Here’s one for all the people who have copped flack over the years for sitting in front of their computers, eating microwave dinners in their underwear and gaming for hours on end.

‘You’ll never amount to anything’ they said, ‘you’ll need to get a real job’ they said – ‘they’ more than likely being your mother, it’s not like you had friends over very often. Well now you can tell them that’s there’s a few bob to be made getting good at online gaming, just ask 25-year-old Felix Kjellberg.

Known on YouTube as PewDiePie, the Swede has over 37 million followers – that’s more than One Direction and Taylor Swift. Felix films himself playing games and then posts his videos on YouTube, racking up views at an astounding rate.

How much money has that earned him? Just the $7 million (R87 million) last year, a figure that has caused something of a backlash online. The BBC reports:

Addressing his fans, the Swedish gamer said: “Whenever it comes out how much I made a certain year, people just get so shocked. A lot of people are also very, very angry.”

“They think I just sit on my ass all day and yell at the screen over here. Which is true. But there’s so much more to it than that,” he added…I still spent far more money on charities than anything I’ve ever spent for myself.”

“It seems like the whole world cares more about how much money I make than I do myself.”

For a guy who makes his money online you would think he would have a better understanding of how bitter and twisted anonymous YouTube account owners can be.

Chin up PewDiePie, someone is laughing all the way to the bank and it’s not the haters.

[source:bbc]