PewDiePie briefly lost his crown as the biggest YouTuber on the planet

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Swedish YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, known online as PewDiePie.

• PewDiePie briefly lost his crown as the most subscribed channel on YouTube.
• Bollywood channel T-Series edged ahead for more than two hours on Monday morning.
• PewDiePie and fellow YouTubers have campaigned to keep the vlogger on top.

YouTube star PewDiePie, real name Felix Kjellberg, was briefly dethroned as YouTube's most subscribed channel by music channel T-Series.

T-Series, a Bollywood production company which releases lavish music videos, has been poised to overtake PewDiePie for a few months now.

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The two channels have been neck-and-neck for some time, and for eight minutes on February 22, T-Series overtook PewDiePie. On Monday morning, it carved out a lead for more than two hours.

Read more: PewDiePie responds with horror after reports that suspected New Zealand mosque shooter yelled 'subscribe to PewDiePie' during attack

Both channels boast almost 90 million subscribers, but as of March 18, T-Series gained a narrow 50,000 follower lead. Following T-Series pulling ahead, PewDiePie retweeted a call for people to subscribe to his channel.

PewDiePie has launched a campaign to maintain his top spot, which he has held since 2013. Other YouTubers have rallied to his cause, while he got Tesla CEO Elon Musk on his show in a bid to stay ahead.

The campaign to keep the top spot gained notoriety last week, as reports emerged that the gunman at the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand yelled the words "subscribe to PewDiePie" during the attack. PewDiePie said on Twitter that he felt "absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person."