At this point, there is no doubt that Twitch has become one of the most powerful platforms in the digital entertainment sector, not to mention entertainment in general. Its function today goes far beyond the simple fact of being a place where you can broadcast and watch video game games live.
That was the objective with which Twitch was born a little over a decade ago, in June 2011, as a spin-off of the late Justin.tv, but, shortly after its birth, in August 2014, Amazon, aware of the potential of the platform, acquired it for a figure close to a billion dollars.
Since then, it has only grown in numbers and in importance. Twitch has been changing over the years, not only in terms of the content offered, but also in the way the platform is used. Streamers like Lex Veldhuis have shown that Twitch doesn’t just make a living from video games, but that thousands of viewers can be attracted by doing other things, in his case, broadcasting and commenting on his poker games, with which he has reached nearly 60,000 people. at the same time. While others, like the popular youtuber Jaime Altozano, have taught us other ways to use Twitch, which on his channel serves as an online study and work room, a kind of virtual coworking.
In fact, among the most popular categories on Twitch today, “Just Chatting” stands out, that is, streamer channels that talk a little about everything; also games, but definitely not just video games. If there is a king in this category, who has known how to forge a name for himself beyond the network and rubs shoulders with the great celebrities, it is Ibai Llanos. The Basque has dominated streaming in Spanish in recent years, but more and more people are joining his party. Something that, it is necessary to point out, is not easy at all.
Ibai Llanos is surely the most popular streamer, but he is neither the most popular nor the one who earns the most. A few months ago, a hack occurred that exposed the accounts of the most popular streamers on Twitch. This same month, Joaquín Domínguez de Lugo, better known as ‘Elxokas’, who does not have more followers than Llanos, but has more subscribers, was revealed. Moreover, at the moment, Elxokas is the creator of content in Spanish with the most subscribers in the world: close to 47,000, some 1,500 more than Ibai Llanos at the time the information became known.
Even so, neither Ibai nor Elxokas are at the top of the Top; That place is occupied by Raúl Álvarez, ‘AuronPlay’, and Rubén Doblas Gundersen, Rubius, who not only dominate the podium of the Spanish-language content creators with the most followers on Twitch, but also that of the most popular streamers in the world.
According to data from this month of February, AuronPlay and Rubius occupy the second and third position of the Top 20 streamers with the most followers on Twitch. Despite the fall of Richard Tyler Blevins as a streamer, ‘Ninja’ remains at number one. The more than 17.4 million followers that the Fortnite player has on the platform are still unattainable, although AuronPlay is close to 12 million and Rubius exceeds 11. Actually, in the last two years, both streamers have increased a lot their numbers and it was already common to see them among the most popular in the world. What is new is that more and more content creators in Spanish are entering the Top 20, which is clearly linked to the rise of Twitch in non-English speaking countries, especially in the huge Latin American market, especially in Mexico, where its popularity It only increases month after month.
Currently, a quarter of the Twitch World Top 20 speaks in Spanish: we find the Spaniards AuronPlay and Rubius, along with David Cánovas ‘TheGrefg’ in 7th place with 9.5 million followers and Ibai (no. 8). , 9.3 million), and Colombian Juan Sebastián Guarnizo (#11, 7 million), who has a huge audience in Mexico. It is also worth mentioning the Brazilian gamer Alan Ferreira ‘alanzoka’, who ranks 18th with 5.5 million followers.