Last night, on July 16, 2020, the German viewer record on Twitch was broken. Although Twitch is actually a gaming platform, the record had nothing to do with gaming: It was a fishing event in a sort of reality TV format. Present were the gambling streamer Jens “Knossi” Knossalla and the rapper Sido.
What was the German viewer record and what is the new one?
- The previous record for the most simultaneous viewers on German Twitch was 181,600. The record was held by Marcel “MontanaBlack” Eris. He set this record on September 1, 2019. At that time, he was streaming in the “Slots” category, i.e. gambling. In the meantime, MontanaBlack has become rather critical of gambling. He says he has contaminated German Twitch with it.
- The new record stands at 218,378 viewers. This was set by “TheRealKnossi”, who is also essentially a gambling streamer. He broadcasted in the “Special Events” category.
MontanaBlack also congratulated immediately. He is friends with Knossi.
Update from July 19: Meanwhile, the new record has been significantly topped again. Over 310,000 viewers in the stream of Sido and Knossi – Even the Americans are amazed!
Let’s continue with the original article
Sido: “I will never go on television again”
What is this special event? From July 16 to July 19, the event “Fishing Camp” runs for 72 hours on the channel of “TheRealKnossi”. It is a kind of “reality format” like Big Brother or the Jungle Camp, only that fishing is involved. The participants want to carry out the event and be live on air for 72 hours, regardless of whether wind and weather cooperate.
Rapper Sido even announced spontaneously that he will no longer go on television after learning how many viewers the event is getting live on Twitch.
In this camp are:
- Jens Knossalla is a German entertainer, who is now the fifth largest German-speaking streamer on Twitch by followers and is mainly known there for gambling streams, where he is terribly happy or upset, depending on whether he wins or loses.
- Sido is a rapper and music producer. Since he took off his skull mask, he has become a bit more approachable. In recent years, he has been increasingly featured in TV formats.
- The YouTuber Sascha Hellinger from Unsympathisch TV
- The music producer Manny Marc, known from the group “Die Atzen”
- The event is partially moderated by Klaas Heufer-Umlauf
- and other participants
Germans apparently love fishing and celebrities in reality TV
How successful is the event: For Twitch standards, it is very unusual as it is a “round-the-clock” event. Normally successful events like Friendly Fire last a maximum of one evening.
The surprising thing about the event was the high peak right at the beginning of the event with over 200,000 viewers. But even at night, when not much was going on, about 50,000 people were still watching. Therefore, the event had far more viewers at its low point than most Twitch streamers will ever achieve.
Thus, it is probably clear: The Germans are into fishing, gambling, and reality TV formats, whether on Twitch or on television.
3 reasons why the event is so successful on Twitch
This is what it’s about: The viewer record now in Germany was created according to a similar pattern as the US record. In March 2018, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins streamed with the musician Drake. The two played Fortnite and reached over 630,000 viewers:
- Drake is huge on social media and activated an enormous potential in 2018 by simply sending a tweet.
- Sido has a large presence on social media in Germany and promoted the stream via Instagram and Facebook.
The trick of such combinations lies in bringing together personalities from different areas who bring their own target audience, which is gaming-affine but would not normally watch the stream.
Moreover, such unique events run the element “FOMO – Fear of Missing Out which is the fear of missing out: This is an event. You have to be there live to experience it.
Furthermore, Twitch operates according to the principle “The devil always shits on the biggest pile”: When you see that 150,000 people are watching a German stream in the channel overview, you want to know what’s going on.
The German Twitch is not only composed of gaming streamers. In particular, some influencers coming from YouTube have established a second foothold there. But Twitch and live streaming have their pitfalls. One of the largest German streamers had to learn this:
Twitch bans Flying Uwe, one of the largest German streamers, permanently
The cover image comes from Knossi’s Instagram account.
