In a recent podcast alongside Colin and Samir, YouTube streamer and content creator Ludwig explained why he thinks YouTube streamers are generally more successful than Twitch streamers.
Podcast hosts Colin and Samir probed Ludwig for his opinions on the two major streaming platforms and his thoughts on the streaming industry in general. When asked, Ludwig described the differences in day-to-day life after switching to YouTube from Twitch. The popular creator cited the expected workload of Twitch streamers specifically as a reason for many of these discrepancies.
“Twitch streamers are like an underbelly. They’re barely able to survive as humans,” Ludwig said. “Half of them Uber Eats every single meal. They never pay any of their bills. Taxes are just something they forget about.” Ludwig admitted that during his long tenure as a Twitch streamer, he found himself slipping into many of the stereotypes he described.
Ludwig elaborated that YouTube as a platform provides substantially more support for its streamers, not requiring them to broadcast for hundreds of hours per month. “As opposed to YouTubers, who are well put together, like basically Silicon Valley people to some extent, Twitch streamers will push themselves to go 150, 200, 250, even 300 hours in a month, which is absurd.”
Ludwig said this level of commitment seemingly normalized on the platform leaves little room for life outside of Twitch. “It’s like double a work week just streaming,” he said. “It’s like, when are you doing your laundry, man? The answer is they’re not.” The content creator drew upon some of his own experiences on Twitch, including his own month-long subathon in which he continuously streamed.
One of Twitch’s most popular steamers, xQc, is notorious for putting in almost inhuman amounts of time on broadcast. The French-Canadian streamer has accumulated over 16,900 total hours streamed since launching his channel, averaging 77 hours a week, according to Twitch Tracker. Outside of this abnormal case, other massively successful streamers for Twitch have admitted that their contracts require sometimes up to 200 hours a month streamed.
While YouTube is still building out its streaming division, gradually adding more features for viewers and signing prevalent figures in streaming, there has yet to be a streamer who has come close to the exorbitant hours-streamed records set by some of Twitch’s top broadcasters. For streamers like Ludwig, this seems to come as a relief.
