Eating, gaming, cooking and even sleeping in front of the camera. American gamer and streamer Ludwig Ahgren filmed these banal activities live for 31 days. He thus cleared the record of most paying subscribers on the online platform Twitch to disconnect. And was left with a hefty sum.
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Not coming out of your house for 31 days and getting more than a million dollars for that too: American streamer and gamer Ludwig Ahgren managed to do that by sharing his daily life with the world. Kind of like the program Big brother so, but on the social media platform Twitch.
Twitch is a platform that is dear to many gamers because they easily find their gaming share performances live with their viewers. Ahgren, who is already popular on the platform for his humorous videos and gaming livestreams, first had a short live stream in mind.
Still, his 2.7 million followers and other curious people could count on a real live stream marathon with more than just video games. Cooking sessions, workouts, organized movie nights: Ludwig Ahgren shared everything with his viewers. The camera even stayed on when he went to sleep.
Een ‘subathon’
For the 25-year-old Twitch star, everything started innocently on Sunday afternoon, March 14. During one of his weekly live streams, he made a promise to his fans: for every new paying subscriber (‘sub’) he got during his live stream, he would stream for ten seconds longer.
That ‘subathon’ – that’s the official name of such a stunt – is not a new concept. On Twitch many others have already ventured to it. Popular gamers in particular could get even more attention through such a stunt.
But Aghren’s tour de force has a very surprising result. He broke the record for most Twitch paying subscribers ever with more than 282,000. In doing so, he overthrew American gamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins who had collected 269,154 subs in 2018. Breaking the record was never the intention. But thanks to his loyal fans and many curious people who came to have a look and wanted to support him, it worked.
That the livestream would not be accidentally ended remained a fear. Still, Aghren could count on a good internet connection, a fixed camera installation in his gaming room and compact vlogging cameras, which guided him through the ‘subathon’.
Certainly a million
Live streaming your life 24/7, that also takes its toll. With no end in prospect, Aghren chose to put an end date on the livestream, Tuesday, April 13. “Since I started live streaming this has happened: England’s Prince Phillip has died, the Suez Canal was blocked and reopened, David Dobrik made two apology videos and Jesus of Nazareth died and was resurrected,” he joked two days before the end on Twitter.
Exactly how much Ahgren earned from his stunt is not yet known. Still, the gaming news website Dexter that the Twitch star has amassed more than a million US dollars in ‘subs’. Twitch will still claim part of the amount as ‘fixed’ streaming costs.
Still, the amount could have been even higher. The ‘subs’ kept pouring in and the challenge seemed endless. To prevent viewers from throwing money, he decided after two weeks to make an extra rule with his audience: whoever donates more than 100 ‘subs’ – about 500 US dollars – will be banned and can no longer go to the live stream. marathon. “I have a problem with people spending too much money on me and that makes me a little uncomfortable,” he said during his live stream. “That is why I feel obliged to keep the money spent in check with a limit.”
He also said that a “large part” will go to charities, but exactly how much he will give remains to be seen.
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