A former YouTuber on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive became the new star on Twitch in May 2020. With Valorant, Ludvig “Anomaly” Lagerstedt significantly gains and becomes the fastest growing channel, surpassing professional football players and summit1g. The criticized Anomaly for a certain practice.
This is Anomaly: The Swede was known from YouTube. There he was famous for box openings in CS:GO. There were videos where he revealed how he made $32,000 with a rare weapon skin, but also one where he consumed a lot of fast food. Popular are also the videos that show him with his father.
A completely normal YouTuber, one would think, if he didn’t always wear a mask.
Anomaly has been on Twitch since 2014. However, he never played at the top on the streaming service. Until a few weeks ago, he averaged 1500 viewers when showing CS:GO.
This completely changed with the beta launch of Valorant:
- In April 2020, the streamer averaged 77,000 viewers and became the new star of the platform.
- He gained almost 1.3 million new followers in one month, effectively doubling his viewer base on Twitch in 30 days.
- The native Swede is clearly the big winner of the Valorant hype on Twitch.
His top clip on the platform revolves around how to get Twitch Drops and thereby access the Beta of Valorant.
Because you have to watch Twitch if you want to get into the Beta. Anomaly has used this to his advantage like no one else.
Football stars and Valorant streamers winning
Who is currently winning on Twitch? Strange times are currently prevailing on Twitch:
- Due to the global effects of the novel corona virus, many sports stars have started streaming on the platform – as training and matches are largely canceled
- Valorant is also the biggest opportunity for streamers to rise and become known, since Fortnite in 2018 – partly due to the Twitch Drops
The two currently fastest growing channels on Twitch are prime examples of these two phenomena:
- One of the fastest growing Twitch channels belongs to football superstar Sergio Agüero. He is actually a forward for Manchester City but is currently active on Twitch and has the second fastest growing channel here. He showcases the sports game FIFA 20.
- Only “Anomaly”, the masked streamer who has fully engaged in Valorant, is growing even faster. He has even outpaced the previously great riser Jaryd “Summit1g” Lazard in growth.
The 5 fastest growing Valorant streamers
Of the 10 fastest growing channels on Twitch in the last 30 days, 5 belong to Valorant streamers:
- Anomaly with 1,268,184 new followers – he streamed Valorant for 584 hours
- Summit1g with 553,228 followers – showcased Valorant for 223 hours
- Myth with 493,614 followers – broadcasted Valorant for 243 hours
- Onscreen with 466,233 followers – showcased Valorant for 604 hours
- Pokimane with 379,312 followers – was active in Valorant for 60 hours
You can already see from the hours that something doesn’t add up here. Because to be on air for 584 or 604 hours in 30 days, you would need to stream almost continuously.
summit1g: “Turn off your stream, bitch”
This is the conflict: Anomaly grew so much in April 2020 also because he and other Valorant streamers like Onscreen switched to 24/7 streams.
This practice Anomaly himself still referred to as “scummy” in mid-April, but quickly used it himself.
Because viewers can also receive Twitch Drops while watching a recorded video, as long as it is not marked as a recording.
That’s why players like Anomaly had a continuous stream: When they slept, old videos played without being recognizable as a “recording”.
Stream colleague summit1g also called the practice “scummy” a few weeks ago, and labeled Anomaly as a “bitch” who should turn off his stream – summit1g immediately apologized for that.
Meanwhile, Twitch is punishing this 24/7 practice, but no one is taking Anomaly’s followers away. He has used the situation excellently to his advantage and is clearly the winner of Twitch in the last 30 days.
