Subathon stars Ironmouse & Ludwig explain what they’d change if they did one again

Ludwig and Ironmouse took over Twitch with their iconic subathons. However, the two record-breaking streamers admitted the month-long broadcasts were flawed ⁠— highlighting two big changes they’d make if they ever did one again.

As far as memorable Twitch broadcasts go, Ludwig and Ironmouse’s subathons are among two of the greatest.

The first, hosted by the American streamer now on YouTube, took the internet by storm. Broadcasting his life for a month straight to fans, hundreds of thousands became intimately acquainted with how the streamer operated on a daily basis. It broke Twitch records as the streamer peaked with more than 250,000 subscribers, all trying to “raise the timer”.

Many followed in his footsteps, but none were more successful than VTuber Ironmouse. The Twitch star pushed her body to stay live for as long as possible. What was expected to be a 48 hour endeavor quickly became a month-long affair as the star stayed live for 31 days ⁠— once again breaking Twitch records in the process with more than 100,000 subs.

However, in reflection, the two admit the marathon broadcasts were among some of their worst quality-wise. Talking on a July 12 podcast, the duo opened up on what they would change if they were ever to run a subathon again (spoiler: it’s unlikely).

“If I were to do a subathon again, I think it would be more Truman show-esque and for charity,” Ludwig explained. “I wouldn’t do one that is just existing like I did last time.

“What I realized at the end of the subathon ⁠— I went from 20,000 average to 40,000 to 50,000 with 200,000 subs, and then it ended and the next month I was back to 20,000 viewers and lost all the subs. I had zero growth from it. If anything, I actually lost viewers.

“Everyone who was watching my stream was watching me just existing, being boring as f**k, having zero content prepared, just trying to see what the clock was at. When the clock was gone they were like ‘oh, what does this guy do? I don’t f**k with that.’”

Ludwig even said his subathon was “probably the worst content I’ve ever produced”.

“It was cool to be a part of the journey, but every individual day was boring. If I streamed what I did on Day 17 just today, people would be like ‘what the f**k is this stream bro?’ It’s different in the context that it was in.”

Ironmouse shared a similar tune to Ludwig. The unstructured nature of both their subathons ⁠— brought on by a realization they had woefully underestimated how long they’d last ⁠— left them lacking in content.

Some viewers claimed it was boring at the time, and looking back that’s a valid criticism.

“I got people who were like ‘it was so boring because she didn’t have anything prepared’ and I agree,” Ironmouse added. “A lot of people were criticizing me saying ‘Ludwig’s subathon was so prepared and anything’ and it’s interesting to hear you say you didn’t have anything prepared.

“I didn’t expect to last two to three days. My computer was such sh*t that I was afraid to do anything intense with it, so I played it by ear and did whatever came to mind. Now, after I did it, I wish I had prepared more things.”

While Ludwig has basically vowed never to do a subathon again ⁠— at least in the traditional sense again ⁠— Ironmouse is planning a second one whenever she feels well enough to do another marathon broadcast. 

“I was actually going to do a short one for a week this week while my parents were out of town, but with me being sick and stuff I’ve been knocking out so early I felt bad because I’d do more sleeping than being awake and I felt guilty doing a subathon and being more asleep than awake. 

“I decided not to do it now and to see if I could do it at another time, but I was going to raise money for the Immune Deficiency Foundation. I was going to do a lot more prepared stuff.”