PewDiePie launches official iPhone app for his YouTube fans

With more than 29m subscribers, PewDiePie is the biggest star on YouTube. Now he’s launched his own mobile app to keep fans watching his videos.

The free app was released for iPhone this week by multi-channel network (MCN) Maker Studios, the company to which PewDiePie – aka 24 year-old Swede Felix Kjellberg is signed.

Fans can use the app to watch his videos, and create their own feed of favourites, while sharing individual clips with friends via Twitter, Facebook, text message and email.

The app is an attempt to bolster PewDiePie’s popularity among a young, mobile-savvy audience – many of whom will already be watching his videos on their smartphones. According to YouTube, mobile devices already account for nearly 40% of its global watch time.

The PewDiePie YouTube channel racked up 351m views in June 2014 alone, while Kjellberg’s blend of gameplay, jokes and enthusiastic swearing has generated more than 3bn video views in the last year.

For now, his official mobile app is a fairly basic way to deliver his videos to fans without having to rely on YouTube’s recommendation algorithms.

There is be scope to add more features in the future, from chat and community features through to merchandise and PewDiePie’s charitable crowdfunding campaigns – earlier this year, he raised nearly $343,000 on Indiegogo for charity Save the Children.

For both PewDiePie and Maker Studios, releasing a mobile app may also offer more independence from YouTube, with many MCNs talking publicly about their desire to build audiences on other platforms too.

Maker Studios, which is in the process of being bought by Disney in a deal that could be worth up to $950m if the company hits certain targets in the future, has previously released apps for brands and YouTubers including Epic Rap Battles, Bart Baker, Ray William Johnson and PolarisGo.