Kevin “PapaPlatte” Teller (23) is one of the biggest Twitch streamers in the world. But how did the Berlin native achieve this and what do Logan Paul and a camping van have to do with it?
Kevin Teller, better known as PapaPlatte, is one of the largest streamers in Germany and now even one of the largest streamers in the world. With a unique streaming project, the hyperactive streamer from Berlin recently landed in 8th place on the Twitch worldwide charts.
This is PapaPlatte: In his streams, he captivates and entertains his fans primarily with his “first speak, then think” style. His rash manner prompts his viewers to tease him and poke fun, including jabs at his first name Kevin.
However, PapaPlatte always takes the jabs with humor. Because he can take it, no one holds it against him when he also makes jokes at the expense of others. He skillfully packages his quips in various streaming formats: sometimes gaming, sometimes just chatting with the community.
In eight years, the German streamer has managed to appear at the top of the Twitch charts. But how did he succeed in this?
PapaPlatte’s origin lies in taking shots
These were his first steps on the internet: Kevin Teller founded a YouTube channel with three friends while in 7th grade. Not under the name PapaPlatte, but as SchnitzelTV. The content consisted of crazy challenges. Among other things, they competed in the challenge “Who can drink more lemon concentrate?” They poured down copious amounts of the bitter brew one after the other to crown a winner.
However, Teller declared this channel dead after only a few uploads. It just wasn’t what he envisioned as content, as he later said. But he never deleted the videos from SchnitzelTV.
In 2013, Teller wanted to focus fully on his newly launched streaming career — his new passion. On Twitch, Kevin Teller first took on the pseudonym PapaPlatte, under which he is still known today. His journey began rather unspectacularly: at first, he had only a few viewers, but over time, his audience grew to a few hundred, until his growth plateaued in 2016 and 2017 at around 4,000 new followers per month.
This is how PapaPlatte celebrated his first major successes on Twitch
This is how he first reached many viewers: In 2018, PapaPlatte launched a streaming format that allowed some streamers before him to earn several thousand euros per broadcast: called Sell-Out Streams. These are streams in which the streamer offers a service in exchange for donations apart from the stream itself:
- Reactions to videos submitted by viewers
- Viewers can decide under what conditions a game is played.
- Viewers can request songs that a streamer plays or streams from a service.
- Viewers get the opportunity to participate in exclusive giveaways.
PapaPlatte primarily watched videos that his viewers sent him. Some were funny, others serious, and some included jump scares. The success speaks for itself: In one of his Sell-Out streams, PapaPlatte collected around €11,000 in just 4 hours. Often he also used his Sell-Out stream for various charitable causes.
Around the same time, he started a new YouTube channel, which he also named PapaPlatte. Here, he primarily uploaded summaries of his streams. On YouTube, the Sell-Out streams were by far the most successful compared to the rest of the content.
Other YouTubers and streamers became aware of PapaPlatte this way. This led to the first collaborations with content creators like Inscope21 or Trymacs, the second biggest streamer in Germany after Montanablack.
His rash manner brought PapaPlatte not only success but also some trouble with the sometimes strict rules of the streaming platform Twitch: To date, PapaPlatte has been banned a total of 7 times. Fortunately, never permanently, which allowed him to continue growing.
Finally playing with the big leagues – also because of Logan Paul
Successful thanks to Pokémon cards? The name PapaPlatte first gained worldwide recognition through a stream by US YouTuber and amateur boxer Logan Paul. The US star bought a sealed box of Pokémon trading cards for around $200,000. He then gave willing buyers the chance to secure a pack for $11,000.
The catch: A booster pack for $11,000 could contain cards worth five times or more. PapaPlatte was watching Logan Paul’s livestream (via youtube) when he pulled his slip and opened the pack. Inside was a very rare Charizard card from the first generation, for which collectors would pay absurd amounts of €50,000 – €65,000.
Captivated by the hype, PapaPlatte partnered with Trymacs to adopt the concept from Logan Paul’s stream. They also bought expensive boxes, involved other German YouTubers, and now hosted large “Pokémon Card Openings” in German.
To this day, their Pokémon live stream is considered one of the most successful on Twitch. In total, 356,000 viewers tuned in in February 2021. The result for PapaPlatte: 99,000 new followers.
Youth Word & Road Trip through Europe – What’s happening with PapaPlatte in 2021
Fans submit youth word: Rather unintentionally, the Berlin streamer is currently gaining attention due to the selection of the youth word of 2021. The word “Papatastisch” is also up for voting, but hardly any outsiders are likely to know or understand the term.
However, a targeted Google search quickly reveals countless articles reporting on the connection between Papatastisch and streamer PapaPlatte.
Continuous stream catapulted PapaPlatte to 8th place on Twitch
This is how PapaPlatte reached 8th place on Twitch: The latest stunt from PapaPlatte and his YouTube colleagues Reeze and AnyNoob brought PapaPlatte even more fans. Starting on July 27, the trio traveled through Europe for 9 days. Of course, always with a running camera in hand and stream chat in sight. They only temporarily ended the stream in the most urgent emergencies or complete exhaustion:
- Bathroom breaks & hygiene
- Sleeping at night
- Or in dead zones with no signal
It was well worth it: Measured by watch time, PapaPlatte jumped from 55th place among the most successful streamers in the world to 8th place. On the last day of the road trip, he also shared the key data from the week:
The tour in numbers:
- Distance: 3479 km
- Stream time: 85 hours
- Viewer record: 39,550 viewers simultaneously
- Countries: 7
Before the tour, only a few hundred followers joined his fanbase daily. During the road trip, PapaPlatte gained around 3,000 – 5,000 new followers daily. On the first day of the tour, about 1,400 new fans subscribed to him. Thousands more followed over the following days.
You can also find out which streamers PapaPlatte has temporarily overtaken using his camping van: Twitch: The 5 biggest German Twitch streamers by followers
