India's T-Series overtakes PewDiePie as the most subscribed YouTube channel

The subscriber gap is growing for T-Series after help from some Bollywood heavyweights

PewDiePie, left, had the most subscribed YouTube channel for over five years while T-Series, right, has recently overtaken him with its channel that show videos of Bollywood music and trailers.

After a month-long back and forth battle, Indian music production channel T-Series has finally unseeded Swede Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, as the most subscribed to channel on YouTube.

On March 26, T-Series took the lead with a massive 30,000 subscriber margin, and as of writing (March 31), T-Series's lead sits at around 100,000 subscribers.

Who are the competitors?

PewDiePie’s account was created in 2010 and focuses on comedy content as well as video game walk throughs. He became the most-subscribed user on YouTube in December 2013. His early videos focused on him reacting to frightening elements in horror games, but he quickly began incorporating other gaming and general comedy elements to his YouTube channel.

T-Series, on the other hand, is actually an older account that was created back in 2006: slow and steady, it turns out, wins the race. The music and film production company in India was founded by Gulshan Kumar in 1983 and uploads Bollywood music videos and film trailers.

Shifting influence

The battle has seen people through their weight behind the respective channels. Fellow YouTuber Justin Roberts reportedly brought a $1 million (Dh3.67m) billboard in Times Square to promote PewDiePie, while Jimmy Donaldson (also known as MrBeast) created a 12-hour video showing him saying “PewDiePie” 100,000 times.

One fan even created a Twitter account to show when the subscriber gap between the two had dropped below 20,000.

However, T-Series also had some big name backing, especially from Bollywood. Stars such as Salman Khan, Arjun Kapoor, John Abraham and Rajkummar Rao tweeted in support of the channel:

Who will reach the 100 million mark first?

With its lead ever growing, it looks like T-Series will be the first YouTube account to hit the milestone mark. Here are the other most popular YouTube channels that could compete for the ton:

1. T Series

2. PewDiePie

3. 5-Minute Crafts

4. Canal KondZilla

5. SET India

6. Justin Bieber

7. Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes

8. WWE

9. Dude Perfect

10. HolaSoyGerman