As “Unge”, Simon Wiefels (32) became known on YouTube and Twitch. He now calls himself “Raik” and prefers to stream to a smaller audience in English. After a month, he reveals how he feels about his decision.
What’s the deal with Unge and Raik? On May 22, 2023, Unge released a video on his YouTube channel in which he admitted to suffering from social phobia. Presenting himself in public is a huge challenge for him.
At the time the video was released, Unge had not gone live on Twitch for months – at least, not as himself. As the content creator revealed, he had started streaming under a different identity.
Unge became “Raik”, a Vtuber with an anime look and cat ears. The content mainly features a lot of WoW, occasionally Diablo 4 or Pokémon. Additionally, the streams no longer take place in German as usual, but in English.
A new video has now appeared on the old channel, in which the content creator reports how he has been doing in a month without “Unge”: “At some point, you have to ask yourself: Money or freedom?”
“At some point, you have to ask yourself: Money or freedom?”
How is he doing now? Apparently much better. The 32-year-old says he is doing well now, he enjoys the English streams a lot and feels less stressed. In addition, he answers some questions that he has been asked more frequently in recent weeks.
Why restart now? Many Twitch streamers are currently moving to Kick for a bunch of money, and German streamers are receiving lucrative offers. The timing would have been favorable for Unge to make good money from his reach.
The streamer explains why he chose to start over from scratch instead:
At some point in life, you have to ask yourself the question: Money or freedom? I am happy with what I have, I am satisfied. Why more money if I would have to give up my freedoms?
The streamer does not want to tie himself to a platform with an exclusive contract, even if he could potentially earn millions with it. However, that doesn’t interest him; rather, he simply wants to have fun again with his passion, streaming.
Unge says he does not regret taking this path: “It was definitely financially stupid, but for my satisfaction, it was the best decision.”
Unge had ‘completed’ streaming
Why is he streaming in English now? The content creator answers this question too. After all, he had built a huge German-speaking community for over a decade. But the 32-year-old says he lost his enjoyment of streaming over time.
Streaming on the English channel is now really fun for him again; he is really looking forward to going live again. And this is despite or exactly because it involves new challenges:
I feel like I have achieved everything I set out to do in the German space. And yes, now there’s ‘New Game Plus’, and it’s incredibly fun.
You can watch the entire video on the channel ungespielt.
How successful is he after the switch? After Unge informed his fans that he is behind the new Vtuber Raik, his channels grew rapidly.
Currently, he has nearly 32,500 followers on Twitch and averages 230 to 290 viewers. The ungespielt channel has 1.4 million followers and recently averaged 2,500 to 3,300 viewers (via sullygnome).
On YouTube, Raik is followed by almost 32,000 people for German-speaking reactions, with videos usually ranging between 10,000 and 25,000 views. The old channel, on the other hand, has 3.7 million subscribers and frequently reached several million views on a video. Recently, it was usually around 250,000.
To rebuild his reach on the new channels, the content creator still has a long way to go, but he seems to be quite satisfied with it.
What can happen when you take a streaming break without informing the fans is shown by the rumors surrounding the death of a German streamer:
