The streamer Ludwig Ahgren was on air for 31 days with a marathon stream. With the Twitch stream, he earned over 1.3 million US dollars, and his channel grew by about one million new followers. Nevertheless, he says: He will never do such a marathon stream again.
This was the stream: The marathon stream by Ludwig started in mid-March and extended by a few seconds with each subscription. The stream was originally intended to last only for 24 or a maximum of 48 hours. However, it was doing so well that it would have never ended naturally, even though it was always very close.
The stream ended on Tuesday, April 13, only because Ludwig eventually introduced a “hard limit” and said: After 31 days, it would definitely be over. And indeed, the stream was kept alive by fans for the full 31 days with subscriptions.
In the end, the stream was an event that viewers proudly said: “I was there when Twitch history was made.”
Ludwig watched Ninja and Drake 3 years ago and wanted to do “something cool” like that
This is the marathon stream in numbers:
- Ludwig’s stream was on air for a total of 726 hours, during which he got his 8 hours of sleep each day and had 3 meals. He emphasized this. He even says he “never trained more regularly” than in the last month.
- He earned approximately 1.32 million US dollars during this time, according to fan estimates, and gained nearly a million followers on Twitch, as the statistics show. This significantly increased the reach of his channel: Ludwig’s Twitch channel grew from about 1.5 million to now 2.67 million followers.
- In the last days of the stream, he surpassed xQc and was the most viewed streamer on Twitch, clearly number one.
- Ludwig gained over 230,000 new subs (paid subscriptions). This even allowed him to break the Twitch record set by Ninja in 2018. Breaking this record was Ludwig’s stated goal. He said: When he saw Ninja and Drake with big eyes 3 years ago, he wanted to do something cool like them.
How am I supposed to top something that happened magically?
Will he do something like this again? The Twitch streamer makes it clear that there will never be another marathon stream like this with him.
“The reason I will never do something like this again is simple. It’s the same reason why you shouldn’t make a sequel to a movie like Hangover. The sequel will never be as good as the original.
How the hell am I supposed to top something that happened magically, just like that – where a 24-hour stream suddenly lasts a month and breaks records? Should I just say, I’ll do the same thing again? Screw that!”
Ludwig Ahgren
The winners of the stream are mods, the tax office, and Twitch
How much did Ludwig end up earning from the stream? Ludwig earned about 1.3 million US dollars before all deductions, as his fans have meticulously documented in a tracker:
- A large portion of the money goes to Twitch, which takes 35% of the subscriptions. Ludwig is annoyed that he is still under an “old contract” that guarantees such a high percentage to Twitch. Now, with a new better status, he could possibly reduce Twitch’s share further.
- The tax office hits hard. Since Ludwig lives in California, higher taxes apply to him – which makes the tax office happy. They also had reason to celebrate during the Fortnite tournament in 2019.
- $167,000 goes to the mod team that managed his stream. The money is shared among 17 moderators. For one mod, the stream was a big relief: he can finally pay his credit card bill that he has been carrying for years.
- $10,000 goes to Ludwig’s roommate, Slime, who has temporarily managed the stream.
- You need to subtract $52,000; that money went into subscriptions that Ludwig treated himself to keep the stream alive.
- A hefty $233,000 goes to charity – for each subscription that came in on the last day, Ludwig donated $5 to a children’s hospital or an animal protection project. Ludwig is into charity: he once spent $43,000 to play for an hour with Shroud.
After all deductions, Ludwig will be left with about $248,420 from the $1.3 million in revenue, his fans calculated. That’s still a strong hourly wage of $342 per hour – about 4 times what a doctor earns on average per hour in the USA.
He could have made even more money with the stream. However, Ludwig temporarily stopped the hype:
Streamer gets rich through Twitch – now bans viewers who spend too much money.
