PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator

About

PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator is a freemium mobile game developed by Outerminds Inc. for iOS and Android devices. In the game, YouTuber PewDiePie instructs players on how to become a successful vlogger on YouTube by creating videos on trending topics. Following its release in September 2016, the game immediately became the top downloaded app on Apple's App Store. In early 2019, PewDiePie's promotional videos for the game spawned several memes, including "This Game Is Still Relevant, Goddamnit".

Gameplay

In the game, players accumulate subscribers and view counts by publishing videos on a variety of topics. To gain levels, the player must purchase objects to be shipped to their room, which arrive after a set amount of time depending on the level of the item. Shipping times can be decreased in the "Puggle" mini game by dropping a pug dog into a food bowl. The in-game currency "Bux" can be purchased with real money, and are used to provide a number of bonuses and unlock items. Additional views and subscribers can be earned by tapping an eagle that randomly flies across the screen.

History

On September 29th, 2016, PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator was released on the Apple App Store^[1] and Google Play.^[2] That day, PewDiePie released a trailer for the game, which gained over 4.6 million views and 32,000 comments in one month (shown below).

Online Presence

On September 30th, 2016, the /r/TuberSim^[3] subreddit was launched for discussions about the game. On October 3rd, the /r/TuberSimHouses^[5] subreddit was launched for people to share screenshots of their in-game rooms. On October 7th, Redditor sir_jeff_jeff submitted a screenshot of YouTuber Philip DeFranco's Tuber Simulator room to the /r/DeFranco subreddit (shown below).

Reception

Within 24 hours of release, PewDiePie tweeted that the game had been downloaded over one million times (shown below, left).^[6] On October 4th, PewDiePie tweeted a graph showing that Tuber Simulator had surpassed the game Kendall and Kylie in cumulative installs (shown below, right).^[9]

On October 7th, 2016, RollingStone^[8] published an article titled "Why PewDiePie's New Game Is Proof We're All Doomed," which quipped "I wasn't sure if I was playing a game or being integrated into a human milking machine." On October 10th, On October 18th, Kotaku^[7] published an article titled "PewDiePie's New Game Is a Bleak Look at Being a YouTube Star."

Related Memes

This Game Is Still Relevant, Goddamnit!

Starting on December 22nd, 2018, PewDiePie started including promo segments for PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator in the end of some of his videos (first video shown below, left).^[10] Starting on February 20th^[11] and 23rd,^[12] two more promos for the game started being featured in PewDiePie's videos (shown below, right).

You want pyramids? We got 'em. Oh, you're into castles, huh? We got you covered, baby! You want some pets? Easy! We got it all! This game is still relevant, goddamnit!

Tuber Simulator is now so relevant that it's got a brand new minigame! Craniac! Drop the crane and get fresh items only available in a washing machine-like game. And you say there's more? Of course there is! New knowledge perks, new quests and new Pixelings, and legs. Guys, legs.

The outros gained significant recognition in the PewDiePie fan community, with multiple memes referencing the promos posted online, primarily in /r/PewdiepieSubmissions subreddit. For example, on February 10th, Redditor arnl001 made a post based on one such quote which accumulated over 44,000 upvotes in three months (shown below, left).^[13] The quote "This game is still relevant, goddamnit" gained the most prominent recognition.

Additionally, multiple memes created in the game were posted on /r/PewdiepieSubmissions subreddit.

On April 24th, 2019, PewDiePie uploaded a "Let's Play" video of the game which gained over 4.5 million views in one week.