Success on Twitch is seriously hard to come by. Ask anyone who made it on the platform and you’ll begin to understand why so many try and only a few truly make it. Youtube demonstrates the difficulty of building a dedicated community via gaming videos. Unlike the more unique options available on Youtube, gamers have always had a limited set of additional value-adds to bring to their content.
Twitch, as a solely streaming-based platform, throws all those wannabe streamers into a highly competitive online space. In a simple sense, a huge amount of perseverance, commitment, passion, and discipline – and almost certainly some luck – have led the very best to be where they are today. 2022 marks the 10th year of operation, and some of the best streamers still active now were on that scene from the very beginning. With over seven million streamers to choose from according to Statista, approximately 15 million users, and almost 30,000 partner channels – these are some of the very best content creators Twitch has to offer.
AuronPlay
AuronPlay, aka Raul Alvarez Genes is a Barcelona-based streamer. He’s built an incredibly loyal and dedicated fanbase – particularly in South America and Spanish-speaking countries like Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. Genes started out on Youtube and what really helped his rise to over 10 million Twitch followers was largely to do with timing.
One of the original video reviewers, Genes has become something of a precursor to the vlogging explosion that occurred over the last 10 years. His grasp on the Spanish online community is so impressive that he’s actually been able to make several headlines within Twitch news circles, including being called the ‘Minister Of Youtube’ by the prime minister of El Salvador. Genes isn’t necessarily aiming to be offensive or outrageous, but rather has become a highly respected voice online, to the point of commanding attention whenever he switches on his stream.
The 33-year-old has effectively brought a very light, irreverent comedy to his streams similar to styles that have made plenty of English-speaking streamers popular. The difference is that he’s managed to corner a huge slice of the global market in the process by being the first Spaniard to do is it so well.
Pokimane
Many of those who find success on Twitch is former, or current, professional gamers. The biggest hook of their channels is their astonishing grasp of games millions of people play. However, there is a huge swathe of streamers who don’t even need to rely on their gaming abilities. But trust us when we say it hasn’t affected their subscriber rates. Pokimane has been active for around 8 years on the platform, and her audience of over 8 million translates to an average of over 13,000 viewers across her time on the platform, according to TwitchTracker.
Pokimane’s biggest strengths have been to effectively leverage her light, fun-loving personality to her advantage. Differentiation on Twitch is really hard to come by and streamers like Pokimane offer a more relatable and personable option to the majority of other streamers. She also does a good job of only sharing very limited aspects of her life with her audience. This elusiveness alone can be enough to keep people coming back to learn more about her.
Ninja
How could we write an article about popular streams without mentioning Ninja at least twice? Tyler Blevins is by far the most popular streamer on Twitch. His subscriber count numbers over 17 million. All of the qualities that make a great stream are things Ninja has managed to master, and if anything he’s something of a trailblazer. As someone who began trying to win Halo 3 tournaments, Blevins was able to discover and start streaming both Fortnite and League Of Legends as they began to boom with the online community.
His colorful and energetic presentation, combined with his genuine mastery of the games, were some of the first examples of these sorts of streams anyone had seen before. His viewership has actually been waning of late, likely as he begins to wind down his Twitch presence for other projects, but without his content, it’s unlikely we’d have seen Twitch be anywhere near as popular as it is today.
After these three, there are still a huge number of streamers available to watch on Twitch. This is a big part of its charm. Each streamer’s numbers might seem small compared to the likes of Ninja’s, but their content offerings are also more unique. Female streamers like PQueen and Pokimane, as well as Youtube crossovers like JackSepticEye and Markiplier, have contributed to a platform that caters to a massive range of different games and styles. In a place as vast as the internet, finding spaces to belong is sought-after, and the communities these streamers have built are a credit to their hard work and ability to translate their personalities so well to the competitive and lively world of live streams.
