"[‡ 5] The Globe and Mail stated "unlike many young gamers, he listened when fans and critics alike pointed out their harmful nature, and resolved to stop making rape jokes.

"[65] Kjellberg has attributed his content around this time as a result of immaturity, boredom with playing video games, YouTube's platform incentives, and the belief that his channel's growth had plateaued.

[74] He examined his older videos, and while noting the stylistic changes he had undergone, he expressed specific regret for his casual use of words like gay or retarded in a derogatory sense.

[75] In December 2016, Kotaku's Patricia Hernandez wrote about his stylistic changes, explaining that "over the last year, the PewDiePie channel has also had an underlying friction, as Kjellberg slowly distances himself from many of the things that made him famous.

[79][80] The site's algorithm began to focus on watch time statistics and "favor videos that drew daily viewers, higher engagement (more likes and comments) and cleaner 'ad-friendly' fare.

[93][94] Ultimately, Kjellberg apologised, but strongly rebuked media coverage of the event, with particular criticism aimed at The Wall Street Journal for how their reporting portrayed references to Nazis in some of his videos.

[102][103] Amidst the controversy stirred up by the incident, it was brought to light that Kjellberg was following several prominent far-right and white supremacist figures on Twitter, such as Stefan Molyneux, Carl Benjamin and Lauren Southern.

[112] Shortly thereafter, The Verge's Julia Alexander noted that the video in question used imagery of the Charlottesville car attack to joke about the murder of Heather Hyer, and that E;R's channel included frequent use of racist, sexist, anti-semitic, and homophobic content.

[121] On 12 March, Kjellberg uploaded an episode of his show Pew News in which he mentioned the 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack, where 40 Indian paramilitary troops were killed by a member of a Pakistan-based jihadist group.

[124] Kjellberg issued a clarification on Twitter, expressing that he was not attempting to speak on the broader India–Pakistan relations, but rather on the more specific context of T-Series removing artists' songs from its YouTube channel.

It was allegedly stated that the complaint against Kjellberg claimed that his songs were "defamatory, disparaging, insulting, and offensive", and noted that comments on the videos were "abusive, vulgar, and also racist in nature.

[139][140] While live streaming the following day, Kjellberg showed a plane flying over New York City with a banner attached saying "Subscribe to PewDiePie", and called it "a nice little wrap up" to the meme.

[147] He explained that this was due to his comments about the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, and an image of Chinese president Xi Jinping being compared to Winnie the Pooh shown in a previous video.

wrote Kjellberg's "chosen mode of sharing his critique happens to be ribald entertainment, an unmediated stream of blurted jokes, startled yelps, goofy voices, politically incorrect comments, and pretty much nonstop profanity.

"[179] Occasionally, Kjellberg resorts to just gameplay, resulting in silent or emotional commentary;[179] his playthrough of The Last of Us was detailed to leave the usually vocal gamer speechless at its ending.

"[181] Walker wrote Kjellberg's "chosen mode of sharing his critique happens to be ribald entertainment, an unmediated stream of blurted jokes, startled yelps, goofy voices, politically incorrect comments, and pretty much nonstop profanity.

[135][136] The complaint against Kjellberg allegedly stated that his songs were "defamatory, disparaging, insulting, and offensive," and noted that comments on the videos were "abusive, vulgar, and also racist in nature.

[46] In a Rolling Stone article, Kjellberg admitted to being shocked by his fame; he recalled a gaming event near his hometown, stating "I remember there were five security guards yelling at a crowd to back up – it was out of control.

"[179] In 2015, Ross Miller of The Verge wrote, "Love it or hate it, his success – like so many other YouTube personalities – isn't just in playing games but actually connecting and talking directly to an audience.

"[65] In the wake of the Wall Street Journal controversy, John Herman of The New York Times commented that "[Kjellberg] bemoaned [YouTube's] structure and the way it had changed; he balked at its limits and took joy in causing offense and flouting rules.

[230] Touching on Kjellberg's alleged antisemitic controversy, MacInnes also added that he "is funny, intelligent, innovative and highly charismatic [...] to call him an alt-right agitator would perhaps be unfair as he has never publicly identified with the proto-fascist movement.

"[235] Forbes wrote that "[Kjellberg's] overall brand suffered earlier this year [2017] when he included antisemitic content in nine of his videos," when citing their reason for not ranking him as the top gaming influence.

[230] Surveys conducted throughout the 2010s highlighted that favorable opinions of Kjellberg, as well as his name recognition and online influence within these age ranges, was comparable to that of mainstream figures such as Jennifer Lawrence, Justin Bieber, and LeBron James.

"[242] In 2016, Maker Studios' international chief content officer was cited in The Guardian as comparing "the average parent's bafflement at their teenage children's passion for stars like PewDiePie, KSI, and Zoella to past generations' inability to comprehend punk rock or gangsta rap.

[244] ESPN noted in 2015 that Kjellberg typically performed a "Brofist" gesture at the end of his videos,[15] and often referred to his fan base as the "Bro Army", addressing his audience as "bros".

[321] In an interview with the Swedish magazine Icon, he has expressed a desire to continue these drives as time goes on, and also credited John and Hank Green as two individuals who gave him the idea of making unique videos for charity.

[324] On 21 July 2019, Kjellberg started a fundraiser on GoFundMe with American actor Jack Black for National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), in the wake of the suicide of the internet personality Etika in June 2019.

[327] In celebration of receiving his 100 million subscribers Play Button in September 2019, Kjellberg announced in a video that he was donating $50,000 to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an international Jewish non-governmental organisation.

[334][‡ 16] In early June 2020, Kjellberg raised more than $116,000 for the Sentencing Project, victims of police brutality, and for small businesses affected by Black Lives Matter demonstrators looting and rioting after the murder of George Floyd.

By 2021, Kjellberg raised over $1 million to charities such as Red Nose Day, Movember, Papyrus, Blue Ocean Foundation, Save the Children Lebanon, and Winston's Wish.