The new king of Twitch is Kai Cenat, he is 21 years old and has only been streaming since February 2021. Now he is breaking two records on the streaming platform, but he is currently without an exclusive contract. Some are already speculating that Twitch could lose its new superstar again.
Who is the streamer? Kai Cenat started streaming on Twitch in February 2021 and has experienced rapid growth since then. By September 2022, he had pushed former Overwatch pro xQc off the number one spot in terms of “active paid subscriptions”.
What has Kai Cenat achieved now? During his subathon, which he held in honor of Black History Month in February, Kai Cenat set two new records:
- as the first streamer, he broke the mark of 300,000 paid subscriptions
- thus, he became the most subscribed streamer in the history of Twitch.
Despite his success, the 21-year-old feels inadequately supported by Twitch. Now, former record holder Ludwig Ahgren and rapper Drake have also stepped in, demanding fair compensation for the streamer.
Pay him or lose him
What is the problem? Although Kai Cenat is one of the biggest streamers on Twitch, he does not have a lucrative exclusive contract with the platform. Given his new status as the sub-king of Twitch, other providers may be interested in poaching him:
- The competition from YouTube has been on a major buying spree for some time and has already snatched some stars from Twitch.
- The controversial platform Kick is currently securing some controversial streamers, whose content is apparently considered “not brand-safe” elsewhere.
Before Kai Cenat and Ludwig, Ninja was the streamer with the most subs on Twitch. You can see what happened to the blue-haired Fortnite streamer in our video:
What are the demands? On Instagram, Kai Cenat has already received prominent support: In response to a post celebrating the 21-year-old’s record, superstar Drake himself made it clear what he expects from Twitch: “Motivate the kid and send him 50 million”
Ludwig Ahgren, the record holder before Kai Cenat, congratulated the streamer on Twitter and issued a warning to his former streaming home: Pay the man, or you will lose another record streamer.
He himself set the then record for the most paid subscriptions on Twitch in spring 2021 and switched exclusively to YouTube a few months later.
Currently, it seems that Kai Cenat is still overwhelmingly happy about his success. On Twitter, he wrote that it has been a great journey to this milestone (via Twitter).
The Canadian rapper Drake was already involved in setting a viewer record on Twitch in 2018. He streamed at the peak of the Fortnite hype alongside Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, bringing gaming into the mainstream.
Even today, Drake has quite an affinity for the streaming scene.
