The Great Subscriber War — PewDiePie on yellow background with T-Series logo, Brofist logo, YouTube play button, and crossed swords indicating a subscriber war

The Great Subscriber War

2018eventclassic

Published October 1, 2026

The Great Subscriber War was a months-long campaign starting in 2018 to keep Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie ahead of Indian music label T-Series as YouTube's top channel. It kicked off diss tracks, printer hacks, Times Square billboards and a mosque shooter's chilling catchphrase before T-Series finally pulled away in 2019.

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Overview

The Great Subscriber War, also known as the Subscribe to PewDiePie movement, was a fan-driven campaign to keep Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie) atop YouTube's subscriber charts as Bollywood music label T-Series closed the gap1. The battle played out as a running meme format on /r/PewdiepieSubmissions and across Twitter, where every subscriber dip or surge was turned into reaction images, countdown screenshots and crisis-flavored shitposts2.

The conflict framed a lone Swedish creator against a corporate music giant, which made it a vehicle for independent-creator-vs-platform jokes3. Related formats included the "bitch lasagna" diss track, panic posts about the sub gap closing, and later "Congratulations" edits mocking T-Series controversies4. The phrase "Subscribe to PewDiePie" bled out of fan channels and into billboards, printer paper, hacked Chromecasts and eventually a mass shooter's livestream, which forced PewDiePie himself to call off the campaign5.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube / Twitter (viral spread)
Creator
PewDiePie fandom; Felix Kjellberg
Date
2018

On August 30th, 2018, SocialBlade published a graph projecting that T-Series would overtake PewDiePie by October if growth trends held, which lit the fuse for the campaign6. On October 5th, 2018, PewDiePie answered the threat with the satirical diss track "bitch lasagna," the earliest signature artifact of the movement7.

Catalyst event: the SocialBlade projection in late August 2018. Earliest meme format: PewDiePie's October 5th diss track and the "Subscribe to PewDiePie" rallying cry, which fans rapidly adopted on Reddit and Twitter1.

How It Spread

In late November 2018, YouTuber MrBeast bought billboards and ran a stunt video telling viewers to subscribe to PewDiePie, which drew millions of views and pushed the campaign mainstream8. On November 30th, 2018, hacker @HackerGiraffe exploited roughly 50,000 internet-exposed printers through Shodan.io to spit out "Subscribe to PewDiePie" flyers, a stunt PewDiePie responded to on December 2nd with his "Pewdiepie Printer Hack" video1. Days later, the Wall Street Journal's homepage was briefly defaced with a fake PewDiePie apology, and in late December hackers HackerGiraffe and j3ws3r hijacked exposed Chromecasts to play a Bitch Lasagna clip1.

The fight bled into 2019 with coordinated "Plan U" counter-tactics from Indian YouTubers trying to disguise T-Series growth9, Jake Paul infiltrating T-Series headquarters in a Subscribe to PewDiePie t-shirt10, and a Delhi High Court injunction on April 8th, 2019 blocking "Bitch Lasagna" and "Congratulations" in India4. On March 15th, 2019, the Christchurch mosque shooter said "subscribe to PewDiePie" during his Facebook livestream, which PewDiePie condemned the same day11.

T-Series pulled ahead decisively through late March and April 2019, and on April 28th, 2019, PewDiePie uploaded a video asking fans to end the movement5. T-Series became the first YouTube channel to hit 100 million subscribers on May 29th, 201912, and PewDiePie himself crossed 100 million on August 24th, 20191.

Timeline

2018-08-30

SocialBlade projects T-Series will overtake PewDiePie, kicking off the campaign.

2018-10-05

PewDiePie releases the diss track "bitch lasagna."

2018-11-30

HackerGiraffe exploits 50,000 printers to print "Subscribe to PewDiePie" flyers.

2018-12-17

Wall Street Journal frontpage is defaced with a fake PewDiePie apology.

2019-03-15

Christchurch mosque shooter says "subscribe to PewDiePie" during his livestream; PewDiePie condemns it.

2019-03-31

T-Series opens a roughly 100,000 subscriber lead over PewDiePie.

2019-03-31

PewDiePie releases "Congratulations" with Roomie and David Brown, mocking T-Series.

2019-04-08

Delhi High Court orders "Bitch Lasagna" and "Congratulations" blocked in India.

2019-04-28

PewDiePie publishes a video asking fans to end the Subscribe to PewDiePie movement.

2019-05-29

T-Series becomes the first YouTube channel to reach 100 million subscribers.

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