It's official, PewDiePie didn't delete his YouTube channel - he just made a joke about YouTube's glitches.
Earlier this month PewDiePie revealed that once his YouTube account hit 50 million subscribers, he would delete it. Yesterday, he set the time of deletion at 5PM GMT/ 12PM EST. Since August 15, 2013, PewDiePie has held the title of the most subscribed YouTube user (although he was briefly surpassed between November 2013 and December 2013) and now he's bigger than ever.
The joke is that PewDiePie couldn't delete his channel because of the ongoing glitch that caused his feud with YouTube. In reality, he just deleted another YouTube account he made back in October.
What was the feud about? Well, a number of channels have been suffering from glitches that cause channels to lose subscribers for no reason other than the glitch. PewDiePie's channel has been one of the victims of this. It's not a new glitch, but an annoying one. In addition to that, YouTube hides videos from people you're subscribed to behind another tab instead of featuring it on the homepage.
Well, everyone who subbed so he would delete his account just helped him become the first guy with 50 million subscribers and on his way to make lots of money.