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The platform’s trends shift every so often and viewers discover new faves in the bottomless pool of new and old Twitch channels, will 2020’s top ten Twitch streamers stay the same?
Twitch has seen massive growth in numbers, both in streamers and viewers. 2021 was no different as the platform held its own despite some competition from YouTube. With Microsoft’s Mixer hanging up its boots in 2020, Twitch strengthened its position as the premier live streaming platform for gaming. Here are the top ten twitch streamers of 2021 with xQc leading the list, once again.
Félix‘xQc’ Lengyel
Hailing from the province of Québec, the former professional Overwatch player reaches new heights inTwitchhistory.
“If I can be an example of wrongdoing, I can be an example of redemption. And I think that matters, maybe even more.”
He held on to his crown from 2020, reaching272 million hours of watch time-surpassing others by 100 million more hours. His average viewers even rose by 30k more than the last year. Amidst his streams of NoPixel’s GTA V Roleplay server, he reached his peak viewership of 175 thousand people. Adding on to his array of bans and suspensions on multiple platforms, even Twitch, xQc managed toget banned 5 times from the popular GTA serverthroughout those months.
Alexandre ‘Gaules’ Borba
Brazilian-born Gaules was a professional CS: GO player who started streaming in 2018 after a tempestuous year.
“I will stream as if I’d die tomorrow”
He couldn’t have known that he would be the second most-watched streamer for two years in a row and be calledthe greatest phenomenon of Brazilian Twitch. After broadcasting a FURIA VS Gambit match, he reached his peak of 340 thousand concurrent viewers in 2021.
Though the former CS: GO coach mainly commentates on CS: GO games, he would find himself branching out to other territories; becoming the first in the world to hostofficial NBA broadcastson Twitch. In December 2021, he announced the launch of “Fenômenos"an upcoming podcast in partnership with Ronaldowith guests the likes of Neymar Jr. and Tiago Leifert -all of it, made possible by his ‘Tribo’.
Raúl ‘auronplay’ Álvarez
“I always say, I’m a shit converter. I find shit on the internet and try to turn it into something funny,”
Weirdly enough, the 33 years old streamer has had encounters with the Spanish Police in the past. The first time, he wasaccused by a local logging companyof ruining his business after making prank calls in a YouTube upload. His second offence was even more bizarre; when he compared Josep Maria Bartomeu to Nobita, a character in Doraemon. The president of Barcelonamade a criminal complaintagainst auronplay for “making comments against Futbol Club Barcelona, the player and president.” The complaint was rejected and they have since reconciled.
Ibai ‘ibai’ Llanos
An esports announcer from the early age of 19, he has now accumulated 8.9 million followers and 108 million hours watched on the platform. He was mostly an announcer for League of Legends tournaments and has since diversified his portfolio with Fortnite, Fifa 20 and the traditional sport, football. Despitequitting as an exclusive content creator for G2 Esportsin January 2021, he rose from 7th place on the list to 4th place, surpassing the likes of shroud and summit1g.
He reached a peak viewership of 1.5 million upon broadcasting‘LA VELADA DEL AÑO’(The Evening of the Year), a series of boxing matches featuring Spanish streamers and content creators.Marking the year as his, ibai achievesthe most high-profile momentin his career; interviewing Lionel Messi after his exit from FC Barcelona to sign with Paris Saint-Germain.
“Maybe I am the sort of person they like. A little bit different.”
In February 2021, ibai started a new YouTube channel called"Charlando tranquilamente”(“Calmly Chatting”), where he talks to public figures like Gerard Piqué, Ronaldinho, Sergio Agüero, Jhay Cortez, Nicki Nicole and Sergio Ramos.
Victor ‘loud_coringa’ Augusto
He was a professional FreeFire player under LOUD, a Brazilian gaming and lifestyle company, before becoming a full-time streamer for their content creation team instead. LOUD’s content creators were dominating NimoTV, another live-streaming platform before signing an exclusivity deal with Twitch in October 2020. Streaming a variety of games, he mostly played on LOUD’s GTA V RP server, Cidade Alta, when he reached his peak viewers of 300 thousand.
“..getting this award would be breaking the biggest barrier ever! Not just for me, but for everyone who dreams. And for everyone who believes in my work.”
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Jaryd ‘summit1g’ Lazar
“Start doing it for the fun of it, not with the intention of being a professional streamer.”
Retired professional CS: GO player and streamer from Colorado, USA. He built his fanbase of 6 million followers from 2015 and in 2017, he was the most-watched streamer on the platform. The 34-year-old streams a lot of Grand Theft Auto V, Escape from Tarkov and various other games to his audience in 2021.
With 91 million hours watched, he managed to get 6th place, a drop from 2020’s 3rd. His peak viewership was achieved in one of his NoPixel’s GTA V RP server streams, reaching 106 thousand concurrent viewers.
Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek
“Get used to me being here. I’m here for the long haul,”
Polish Canadian, former professional CS: GO player, shroud managed to accumulate 84 million hours watched, putting him in 7th after the last year’s 37th.Streaming Valorant, New World and Rust, he managed to pull in an average viewer of 33 thousand and a peak viewership of 340 thousand.
In 2018, shroudleft Cloud9 and officially announced his retirementfrom the competitive scene. He was the third most-watched streamer in that year, next to Ninja and RiotGames. However, he decided tostream for Mixerin October 2019 up until June 2020, when the platform ended operations abruptly. In his stream back on Twitch two months later, it peaked at 470 thousand concurrent viewers.
Hasan ‘HasanAbi’ Piker
An American streamer of Turkish descent, Hasan started broadcasting his political commentaries on Twitch in March 2018 and has since gained a name for himself. With 82 million watch hours at hand and an average viewership of 27 thousand, it’s hardly surprising that he made it on the list of top ten Twitch streamers, 6 places higher than 2020’s list. Alongside his political streams where he covers news, he also streams a variety of games. He reached his peak viewership of 220 thousand viewers on January 7th 2021, the day after the United States Capitol attack.
Before Twitch, he worked as acolumnist at HuffPostand abroadcast journalist at The Young Turks, a news show co-founded by his uncle. He actively advocates for workplace democracy, Medicare for All, intersectional feminism, LGBTQ+ rights and gun control.
“Over time, I just stopped caring about choosing a particular type of language, and instead just did what felt normal and natural to me,”
In 2021, Hasan became co-hosts on theFear & Maldingpodcast alongside fellow Twitch streamer, Will Neff andLeftovers, h3h3productions’ podcast.
Nicholas ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff
An American streamer, YouTuber andpart of FazeClan, an esports and entertainment organization headquartered in California, USA. He reached 80 million watch hours playing Apex Legends, Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone and various other games -some of which he plays competitively. His average viewers went up to 42 thousand and he reached 370 thousand peak viewers while streaming the new Warzone map event on April 21st.
“I consider myself just, super fortunate. I’m one of the people on planet Earth that do something every day, that I love… I kinda lucked out, man.”
David ‘TheGrefg’ Cánovas Martinez
“One of the things I like the most about competitive gaming is that you can always improve something,”
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