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Ludwig Ahgren: With a 31-day stream, he broke the subscriber record on Twitch
Photo: Twitch / Ludwig
When the timer in the upper left corner of the screen slips below the one-minute mark, Ludwig Ahgren is speechless.
The streamer fights back tears when something ends that was probably bigger than he ever dreamed of.
For a month, Ahgren not only broadcast games on Twitch at fixed times, commented on videos and exchanged ideas with his chat.
No, the 25-year-old also let his viewers participate in his everyday life around the clock.
Ahgren practically lived on the livestream for a total of 31 days.
For a broadcast marathon like his, the streaming scene has its own term, it is subathon.
The aim is to collect as many subscriptions as possible in a certain period of time.
The number of followers is now rather unimportant on Twitch.
Because streamers earn money primarily with subscribers who can support their favorite influencers with monthly contributions of between 5 and 25 dollars.
Before his subathon, Ahgren had a little more than 31,000 subscriptions and was already in the top ten on the platform.
Thanks to his 24/7 streaming project, he was able to gain almost 250,000 paying supporters and thus cracked the platform's subscription record, which was previously held by the streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who became known through “Fortnite”.
Ludwig Ahgren is the new king of Twitch.
From part-time e-athlete to Twitch professional
His path to the top of the platform begins in 2017. After graduating from university, Ahgren initially works for Snapchat, among other things, and only operates his live channel part-time.
As a participant and later also host of "Super Smash Bros. Melee" tournaments, a popular fighting game in the esports scene, he gradually streamed a larger audience.
In 2019 he set a world record in a mini-game of the party game "Mario Party 4", and since then he has been able to make a pretty good living from his former hobby. Even his 31,000 subscribers bring in Ahgren a good $ 100,000 per month after deducting the Twitch shares.
Ahgren's global breakthrough is now his permanent stream.
The transmission, which the American starts after returning from a self-imposed streaming break, is actually designed for a maximum of 48 hours, but the community continues to extend it.
Ahgren designed its stream in such a way that ten seconds are added to the remaining stream time for each new subscription.
Ahgren quickly uses this for himself and introduces, for example, »Power Tens«, ten minutes in which he gives away one for every subscription he takes out.
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Ahgren's viewers also watch him sleep: the live program is taken over by presenters and guests
Photo: Twitch / Ludwig
Ahgren is not a lone fighter on his channel.
For example, he regularly includes his partner and five roommates, with whom he lives in a typical influencer property in Los Angeles, in his streams to create a change.
His team of moderators, who cannot keep up with the large number of user comments anyway, also take over streaming shifts when Ahgren has to sleep - although the camera remains pointed at him.
A one-time experiment
It is doubtful whether Ahgren's permanent transmission would have been so successful without the corona crisis, which is preventing many activities.
Because Ahgren doesn't do anything special - apart from the fact that he gives his viewers the opportunity to live the influencer dream with him for a month and potentially be entertained at any time.
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At the latest, his world record in a »Mario Party 4« mini-game in 2019 made Ahgren famous on Twitch
Photo: YouTube / Ludwig
Providing this entertainment over the long term is, in turn, an achievement. Because when streamers give tours through their homes, for example, it has been prepared and calculated well in advance. Ahgren doesn't have this preparation time, which makes it more exciting for his fans. He can't choreograph his day through because he's always on the air.
There has always been an audience for such an unfiltered and raw reality experience.
What was Big Brother for millennials and older generations is now subathons on Twitch for Generation Z.
Young people try to be in the front row when history is being made on the platform.
There is no other explanation for the thousands of "I WAS HERE" messages and saluting emojis with Ahgren's face that flood the chat in the last minutes of the stream.
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As turbulent as the past few weeks have been for him, Ahgren is the winner of his experiment.
If he keeps his subscribers, he will now pocket a high six-figure amount per month.
At the end of the stream, the streamer clears the table again and announces that he wants to donate all of the income from the last day of the stream, allegedly around $ 350,000, to charitable organizations.
He also tells his 150,000 viewers at the time that he is not planning a new edition of his continuous stream.
"That will never happen again," says Ahgren.
“And that's a good thing.
I admit I'm a bit tired. "After a pause, he added:" Don't get the wrong idea.
I'm not your friend, I don't want any parasocial relationships. ”There are currently 200,000 people in the stream, according to Ahgren.
“But you as a collective, you kind of make me really happy.
Thanks!"
The new king of Twitch, he doesn't even have to hide how stressful a life in the continuous stream is. Everyone could experience it live.
