xQc has cemented his Twitch legacy, but can anyone catch up to the stream king?
Twitter: xQcFelix ‘xQc’ Lengyel was the most-watched streamer on Twitch in April by a long shot, adding another building block to his legacy on the platform. It begs the question: who can catch him?
In many ways, xQc’s name has become synonymous with Twitch. The energetic and fast-talking streamer stepped away from his career as a professional Overwatch player in 2018 to focus on streaming, and the rest is history.
Today, he is, without a doubt, the most popular variety streamer on the platform, entertaining tens of thousands of people each day and millions throughout the year. As a result, his legacy is already set in stone.
Across the first four months of 2022, xQc has raked in more than 92.5 million hours watched. His nearest rival, Brazilian superstar Gaules, is nearly half that at 54.3 million.
Sure, the king gets dethroned every now and again month-by-month as the trends change, but he’s remains immortal while others die as meta snuff out.
There seems to be a sizeable gap between him and the rest of the platform, but how long can the juicer sit at the top? Is there anyone that can feasibly challenge him — not just now, but long-term? That’s a deep rabbit hole to dive into.
Twitch: xQcxQc is the king of Twitch, and it’s not close
xQc has dominated viewership on Twitch in the last 12 months. People tuned into his channel for almost 260 million hours in that time, which is 100 million more than Gaules, the next most-viewed streamer on the list.
What’s more, he pulled that off while streaming for about half the time Gaules has. xQc streamed for 3,500 hours with an average of 75,000 viewers. Gaules streamed for 8,500 hours with an average of 20,000 viewers.
It does come down to some of the content. Gaules, with the PGL Antwerp Major coming up, will definitely have a chance at knocking off xQc in May — the Brazilian gets a huge influx of viewers around major Counter-Strike events.
However, the juicer has also been helped by the recent Overwatch 2 beta which broke his own viewership records.
Beyond that, third and fourth most-viewed streamers throughout the year were auronplay and Ibai, who clocked up around 120 million and 115 million hours watched respectively. After that, there’s a sharp decline.
The momentum hasn’t slowed down either. In April, xQc accrued approximately 26 million hours watched compared to Gaules’ 16 million. The next three rounding out the top five had around 10 million.
StreamChartsCan xQc be stopped? Realistically, no.
Based on those stats alone, it seems like nobody can catch xQc.
Well, there’s one outside contender. Auronplay, the Spanish-speaking superstar, skyrocketed in popularity in April. He averaged around 30,000 more viewers than xQc.
He also has 12.5 million followers on the platform compared to xQc’s 10.5 million. In fact, the only streamer who has more than him is Ninja, who has 18 million followers. So, if anyone’s in contention, it’s him.
Gaules, who is also in second for the year, has a chance to gain some ground with the aforementioned CS:GO major providing a boost over the next couple of weeks.
However, xQc’s channel is still growing exponentially. Not only did he gain 350,000 followers in the past month, but his viewership also increased by 13.5%. Other fanbases work in ebbs and flows — but the juicer army turns out in droves, every day, for xQc’s broadcasts.
For that reason, it’s unlikely he’ll be dethroned anytime soon.