PewDiePie propels Minecraft to top spot of 2019 YouTube games
After a noticeable absence in the 2018 Rewind, YouTube gave special notice to one of its greatest creators in PewDiePie in this year’s version and focused on how his return to Minecraft helped propel the game to the top of the YouTube charts.
YouTube were very forthcoming about the backlash towards the 2018 Rewind. In announcing the 2019 iteration of the yearly look-back video, they acknowledged how they dropped the ball last year with a compilation of negative reactions to the video.
This year, they made the easy decision of dedicating the Rewind to the biggest creators and creations of the calendar year on YouTube. They made two mentions of widely popular YouTuber PewDiePie. First, his widely covered sub war with the T-series channel, and his impactful Minecraft series.
YouTube: PewDiePieBut how impactful could a Minecraft YouTuber series can be, even from a big name like PewDiePie? Well according to YouTube themselves, he was pivotal in pushing Minecraft forward into a landmark year in what’s been an iconic decade for the game.
On their Rewind section, YouTube said the game’s increased viewership went hand-in-hand with Felix’s decision to return to Minecraft in June of this year. This began with the aptly named Minecraft Part 1, which generated over 34 million views and over 2 million likes all on its own.
That video was one of three this year to crack into the personal top 25 videos of PewDiePie in all-time viewership, behind the unboxing video of his 100 million subscriber award, and his own version of the infamous 2018 YouTube Rewind.
Felix’s Minecraft journey has taken many twists and turns. In the half a year since he started playing, he’s done 12-hour streams, collaborated with Jack Black and Jacksepticeye, battled monsters, boosted Mr. Beast’s tree-planting charity, and even made a music video that of course went viral.
According to the YouTube Rewind 2019 video itself, Minecraft in total cracked 100 billion views for the year. Fortnite and GTA 5 trailed it with 60.9 billion views and 36.9 billion, respectively.
While PewDiePie was certainly not responsible for all of those views, YouTube did denote that the amount of Minecraft uploads increased after he began its series.
After a landmark year to end the decade, Mojang (the game’s developer) will look to expand Minecraft’s horizons next year with the release of their co-op adventure game: Minecraft Dungeons.