PewDiePie vs T-Series: The Meme War Unleashed

You’re walking down a New York City street in March 2019 and you see it: “Subscribe to PewDiePie” spray-painted across a World War II memorial. The phrase isn’t just haunting — it’s everywhere, from hacked printers to airport billboards, from viral memes to the remarks of a mass shooter, echoing across the world. How did a YouTube subscriber rivalry turn into a global, meme-fueled storm that no one could control?

Here’s how it all unraveled.

First, the players. On one side, Felix Kjellberg, known as PewDiePie, a Swedish YouTuber who’d built a fiercely loyal audience with gaming and comedy videos, and had held the “most-subscribed” crown on YouTube since August 2013. By 2018, his fanbase had a name — the “9-year-old army” — and he was racking up more than 110 million subscribers, putting his channel among the most-viewed in the world.

On the other side: T-Series, a massive Indian music and film company. Their YouTube channel featured Bollywood music videos, trailers, and content for a rapidly growing Indian market logging on with cheap smartphones and affordable data. In 2018, the gap between T-Series and PewDiePie in subscriber count started shrinking fast, with T-Series uploading over 20,000 videos by October 2023 and reaching global audiences beyond India.

Late August 2018: PewDiePie posts “THIS CHANNEL WILL OVERTAKE PEWDIEPIE,” and the rivalry goes public. At first, it’s lighthearted — fans flood YouTube comment sections with “Subscribe to PewDiePie,” creators like MrBeast buy billboards in Times Square and radio ads in North Carolina, and even show up at Super Bowl LIII wearing shirts spelling out “SUB 2 PEWDIEPIE.” The campaign goes viral. Hundreds of memes explode across Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram. The internet loves an underdog, and in this fight, PewDiePie is cast as the little guy — the creator — facing off against a giant corporation.

But as 2018 rolls into 2019, the support isn’t just memes and livestreams. Some fans take things much further. In November 2018, a hacker called “HackerGiraffe” sends printer jobs to around 50,000 unsecured printers worldwide, spitting out pages urging people to subscribe to PewDiePie and unsubscribe from T-Series. In December, another hacker, “j3ws3r,” does the same to 80,000 more printers. Messages tell people their printers are vulnerable — and to fix their security settings — but always end with a plug for PewDiePie.

It doesn’t stop there. In January 2019, more than 65,000 Google Chromecast devices are hijacked, displaying “Subscribe to PewDiePie” on smart TVs. Dozens of Nest cameras are hacked, with a hacker speaking directly to users through the cameras, demanding they subscribe to the channel. Someone hacks The Wall Street Journal’s website to post an apology to PewDiePie and — again — the now infamous phrase.

Other fans take to the streets. In Bangladesh, young fans hand out posters demanding support for PewDiePie. A parade in Tallinn, Estonia, draws hundreds. Lithuanian cheerleaders perform to PewDiePie's diss track “Bitch Lasagna.” In Moscow, protesters at an internet freedom rally hold signs and play the same song. Even in the midst of the 2019 India–Pakistan standoff, T-Series removes Pakistani artists from its channel, and Pakistani fans organize a march with signs reading “Unsubscribe T-Series.” By March, a plane flies over New York City with a crowdfunded $4,500 banner trailing “Subscribe to PewDiePie.” Over 21,000 people watch PewDiePie stream the flight live.

But things get darker. In early March 2019, “Subscribe to PewDiePie” is spray-painted on a Brooklyn war memorial and a school in Oxford, UK. PewDiePie publicly condemns the vandalism and donates to the park for repairs. Then, on March 15, the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand leave 50 dead. The shooter utters the words “Remember, lads, subscribe to PewDiePie” before the attack, livestreamed to the world. PewDiePie is horrified, tweeting, “I feel absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person.” In April, the Poway synagogue shooter in California also references the meme.

Suddenly, what started as an internet joke is now tied to two mass shootings. PewDiePie releases a video on April 28, 2019, calling for an end to the “Subscribe to PewDiePie” campaign: “This movement started out of love and support, so let’s end it with that.” He explains the toll the Christchurch shooting took on him, saying, “to have my name associated with something so unspeakably vile has affected me in more ways than I’ve let shown.” The internet, he says, has gone too far.

Meanwhile, T-Series frames the race as a point of national pride. Bhushan Kumar, president of T-Series, tweets, “We’re on the brink of becoming the world’s biggest @YouTube channel. We can make history. We can make India win. Subscribe to @TSeries.” Indian YouTubers and celebrities rally in support. Diss tracks fly back and forth, and T-Series files court orders in Delhi, leading to PewDiePie’s “Bitch Lasagna” and “Congratulations” videos being banned in India for alleged defamation and offensive content.

YouTube itself walks a tightrope. The company acknowledges the rivalry’s impact on the platform but doesn’t officially endorse either side. In December 2018, YouTube removes inauthentic subscribers, knocking 55,000 from PewDiePie and more than 220,000 from T-Series, but the race barrels on. Media coverage explodes. The Washington Post points to T-Series as a symbol of India’s digital explosion, with internet users skyrocketing from 20 million in 2000 to 560 million in 2018.

April 14, 2019: T-Series permanently overtakes PewDiePie in subscriber count. By May, T-Series becomes the first channel to hit 100 million subscribers. PewDiePie releases “Congratulations,” a satirical music video that both mocks and congratulates T-Series — and promptly gets banned in India by court order.

Even after the race ends, the aftershocks keep coming. The rivalry, fueled by memes and activism, exposed cracks in internet culture — how quickly online movements can spiral beyond anyone’s control, and how a joke can turn dangerous when millions join in. As of April 2026, T-Series remains one of the most-subscribed channels in the world, while PewDiePie, now semi-retired and uploading less frequently, still sits with over 110 million subscribers.

So here’s the open question: In an era when memes can drive people into the streets and hacker armies can hijack the infrastructure of daily life, is it possible for any creator to truly control what their audience does in their name?