YouTube has surprisingly announced that Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg has signed an exclusive streaming deal with them in May 2020. This means the Swede will only stream on YouTube. This is a clear attack on the incumbent Twitch.
This is the announcement: The Swede Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg (30) has signed an exclusive streaming deal with YouTube.
According to a press release, PewDiePie says he will place a stronger focus on livestreaming in 2020 and beyond.
Therefore, it is good for him to collaborate with YouTube and be at the forefront of a new product. By this, he means the streaming department of the video portal, which until May 2019 was known as YouTube Gaming.
PewDiePie refers to YouTube as “his home for more than a decade.” Streaming on YouTube feels like a natural fit for him, as he is now looking for new ways to create content and connect with his fans worldwide.
PewDiePie will stream more on YouTube
This is the situation: PewDiePie has been making videos for YouTube for almost 15 years. He has been running his current channel since 2010. He now has 104 million subscribers. He is the first and only individual to reach over 100 million subscribers.
Until recently, he streamed exclusively on the relatively insignificant platform DLive. About a year ago, he signed an exclusive contract there, which presumably has now expired.
YouTube has now secured his services.
How high the interest in PewDiePie is was evident during a Fortnite tournament in June 2019, where PewDiePie was indirectly seen through other channels on Twitch. There were outages on the streaming platform due to the extremely high interest.
YouTube takes the next step
What’s behind it: YouTube belongs to Google. They have been seriously wanting to step into live streaming of games for a few months. At the moment, Twitch is leading in this area. Twitch belongs to Amazon.
YouTube has secured several streamers like CouRage, Typical Gamer or Valkyrie exclusively in recent months. A lot of money is reportedly involved.
The signing of the biggest YouTube star PewDiePie is now a serious attack on the incumbent Twitch.
Details of the exclusive contract are not known. However, it can be assumed that PewDiePie was not cheap.
Since August 2019, there have been 2 phenomena among streamers:
- Star streamers leave Twitch and sign exclusive contracts with other platforms like Mixer, Facebook Gaming, or YouTube
- or streamers sign exclusive contracts with the platform that was already their main platform
The signing of PewDiePie fits into YouTube’s strategy. Instead of poaching stars from Twitch, as Mixer has done with shroud and Ninja, YouTube focuses on its own talents that have grown through video-on-demand on YouTube and recruits them for regular live streams.
This has now been done with several gamers: YouTube has primarily concentrated on a market outside the USA and has increasingly recruited Canadians and Australians; they also seem to have developed a weakness for Fortnite streamers.
