Maighstir: He's mostly famous among teenagers, who frequently look up to a different set of attributes than adults do. I'm not surprised you don't appreciate him a lot (neither do I, TotalBiscuit and Yahtzee are more up my alley).
timppu: Could be an age thing... but still, what's the thing that separates PDD from other (teenage?) youtubers? What makes his videos stand out to make him such a success among teenagers? I don't see anything special in his videos, I would have though anyone can make similar videos. Not that i am complaining, just trying to understand the phenomenon.
OK, I'm far from being a teenager but there are some factors that plays in his favor and goes well with the youtube format:
- Length of the videos : Generally less than 10-15 minutes (except for playthroughs like Witcher 3 or Life Is Strange). Scientifically it goes well along the average attention span wich is around 17 min maximum. Also, If you check your daily subscriptions you won't have the time to check all videos posted so you'll skip the lenghty ones.
- Edited videos : a lot of youtube game videos are just plain commented gameplay which is fine when it's livestreaming but it's boring to watch as "end product". Editing helps keeping things interesting. Watching streams of Bloodborne were unappealing for me while his Bloodborne series totally sold the game for me.
- Randomness : you never know what's the next video will be like or about so, it's a kind of surprise everyday.
BTW, I watch my youtube feed on my tablet while eating my breakfast so that's why I don't want serious and informative stuff as I'm just out of the bed and not totally awake and I guess it's the same "mentality" from most of his viewership ;)