Google Play / game_simulation / PEWDIEPIE'S TUBER SIMULATOR
REVIEW
PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator is a 2016 time capsule that keeps shipping updates.
Outerminds' clicker about climbing the YouTube rankings launched at the absolute peak of PewDiePie's cultural footprint. A decade later, it's still on the store, still patched, and still a strange little artefact of internet history.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 11, 2026 · 3 MIN READ
PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator
OUTERMINDS INC.
OUR SCORE
7.3
GOOGLE PLAY
★ 4.7
PRICE
Free
In-app purchases
PewDiePie’s Tuber Simulator is the rare 2016 mobile game that’s still alive in 2026. Outerminds, the small Montreal studio that built it, struck a licensing deal with the then-biggest YouTuber on the planet, shipped a chunky pastel clicker about climbing the YouTube charts, and watched it sit at the top of the App Store and Play Store charts for weeks on the back of his audience. A decade later, the headliner’s cultural position is very different and most of the era’s celebrity-tie-in mobile games are long shut down — but Tuber Simulator keeps getting updates, with the most recent patch landing in April.
The game itself is a competent room-builder and idle-progression clicker. You decorate a tuber’s bedroom with furniture that grants stat buffs, pick video topics from a grid of trending tags, and watch views and subscribers tick up while timers count down to your next video render. The PewDiePie character is the framing, not the gameplay — most of the time you’re managing your own avatar’s setup and chasing event quests, with cameos and limited-time rooms rotating through.
What’s worth saying about it in 2026 is that the longevity is the story. A celebrity mobile tie-in that’s still being maintained a decade after launch is rare. Whether you want to play it is a separate question from whether you find it interesting that it still exists — and both questions have honest answers in different directions depending on the player.
The mechanics are competent clicker fare; the reason it still exists is that someone, somewhere, never stopped maintaining it.
FEATURES
Tuber Simulator is a room-builder and idle-progression game in which the player runs a fictional YouTuber's bedroom studio, buys furniture and props for buffs, picks video topics from a grid of trending tags, and watches views, subscribers, and in-game currency tick upward while the app is open or closed. New videos take in-game time to render, which is the soft monetisation hook — speed-ups, premium currency (Bux), and cosmetic packs are the in-app purchase surface.
The art style is the chunky, big-headed, pastel-bright look Outerminds built around the original PewDiePie likeness, with a roster of cameo characters that has rotated over the years to include other creators and seasonal guest skins. Events run on a recurring calendar — themed quests, leaderboards, limited-time rooms — and the game ships ad-supported with optional ad-removal IAPs.
Free with ads, free-to-play with IAPs ranging from small currency packs to themed bundles. Last updated April 2026 per the Play Store listing.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
The core loop is well-tuned for the genre. The friction between "watch the timer" and "play more actively" is sat in the right place — there's always one more puzzle event or room-decorating goal to chase if you don't want to put the phone down, and the idle math is generous enough that returning after a day rewards you instead of punishing you. Outerminds clearly understands the clicker audience.
The longevity story is the genuine surprise. A celebrity-licensed mobile game from 2016 that's still receiving content updates a decade later is rare — most contemporaries (the Kardashian game, Kim's celebrity peers, the wave of YouTuber tie-ins from that era) have either shut down or coasted into maintenance limbo. Tuber Simulator is still being patched, which is the highest praise this category usually earns.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
The PewDiePie association is the elephant in the room. The game launched in 2016 at the apex of his cultural reach; the intervening decade has included the well-documented controversies that made the brand far more contested than it was at launch. Outerminds has visibly worked to make the game more about the player's own tuber than about the celebrity headliner, but the title still carries the name, and your tolerance for that will determine whether you ever install it.
Monetisation is standard mobile-clicker aggressive — Bux economy, timer speed-ups, premium cosmetics, regular event bundles. None of it is uniquely predatory by the standards of the category, but the category's standards are low. Players who bounce off free-to-play timers should know the timers are the design here, not an accident.
CONCLUSION
Install this if you have nostalgia for the 2016 YouTuber-celebrity era and want a competent room-builder clicker to dip into. Skip it if the PewDiePie branding is a hard no, or if free-to-play timer economies aren't your thing. The fact that it's still actively shipping in 2026 is the most interesting thing about it.