The success of the streaming platform Twitch has also made its way to Germany. We take a look at which German streamers have the greatest success with live streaming and how they do it.
These are the biggest German streamers: To determine which three streamers dominate the German-speaking area of Twitch, we looked at various numbers. For this, the statistics page Sullygnome was used, which collects various data.
Decisive for our top list was ultimately which streamers had the most followers in the past 365 days. The ranking is as of December 21:
- 1. MontanaBlack88 with 2,093,477 followers
- 2. Trymacs with 1,167,855 followers
- 3. Gronkh with 1,094,917 followers
Why did we choose this value? The number of followers determines how large a streamer’s reach is. It also shows how many viewers a streamer can potentially reach when they simply go online.
For MontanaBlack, Trymacs, and Gronkh, there is also the fact that they lead in other categories as well. MontanaBlack and Trymacs have the highest “Watch Times”, meaning the total time they have been watched. Just ahead of Gronkh is NoWay4u_Sir.
MontanaBlack
Who is MontanaBlack? Marcel Thomas Andreas “MontanaBlack” Eris is the biggest German streamer on Twitch and was even the second biggest streamer in the world in September 2019.
He often appears wearing a baseball cap and an undershirt, sitting in a darkened room. MontanaBlack, often simply called “Monte”, is actually a trained retail salesman.
In March 2019, his biography “MontanaBlack – From Junkie to YouTuber” was published.
Numbers about MontanaBlack on Twitch 2019 (as of December 21):
- Average viewers: 29,059
- Viewer hours: 27,602,376
- Hours streamed: 893
- Peak viewer count: 181,600
- MontanaBlack on Sullygnome
How he became successful in 2019: Most of the time, MontanaBlack streamed Fortnite in 2019. This accounted for over a third of the total time with 347 hours. FIFA 20 is in second place.
However, he reached the most viewers with streams in the “Slots” category, i.e., with virtual slot machines. Here, he even generated the most followers per hour in the last 365 days – just ahead of Fortnite. MontanaBlack owed a large part of his success in September 2019 to streaming high-stakes gambling.
However, MontanaBlack now stays away from “Slots”. In a conversation with streamer Staiy, he said that he “infected” the German community with casino streams and now everyone only wants to see casino streams.
“Just Chatting” is also one of his larger areas. Here, MontanaBlack comments on other people’s videos, shares stories from his life, or explains his views to the viewers.
Recently, he got into trouble with a statement about women drawing a shitstorm. However, his fans labeled the comments as “typical Monte” or “Monte-Oldschool”.
MontanaBlack’s reach primarily comes from his personality. He has a strong character and knows how to market it.
Some professional streamers revealed in our streaming guide to Twitch that personality is one of the ways to become known and successful. The other is strong gameplay.
It is noticeable that MontanaBlack is relatively rarely seen on Twitch for a streamer of his size: Most other Twitch streamers in the top 30 worldwide have spent between 1237 (DrDisrespect) and 2987 hours (Summit1g) on Twitch. MontanaBlack is at the lower end with 892 hours.
Trymacs
Who is Trymacs? Maximilian Alexander Curt “Trymacs” Stemmler is the youngest top German streamer on our list. Born in 1994, Trymacs has been active on Twitch (and YouTube) since 2016.
Trymacs started on YouTube. He began publishing videos for the mobile game Clash Royale, at the time a niche he could fill. He had success especially with tutorials and “tips and tricks”.
Because of this success, larger YouTubers took notice of him and helped him gain subscribers. He has been regularly streaming on Twitch since 2016.
Numbers about Trymacs on Twitch 2019 (as of December 21):
- Average viewers: 11,372
- Viewer hours: 16,830,676
- Hours streamed: 1,524
- Peak viewer count: 100,771
- Trymacs on Sullygnome
How he became successful in 2019: Like MontanaBlack, Trymacs also streamed most of his hours in Fortnite in 2019. He showed it for a staggering 784 hours.
He relies on both personality and gameplay. However, he often plays with other people and friends. This creates a certain dynamic that resembles gaming buddies streaming their sessions.
In his chat, one often reads that the viewers simply enjoy watching him and his friends. His success thus apparently comes from a foundation of YouTube, a good mix of co-broadcasters (playing mates), gameplay, and personality.
Trymacs streamed nearly twice as long on Twitch in 2019 as the other two German streamers on the top list.
Gronkh
Who is Gronkh? Erik “Gronkh” Range is actually a Let’s Player on YouTube. On YouTube, Gronkh was one of the German pioneers, if not the pioneer par excellence.
Many gamers may recognize his voice from games. He gave voice to several characters in adventures like Deponia or Harvey’s New Eyes. In The Witcher 3, he voiced a troll.
Gronkh’s gaming roots go back to the oldest MMORPG that you can still play: Meridian 59. There, Gronkh worked as a developer and gamemaster.
After many different projects, including in the field of gaming journalism, Gronkh finally gained fame with Let’s Plays of Minecraft. Recently, Gronkh was involved in the charity stream Friendly Fire 5, which raised over a million euros for a good cause.
Numbers about Gronkh on Twitch 2019 (as of December 21):
- Average viewers: 17,743
- Viewer hours: 14,512,315
- Hours streamed: 805
- Peak viewer count: 100,330
- Gronkh on Sullygnome
How he became successful in 2019: Gronkh relies on relatively rare, but long stream sessions on Twitch and averages 17,000 viewers.
In 2019, he was by far the most often active in “Just Chatting”, followed by Minecraft and the survival game Subnautica. His streams are usually quite relaxed.
Gronkh’s success is largely based on YouTube. As one of the first and one of the biggest Let’s Players, he made a name for himself with his videos. His YouTube channel now has over 4.87 million subscribers and is therefore the largest gaming channel in Germany.
He built up his reach before he started streaming on Twitch. And even after starting, he remains active on YouTube. Gronkh has managed to transfer his success from one format to another.
By the way: Another German streamer made headlines in November by setting a world record for the most hours live streamed per month.
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