated, remaining at the 111 million subscriber mark for over a year, with videos uploaded every week rather than his old pattern of posting daily videos. Even before becoming a father to baby Bjorn, PewDiePie had expressed reasons for the radical change in his content creation strategy, which some may call semi-retirement, stating that he is no longer motivated to upload videos to grow his channel and would rather focus on doing things at a more leisurely pace.

In a YouTube video titled Why I didnt quit uploaded in September of 2022, Felix detailed his thought process about choosing not to retire completely but rather to cut back on video production in a way that suits his changed mentality.

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"That part had peaked": PewDiePie on not uploading daily videos

The YouTuber's subscriber growth from 2016-2024 (Image via Statista)

Since moving to Japan in 2022, PewDiePie started uploading many vlog-style videos on his channel in contrast to his usual reaction and gaming content. After all, he had started as a Let's Play channel back in 2011, going viral for his over-the-top commentaries on horror games.

During the iconic subscriber battle with T-Series, the Swede took a very aggressive approach to YouTube, uploading a ten-minute-long video almost every day while urging viewers to subscribe. While he ultimately lost the battle, his channel saw amazing growth during those days. However, as seen in the aforementioned graph, his channel growth has stunted in the last few years and has been stuck at 111 million for quite a long time.

Well, according to PewDiePie, he had thought about quitting YouTube for good a few years ago due to the constant drama surrounding his content:

"Two years ago when I decided that I was gonna quit. It was because I had gone through too much drama at the time. You know, it hasn't always been perfect."

It is evident that he changed his mind, and as per the content creator, it was because he had so many supporters still willing to watch his content. Therefore, PewDiePie came to a compromise. After reaching the heights of YouTube, the long-time creator revealed that he was tired of chasing success and had nothing left to prove:

"I realized at that time that, you know, to keep trying to push the channel more and more and more all the time wasn't doing anything for me personally. I wasn't getting anything out of the money, the recognition or the fame. At least that part had peaked, you know?"

Thus, he would continue to make content for his fans at a more leisurely pace, stating:

"For the future, I just want to keep doing videos the way I have been doing. In sort of this tempo. At least my first year in Japan I really just wanna enjoy having fun here and making the most out of it. Not stressing about what the next upload is gonna be all the time."

Since this revelation, the YouTuber has become a father and has taken time off to tend to his son Bjorn, who was born in July 2023. That said, PewDiePie has continued pushing out videos every week, and while that is in no way at par with his past schedule, he is still far from retirement.