T-Series finally surpassed PewDiePie in YouTube subscribers and barely anyone noticed

A new “most-subscribed” channel was finally crowned on YouTube, albeit briefly.

After a nearly half-year long race, internet personality PewDiePie has finally been dethroned as YouTube’s most subscribed channel by Bollywood music video channel T-Series. The video production company surpassed the YouTuber in subscribers for the very first time on Friday, Feb. 22.

However, the India-based T-Series' reign as the new “most-subscribed” channel on YouTube didn’t last for very long.

“For roughly 8 minutes, as a result of a YouTube audit, T-Series was ahead of PewDiePie (by a max of about 2000 [subscribers]),” a spokesperson with the social media analytics company SocialBlade confirmed in a statement to Mashable.

YouTube routinely audits accounts to make sure stats, like video views and channel subscribers, are accurate and only reflect real, actual users. One of these automated audits hit PewDiePie’s account at an opportune moment for T-Series. The creator lost around 20,000 subscribers at once on Friday, putting the Bollywood production company ahead for a short period of time.

Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie had sat atop the most-subscribed YouTube rankings for more than 5 years, consecutively, since Dec. 22, 2013 before being overtaken by T-Series for a short time. The YouTuber quickly regained the lead once again and has a more than 110,000 subscriber lead over T-Series at publishing time.

The pivotal moment came and went so quickly that barely anyone seems to have noticed, aside from social media chatter from some of PewDiePie and T-Series’ most hardcore fans. A few recordings from YouTube channels that have been tracking the two channels’ subscriber counts captured real-time proof.

PewDiePie and T-Series have been engaged in a race to the top of the YouTube subscriber rankings for months. The creator first uploaded a video warning his fans that he was about to lose his “most subscribed” YouTube channel title last summer. At the time, T-Series was projected to overtake him in October. However, PewDiePie’s galvanized fanbase propelled the YouTuber to new subscriber heights. Thanks to his rivalry with the Bollywood production company, PewDiePie went from around 66 million subscribers to his current near 90 million subscribers in just six months.

But, due to a persistent steady gain in subscribers from T-Series’ channel as well as the growth of India's internet-using population, its only a matter of time before T-Series once again surpasses PewDiePie. Eventually, the channel will even pass PewDiePie for good.

Mashable has reached out to YouTube for comment and will update this post when we hear back.