With more than 37m subscribers, Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg is one of the biggest stars on YouTube. Now he’s hoping to take bookshelves by storm too.
The Swedish gamer has signed a publishing deal with Penguin Random House to release This Book Loves You in October. The 250-page book promises “indispensable advice and inspirational quotes”.
“This book is a great chance for me to reach my audience in a new way,” said Kjellberg. “The original idea actually came from my fans via Twitter, so I really think they’re going to love it.”
The PewDiePie YouTube channel launched in 2010 as a way for Kjellberg to share “Let’s Play” videos of himself playing a variety of games. His videos have now been watched more than 9bn times, and in April 2015 alone, the channel notched up nearly 352m views.
“With more subscribers than Taylor Swift and One Direction combined, Felix is without question one of the most influential stars of this generation,” said Ben Schrank, president and publisher at Penguin US’ Razorbill imprint.
Kjellberg is just the latest YouTube star to release a book. British YouTubers Zoe ‘Zoella’ Sugg and Alfie ‘PointlessBlog’ Deyes have both had bestselling books in the UK, although Sugg was criticised after it emerged that she had worked with a ghostwriter on her debut.
The popularity of these books is just one sign of how the top YouTubers can expand into other forms of entertainment. In the US, the current spin-off of choice is longform films, albeit distributed digitally through stores like iTunes.
Camp Takota, a film released in 2014 starring YouTubers Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart and Mamrie Hart, sold “hundreds of thousands” of copies according to multi-channel network Fullscreen, which produced it.
Other YouTube stars to have topped the digital charts with films include Cameron Dallas and Shane Dawson.
