El Rubius Real Name
Rubén Doblas Gundersen born 13 February 1990), better known as elrubiusOMG or simply El Rubius , is a Spanish YouTuber whose channel primarily consists of gameplays and vlogs. He has the most subscribers in Spain and was among the top 50 most subscribed-to channels of the platform in the world.
In 2014 he published El Libro Troll (English: The Troll Book). During 2015 and 2017 he published a total of three comics from his Virtual Hero series. He was also part of an anime series based on the comics. A tweet from his official Twitter account in 2016 was once the most retweeted tweet in the world. In 2016, Time magazine included him in its list of “next generation leaders” and named him an “online conqueror.” In 2018, he achieved the world record for live viewers during an online YouTube broadcast for a tournament of the Fortnite video game. He is one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, with the fifth-most-followed Twitch channel in the world.
Early life
Rubén Doblas Gundersen was born on 13 February 1990 in Mijas, Andalusia, Spain. He is the son of a Norwegian mother named Bente and a Spanish father, with a younger sister called Liv on his mother’s side and two brothers on his father’s side. When he was three years old, his parents divorced; he and his mother moved to Bergen, where she became a partner with another Spanish person named Héctor, to whom Rubius often refers as “The Godfather” in his videos. He moved back to Madrid because of this, where…
he went through primary and secondary school. His first console was an SNES, to which he admitted that it was essential to develop his love for video games and geek culture and that if it hadn’t been for that he would never have reached where he was.
In his high school stage, his parents separated again when aged 16. He relocated to Norway again and finished his studies and returned to Spain with his godfather. He worked as an intern and in a supermarket there. He later entered to study 3D modelling and animation in Arteneo School in Madrid.
Career
First channel and beginnings (2006–2011)
Rubén Doblas Gundersen created his first YouTube channel in 2006 under the name “elrubius”. He claimed this channel to be a play on words, referring to his name and the fact that he had blonde hair when he was little. His first video “The audience” was uploaded on 8 December 2006. His video was a montage of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV in English.[17] During 2011, he began regularly uploading videos of montages of the
newer video game Skyrim, where Rubius commented on unusual and humorous situations in-game.[18] In January 2012, despite the growing popularity of his videos, he announced that he would change his channel because the one he had at that time could not be associated with a contract with Machinima Network, Inc. This was due to uploading three copyright infringement complaints on YouTube.
Growth and popularity (2012–2013)
On 19 December 2011, El Rubius created another channel under the name of “elrubiusOMG”. In January, he began to reupload his old The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim montages, in addition to other montages in which he commented on situations of various video games such as Battlefield and Happy Wheels. At this time, it was a very popular format on the platform. Rubius was
one of the pioneers in making this type of videos known in the Spanish-speaking community. Its popularity began to increase dramatically. On 28 January 2012, he created the video “MI CARA”. He revealed his identity for the first time on YouTube there. At this time, he created a segment on his channel called “(X video game) in 1 minute”. In these videos, he tried to summarise a video game in an ironic and humorous way. This section became one of the most viral sections on YouTube in Spain at this time.
On 14 March 2012, he uploaded a parody of Chayanne’s song “Torero”, where he modified its title and lyrics to “Minero”, alluding to the Minecraft video game. The song was based on the parody. Because the popularity of the video game was emerging at that time, the video became extremely viral. Today, it is the most viewed video in the channel’s history, with almost 100 million views. The popularity of Rubius and the channel continued to rise and rise. On 27 April 2012, the channel reached 100,000 subscribers, which Rubius celebrated by streaming on YouTube, answering questions from his followers.
10 million subscribers, media appearances and other projects (2014–2015)
In 2014, El Rubius published an interactive book full of challenges titled El Libro Troll (English: The Troll Book). The book reached number one in sales in Spain for eight weeks and was a bestseller at the Madrid Book Fair 2014.[31] The Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio deemed it unsuitable for children and teenagers. It was described by parents as a
sexual book.[33]
He also made a cameo appearance, this being in Torrente 5, a Spanish comedy film by Santiago Segura. On 25 September, he announced via video that Microsoft would contact him to participate in the Spanish dub for the video game Sunset Overdrive. In February 2015, he became the first Spanish YouTuber whose channel reached 10 million subscribers. In April 2015, he participated in the first edition of the Club Media Fest in Argentina.[43]
On 2 June, he had an interview on Antena 3 in the Spanish programme Al rincón de pensar. The programme’s journalist was Risto Mejide. Rubius couldn’t suppress his tears after telling Mejide that he was suffering from depression due to the burden of fame and being away from his family. Spanish
Platform switch to Twitch (2018–present)
At the beginning of March 2018, Rubius released a video called La verdad sobre Rubius (English:The Truth About Rubius). There he made an analogy of his personality in his videos on YouTube and in real life introducing a “twin” of his named Gundersen. The video was well received by its followers. It had many likes. In March 2018, El Rubius broke his world record during a live
Broadcast of Fortnite, having more than a million viewers tuning in and 100 Spanish-speaking streamers. In this way, he destroyed the record that the streamer had until then, Ninja. On 25 May he announced that he would withdraw from YouTube for a time due to the fact that in the previous months he began to feel stress, anxious, and nervous when recording videos and doing live shows.
Rubius later reached 30 million subscribers in July. On 3 October 2018, El Rubius uploaded a documentary about his life on his YouTube channel. It was released on Movistar+ on 11 October 2018. It was titled De Rubén a Rubius: un viaje de un Virtual Hero. On 12 October 2018, Virtual Hero, the first anime series released in Spain, premiered on Movistar+.
It is directed by Alexis Barroso, illustrated by Lolita Aldea, written by Juan Torres, and based on Rubius’ eponymous comic. After his return, Rubius announced that he would start directing on Twitch and prioritise that platform over YouTube, which he would take more as a secondary job. He also resumed the activity of his old original channel elrubius to reupload his content on Twitch there. Because of this, he renamed it to “Rubius Z”.
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Play Awards | YouTuber of the Year | Won | [129] |
| 2022 | ESLAND Awards | Streamer of the Year | Nominated | [130] |
See also
List of most-followed Twitch channels
