The Spaniard Ibai Llanos Garatea (29) is the biggest streamer Europe has to offer on Twitch. With 3.8 million, he holds the record for the most simultaneous viewers on Twitch. Worldwide, the gaming streamer is in second place, only the American KaiCenat is larger. With a massive reach, Ibai is also interesting for Twitch competitor Kick.
How big is Ibai on Twitch? Ibai was watched for 104 million viewer hours last year, during which he was “only” live for 1572 hours. Only Kai Cenat has more viewer hours.
However, at the peak viewer count, Ibai surpasses all other streamers by far. At the peak, he had 3.8 million simultaneous viewers. He set the record in July 2024 when he hosted a boxing event featuring Will Smith.
Ibai’s “bread and butter” business, as well as his passion, is League of Legends. Here, he casts the LoL Worlds in Spanish and has his own e-sports team.
Trymacs imitates some formats in Germany that Ibai had huge success with on Spanish-speaking Twitch, such as streamer boxing:
Kick is a dilemma for big streamers like Ibai
This is what he said regarding the offer from Kick: Some time ago, Ibai said that if Kick made him an offer, he would carefully consider it:
If they pay me an obscene amount in two years, I will think about it very carefully.
He finds himself in a dilemma since it is known that since Kick signed xQc in June 2023, the streaming service pays extraordinarily well, almost obscenely well, but switching to Kick is also associated with a reputational risk. This is because Kick is linked to an online casino, and gambling is generally considered “damaging to brand” and “not family-friendly.”
“Even my hand was shaking”
This was the offer: As Ibai recounts, he was indeed made an offer about a month ago.
Ibai says the amount offered to him was so high that he “almost peed his pants” and “his hands were shaking”.
He states literally
The thing with Kick that no one wants to admit is that no one gives you money in exchange for nothing. Kick came at me full force a month ago. Knekro already knows the offer they made me. I almost peed my pants; even my hand was shaking.
He does not comment further on the offer. However, one can probably assume that he declined it.
What does he mean by the thing no one wants to admit? This is speculation now, but it can be assumed that Kick also has certain demands of a streamer to whom they pay such a large sum of money.
Kick usually offers “non-exclusive contracts”; streamers can therefore continue to be on Twitch and YouTube.
But obviously, Kick expects that a streamer on Kick creates a certain amount of content and engages in and promotes gambling there. Kick’s hope is certainly that Ibai will bring gambling closer to his community that he built on Twitch and encourage his fans to spend money at the online casino Stake.
Since Ibai is known for many things one can bet on, such as e-sports matches in LoL or sporting events, this explains why Kick would be willing to spend quite a bit if they can lure him and his huge community to their platform.
Kick is the streaming service for the bad boys and girls
This is what it’s about: The problem with Kick is that by switching there, Ibai would practically have to give up all the “normal business relationships” he has built over the years and then rely more or less exclusively on the crypto casino Stake as a marketing partner.
Thus, Kick has mainly proven to be an alternative for controversial streamers who are not “family-friendly” anyway, such as gambling fans xQc and Trainwreck, scandal streamer Adin Ross or the “shameless e-girl Amouranth”. None of the streamers who have switched to Kick are really suitable for a partnership with a large company. However, Ibai has a spotless reputation and much to lose.
Therefore, one can assume that even record offers like those for xQc, who received $100 million, may make Ibai tremble but are unlikely to lead him to switch platforms: The German streamer MontanaBlack explained in June 2023 what a switch to Kick would mean: Twitch streamer MontanaBlack reveals why he is not switching to Kick: “Then I become the idiot again”
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