His mother, a former chief information officer (CIO), was named the 2010 CIO of the Year in Sweden. He was born to Lotta Kristine Johanna (née Hellstrand, born ) and Ulf Christian Kjellberg (born 8 January 1957), and grew up with his older sister, Fanny. Kjellberg was born on 24 October 1989, in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he was also raised. Kjellberg studied at Chalmers University of Technology.
In 2016, Time magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people. Due to this audience and media attention, his coverage of indie games has created an Oprah effect, boosting sales for titles he plays. Kjellberg's popularity on YouTube and extensive media coverage have made him one of the most noted online personalities and content creators. As of February 2021, his channel has over 109 million subscribers and has received over 26 billion views. Kjellberg had the most-viewed channel on YouTube from 29 December 2014 to 14 February 2017, and the channel currently ranks as the 23rd-most-viewed, and the sixth among those operated by an individual. Kjellberg's channel became the most-subscribed on YouTube on 15 August 2013, but after he publicly vied for the title with T-Series in 2019, it currently holds the title of the second-most subscribed, albeit remaining the most-subscribed operated by an individual.
Over time, his style of content diversified to include vlogs, comedy shorts, formatted shows, and music videos. His channel experienced substantial growth in popularity over the next two years and he reached 1 million subscribers in July 2012. Born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden, Kjellberg registered his YouTube channel "PewDiePie" in 2010, primarily posting Let's Play videos of horror and action video games.