A streamer achieved massive success on Twitch overnight in early 2020 and shot to number 1. He is benefiting from the massive success of Escape from Tarkov and a special feature on Twitch.
Who is the streamer? It is about the Twitch streamer Pestily, an Australian who has been in the business since the end of 2017. He is a former soldier and then became a streamer focusing on the hardcore survival shooter Escape from Tarkov.
According to Sullygnome, he was by far the biggest streamer in terms of viewer hours last week (as of January 9):
- Pestily in first place with over 5 million viewer hours.
- In second place is FIFA-20 streamer Castro_1021 with only 1.95 million hours.
- Only in third place does the originally new number 1 xQc come with 1.79 million viewer hours.
Pestily was even able to almost twentyfold his viewer count during that week. Just before the huge increase, he had peaked at between 5,000 and 6,000 viewers. By the end of the week, there were over 100,000.
Success through Escape from Tarkov
This is where the boost comes from: The absolute majority of Pestily’s streams consist of Escape from Tarkov. He streamed it for over 2000 hours last year. Escape from Tarkov has been a massive phenomenon on Twitch for some time.
One of his most popular clips includes this action. Here, Pestily successfully hides in the bathroom and sets a trap for his opponent:
The boost for Pestily came on January 2. Here, the Tarkov developers Battlestate Games activated “Twitch Drops.” Players who watch streams long enough receive special in-game items for free.
During this event, Pestily stated on Twitter that he streamed for over 125 hours in one week. That is a considerable amount, considering the week only has 168 hours. However, that is not enough for a crazy stream record.
How it helped him: Pestily writes in the tweet from January 6 that he was able to generate many new viewers, followers, and subscribers:
- 12,852 new subscribers – in addition to about 5,000 previously
- 123,464 followers – in addition to about 140,000 previously
In one week of stream time, he generated double the number of subscribers and almost the same number of followers as he did in the two years prior to his time on Twitch. He explains this during his streams as well:
Also, big streamers like DrDisrespect or xQc play and praise Escape from Tarkov. However, none could achieve such great success with it as Pestily. Some had problems with the shooter.
What’s Next
Will the success continue? The enormous numbers have already dropped again since the Twitch Drops were deactivated:
- Nonetheless, Pestily still currently has between 8,000 and 10,000 viewers on average (in the last three days).
- In comparison: In November 2019, it was still an average of 3,162 viewers.
Even if more viewers drop off, Pestily would have nearly doubled his average viewer count if it settles around 6,000. And all of this within a week.
What is he doing with the success? In addition to the drop event on Twitch, Pestily initiated a special charity campaign for 2020. He will completely forgo donations throughout the year.
Instead, he calls on his viewers to donate to a charity for sick children. He has linked a donation page on his stream. The goal is 1,000,000 AU$. As of the time of writing, 84,489.22 AU$ (equivalent to 52,199.61 €) have already been raised.
What about EFT? The journey for Escape from Tarkov continues as well. There may even be a release on Steam, which, however, is still up in the air.
If you want to get a picture of Escape from Tarkov yourself, here are some tips for getting started:
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!