Shroud’s longest ever break from streaming highlights why he’s so successful

Popular streamer Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek has been at the top of Twitch’s statistics for a while now and, on August 15, his discussion regarding his breaks from streaming explains exactly why. 

Shroud’s career in streaming began thanks to his insane Counter Strike: Global Offensive skills, a game he occasionally returns to while on stream. However, he brings a high skill level to any game he plays, including Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends.

While Grzesiek’s inherent gaming talent is undoubtedly a draw for viewers, it seems his consistency has contributed as well. The streamer discussed Twitch breaks with his audience while live on August 15.

Shroud made his name in gaming as a Cloud9 CS:GO pro.

“You ever take a week off streaming? No I don’t think I’ve ever done that,” explained the 25 year old. “Unless I travelled somewhere for an event back in the Counter Strike days, that’d be the only time.” 

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Shroud streamed intermittently during his time as a CS:GO pro, before leaving Cloud9 in April 2018 to focus entirely on Twitch.

However, his viewers were quick to remind him of the time he was absent due to a broken arm, after he fell off a scooter. “Or, true, [when I] broke my arm,” he said. “That’s a very good point. Did I take a week off when I broke my arm? I wanna say I did, but I don’t know if it was a full week.”

Shroud goes on to state that the longest break he’s taken from streaming (that he can remember) is roughly four or five days. Given the fact he’s been a full time streamer for nearly 18 months, his consistency with streaming is even more impressive.

It is well documented how fast streamers can lose subscribers during an extended break. Back in June 2018, Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins took a two day break from Twitch in order to attend Fortnite’s Pro-AM, and lost 40,000 subscribers on the streaming platform.

It seems shroud has combined an innate gaming talent with a lot of hard work to achieve his Twitch success. He is regularly among the top five most subscribed to channels at any given point, and has 5,650,792 viewer hours this month according to Twitchmetrics.

His incredible viewer statistics are a testament to what can be achieved when someone as talented as shroud puts in the hours.