Live streaming is about building communities through consistent, extended interactions between creators and their fans. While some streamers may occasionally grab a high number of viewers with sensationalist tactics or controversy, the true top-of-the-heap live streamers are those with mass followings – fans that will turn out time and time again to support their favorite creator.
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Following up on our previous article on the most viewed streams and streamers, in this article we’re looking at the most followed Twitch streamers and the most subscribed YouTube Gaming channels to determine which streamer has the largest fanbase.
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Twitch has two primary statuses for fans: Followers and subscribers.
Followers are fans that sign up to receive notifications when their favorite streamer is online. Followers also support the channel by boosting the streamer’s popularity, enabling them to join Twitch’s Affiliate Program (50 followers are needed to qualify). Put simply, a streamer’s follower count indicates how many casual viewers they have, and signals their potential to become a lucrative Twitch Partner in the future.
Looking at the most followed Twitch streamers over time shows one dominant name above all others: Ninja. Ninja rose to fame alongside Fortnite, bringing his energetic personality and skillful gameplay to live-streaming platforms. Ninja is the most followed Twitch streamer with 19M Twitch followers as a result of his relatively early presence on Twitch and his continued involvement in live-streaming initiatives. To put that figure in perspective, there were 51.7M Unique Registered Viewers (URVs) on Twitch in September, meaning that Ninja is followed by the equivalent of 37% of Twitch’s recent user base.
Slowly, however, other streamers are catching up to Ninja’s massive head start. In second place right now is Spanish-speaking streamer ibai with 17.1M followers. Ibai is best known for his global events frequently championing sports among live-streaming content creators, such as his contributions to the Kings League football competition and the annual La Velada del Año boxing event. The third most followed Twitch streamer is also Spanish-speaking: Auronplay, with 16.5M followers. Auronplay creates a wide variety of content, covering some games such as GTA V and Minecraft, but more importantly, creating comedy reaction content. The dominance of these two streamers proves the global size of the Spanish-speaking community and their support for live-streaming content outside of esports.
The Most Subscribed Twitch Streamers
Subscribers on Twitch are harder to come by than followers: Subscribers pay to access special privileges such as Twitch emotes and chat badges that demonstrate their extra support for their favorite streamer. As a result, Twitch streamers with more subscribers have more engaged, activated fans who are willing to back up their support with payment. These are streamers who commit to their fans, and earn their respect and admiration in return.
Among the most subscribed Twitch streamers right now, VTuber Ironmouse stands far above the rest with 247K active subscribers – more than four times that of second place. Ironmouse is well-loved among the live-streaming community, hosting an annual charity event for the Immune Deficiency Foundation (which earned her Content Creator of the Year in 2023). But the big reason for Ironmouse’s high subscriber count is the recently completed SUBtember event on Twitch, in which subscription prices are discounted and streamers are rewarded for completing marathon streams known as “subathons” (discussed below).
Among the other most subscribed Twitch streamers are jasontheween and Tumblurr with 88K and 51K subscribers, respectively. Jasontheween gained mass attention after joining FaZe Clan earlier this year, heightening his IRL stunts and skits with a clique of like-minded creators. Italian-speaking streamer Tumblurr has been around since 2014 creating variety and Call of Duty content, yet his hard work has especially been paying off this past year. It’s worth remembering that jasontheween and Tumblurr are simply examples of streamers with active subs right now – looking at all-time subs shows big names like Ibai and xQc with more consistent followings.
At her peak in SUBtember this year, Ironmouse broke the record for most subscribers ever at 320.5K – beating Kai Cenat’s previous record of 306K. This was thanks to an incredible 39-day subathon event that generated 8.7M hours watched. Kai Cenat may have gotten the final laugh here, however: He holds both the 1st and 3rd most watched subathon streams by hours watched, with 49.9M hours watched for his so-called “Mafiathon” back in 2023. Kai Cenat’s marathon streams have become legendary, earning massive viewership earlier this year for his marathon Elden Ring stream. It’s also worth noting that 5 of the top 10 subathon streams of all time happened just this year, showing the growing popularity of the event.
The issue with subscriber counts is that they can be very volatile. As an example, SUBtember caused Ironmouse’s subscriber count to shoot up – but just a couple weeks later, it dipped back down by roughly 50K. Most gifted subs last for just a month unless the recipient chooses to renew, and as one can imagine not everyone gifted a sub decides to stick around. As such, sub counts are still great indicators of a Twitch streamer’s loyal fanbase, but numbers might not accurately reflect the size of that loyal fanbase.
The Most Subscribed YouTube Gaming Channels
Unlike on Twitch, YouTube channel subscribers do not have to pay to stay up-to-date with their favorite creator. There are YouTube Channel memberships in which subscribers pay an additional fee for extra content and other perks, but this data is only available to the channel holders themselves. So, for the purpose of this discussion here, we are only looking at YouTube Gaming channels and their non-paying subscribers. This sums up to a grand total of 3.8B YouTube Gaming subscribers.
The most subscribed YouTube channels in the gaming and live-streaming sphere reflect countries that aren’t as well-represented on Twitch. This includes the most subscribed YouTuber PewDiePie, with 111M subscribers. PewDiePie found his fame early on YouTube thanks to carving out a niche in Sweden and then riding the Google algorithm to global fame with reaction videos, content-friendly games, and big-name collaborations. Again, we reiterate that PewDiePie is the most subscribed YouTuber when excluding branded channels such as Cocomelon (183M subscribers) or YouTubers outside of gaming like MrBeast (319M subscribers).
Below PewDiePie, we have a diverse range of streamers including Chilean streamer JuegaGerman (51.1M subscribers), Indonesian streamer Jess No Limit (50M subscribers), and Spanish streamer Mikecrack (also 50M subscribers). Interestingly in all of these cases, the most subscribed YouTubers of all-time are also the most subscribed YouTubers right now. The commonality between Twitch followers and YouTube subscribers seems to be that when people aren’t paying for it, they typically won’t bother to unfollow (or unsubscribe) from channels.
What sets all of the most subscribed and followed live-streamers apart is their ability to leverage reliable gaming content as the cornerstone of their strategy, and then creating occasional event viewing such as a subathon or collaborative sports events. This provides a space for casual conversation with the former content, and reasons to hype up the community with the latter. As such, popular streamers foster a dependable relationship with fans punctuated with bursts of excitement.
To keep up to date with these popular streamers and their upcoming events on live-streaming platforms, follow Stream Hatchet:
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