In the last 30 days, no channel has been watched more on Twitch than Jens “Knossi” Knosalla, a former contestant from game show and reality TV formats on German private television. He has become the star of German Twitch and has crowned himself the “one true king.”
Here’s how it went for Knossi before Twitch: A YouTube video chronicles the early years of today’s Twitch star. Knossi confirmed the accuracy of the statements on his own YouTube channel and was moved that someone had traced his life so closely. In general, Knossi makes no secret of his feelings. This is one of the reasons for his success: You can see at any time how he is feeling.
The 34-year-old wanted to be on television as a teenager and applied to Big Brother. Although the production company Endemol did not hire him, they recognized and certified his potential.
So at the age of 22, he landed on the Pro7 show “WipeOut,” where he made it to the last four. In the years that followed, he repeatedly appeared in guest roles in pseudo-documentaries like “Judge Alexander Hold” or “K11: Commisars in Action.” Considering this portrayal, Knossi himself asked, “Where are Lenßen and Partner, brother?”
He had 8 or 9 appearances on “Judge Barbara Salesch” as an amateur actor. In one role, he played a rapist. According to his own statements, on the day of the broadcast he was confronted in a supermarket by an older woman, asking why he wasn’t in jail.
Knossi’s thing became poker, where he made his mark in 2011 in a casting show, allowing him to start a career as a poker player and commentator. This brought him the recognition he so desired. The trained office clerk described himself as “media-hungry.”
This path through reality TV ultimately led to his own Twitch channel. He has been registered on the streaming platform since September 2014. At Twitch, he was finally able to gain a foothold with the support of people like MontanaBlack or Unsympathisch.TV through guest appearances. However, this took a while.
2018 only 437 viewers on average – 2020 the big German star
This is Knossi on Twitch: Knossi currently has 1.244 million followers on Twitch. This has allowed him to surpass Gronkh and move up to 4th place among the largest German-speaking channels. Besides Twitch, Knossi is active on YouTube, where he has 1.04 million subscribers.
Knossi mainly focuses on gambling formats; he plays on online slot machines or broadcasts poker.
He has been doing this for several years but has only found success in recent years. Knossi broadcasted in 2018 rather in the upper middle range on Twitch:
- In 2018, he had an average of 437 viewers over 1008 hours on air
- However, in 2019, Knossi already had an average of 8436 viewers over 887 hours on air
- In July 2020, Knossi reached an average of 96,885 viewers
The streamer presents himself as “the one true king” and wears a crown. In the streams, he appears emotional and sometimes yells at the slot machines, pleading for the right combination and grappling with his fate. Knossi is loud. The fans seem to love that about him.
This is behind the success: The largest German streamer, Marcel “MontanaBlack” Eris, had established gambling on German Twitch, but then himself stopped transmitting gambling. This created a gap in 2019 that Knossi apparently fills. Since then, his career has gained momentum.
Knossi is particularly praised for his innovative ideas. In mid-July, he implemented a large, high-quality event at a swimming lake; the rapper “Sido” was the star of the camp. The participants wanted to fish and endure, regardless of what wind, weather, and other circumstances might be against it.
The fishing camp broke the German viewer record on Twitch and followed a similar pattern to the reality TV formats that Knossi had participated in 10 years earlier.
Knossi leads the top 5 on Twitch
These are the 5 largest streamers right now: The basis is the “most watched hours” on Twitch in the last 30 days starting from August 3, 2020 (via sullygnome):
- In 5th place is Fextralife with 6.23 million hours – the variety streamer has 24,090 viewers when he plays the new PS4 hit Ghost of Tsushima
- 4th place goes to Asmongold with 6.584 million watched hours – the WoW super nerd plays almost exclusively World of Warcraft, where an average of 42,570 people watch him. Asmongold is known for his analyses; he talks about God, the world, and deer girls while playing the MMORPG
- 3rd place goes to Nickmercs with 7.898 million hours – he plays almost exclusively Call of Duty and has 46,273 viewers. He is the type of uncomplicated entertainer with a 3-day beard: a strong shooter player
- 2nd place goes to xQc with 11.282 million hours. The variety streamer has established his own style. He often reacts to videos of others. In “Just Chatting,” an average of 33,461 people watch him. This is less than others, but xQc is on air for incredibly long periods. He is seen as the streamer for “young viewers on Twitch“. Taking the calendar month of July 2020 as a benchmark, xQc was number one.
- In 1st place over the last 30 days is indeed TheRealKnossi, the German who came from reality TV. He was watched for 12.270 million hours. Normally, Knossi does not play in the top league, but the big fishing event currently brings him into the illustrious circle of top stars on Twitch. During the multi-day special event, an average of 149,983 viewers watched him. Here he broke the German viewer record.
The current boom of Knossi is mainly due to the 3 days in July 2020 when the “Fishing Camp” set new standards on German Twitch. Never before had so many viewers watched a German Twitch channel simultaneously:
310,000 see event with fishing and Sido on Twitch – even the Americans are amazed
The cover image comes from Knossi’s Instagram channel. He is currently celebrating one million subscribers on YouTube.
