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 in Twitch history. 

“If I can be an example of wrongdoing, I can be an example of redemption. And I think that matters, maybe even more.”

he comments after he got his 4th Twitch ban due to stream-sniping

He held on to his crown from 2020, reaching 272 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 to get banned 5 times from the popular GTA server throughout 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 thought at the time when he started streaming, on January 5th 2018

He couldn’t have known that he would be the second most-watched streamer for two years in a row and be called the greatest phenomenon of Brazilian Twitch. After broadcasting a FURIA VS Gambit match, he reached his peak of 340 thousand concurrent viewers in 2021. 

<strong>Gaules</strong>
Gaules

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 host official NBA broadcasts on Twitch. In December 2021, he announced the launch of  "Fenômenos" an upcoming podcast in partnership with Ronaldo with guests the likes of Neymar Jr. and Tiago Leifert -all of it, made possible by his 'Tribo’.

Raúl ‘auronplay’ Álvarez

The third most-subscribed YouTuber in Spain had built his fanbase from 2006, bringing some of his armies to Twitch -where he quickly gained 1.2 million followers in just 4 months. Mostly streaming Minecraft, GTA V RP server SpainRP and in the Just Chatting category, he rose from 8th place to 3rd place in the list of Top Ten Twitch streamers -amassing 118 million hours of watch time. Crowned Streamer of the Year by MTV Millennial Awards, his average viewers far overtake both xQc and Gaules’

"I always say, I'm a shit converter. I find shit on the internet and try to turn it into something funny,"

<strong>auronplay</strong>
auronplay

Weirdly enough, the 33 years old streamer has had encounters with the Spanish Police in the past. The first time, he was accused by a local logging company of 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 Barcelona made a criminal complaint against 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. Despite quitting as an exclusive content creator for G2 Esports in January 2021, he rose from 7th place on the list to 4th place, surpassing the likes of shroud and summit1g.

<strong>ibai</strong>
ibai

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 achieves the most high-profile moment in 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.”

on why he got the exclusive interview with football star Lionel Messi

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

Brazilian YouTuber and streamer, loud_coringa has gained 5 million subscribers on his YouTube channel since its creation in 2019. Since his first stream in October 2020, the 23-year-old has garnered 2.7 million followers and amassed 99 million hours of watch time. This brings him from 262nd place to 5th place on the list of Top ten Twitch streamers.

<strong>loud_coringa</strong>
loud_coringa

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.”

in an interview when he was nominated for Streamer of the Year by Esports Awards

Jaryd ‘summit1g’ Lazar

“Start doing it for the fun of it, not with the intention of being a professional streamer.”

in an interview in 2015, when asked to advise aspiring streamers

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. 

<strong>summit1g</strong>
summit1g

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,”

in his stream back on Twitch, after Mixer’s sudden end

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.

<strong>shroud</strong>
shroud

In 2018, shroud left Cloud9 and officially announced his retirement from the competitive scene. He was the third most-watched streamer in that year, next to Ninja and RiotGames. However, he decided to stream for Mixer in 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.

<strong>HasanAbi</strong>
HasanAbi

Before Twitch, he worked as a columnist at HuffPost and a broadcast 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 an interview by Insider, on why he joined Twitch

In 2021, Hasan became co-hosts on the Fear & Malding podcast alongside fellow Twitch streamer, Will Neff and Leftovers, h3h3productions’ podcast.

Nicholas ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff

An American streamer, YouTuber and part 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. 

NICKMERCS
NICKMERCS

NICKMERCS has been in the industry since 2010, back when Twitch was Justin.tv. Equipped with a knack for playing video games, he built his channel in 2011 and uploaded Call of Duty gameplays. He had joined 100 thieves, an American lifestyle brand and gaming organization in 2018. Soon after in May 2019, he left after a falling out with the head of the organization, Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag. He later went on to join Faze Clan. Fast forward to this day, he has since, amassed 4 million subscribers on YouTube and 6.2 million followers on Twitch.

“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.”

from an interview on The Daily Show

David ‘TheGrefg’ Cánovas Martinez

"One of the things I like the most about competitive gaming is that you can always improve something,”

from an interview by Red Bull, upon their collaboration

Spanish YouTuber turned streamer, TheGrefg has garnered 9.2 million followers and 78 million hours watched from broadcasting his Fortnite games, Minecraft adventures and in the Just Chatting category. As the 5th most-subscribed YouTuber in Spain and one of Forbes Spain’s top 100 influencers of 2020, you can surely expect a number of such magnitude from him. 

David had, as a 14-year-old with an extreme interest in video games, started his YouTube channel in 2012 -a channel that now boasts an amount of 17 million subscribers. Adding on to his successes, he had managed to land himself not one -but two Guinness World Records. With 2.4 million concurrent viewers watching the live stream of his Fortnite skin, while classified as an individual -it was an instant killing of two birds with one stone. Or rather, two records with one stream.

Data pulled from SullyGnome

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