Ludwig officially switches from Twitch to YouTube Gaming
Twitch streamer Ludwig Ahgren, one of the most-watched streamers on the platform, has announced a move to YouTube Gaming, joining the likes of Jack “CouRage” Dunlop and Rachel “Valkyrae” Hofstetter.
Back in April this year, Ludwig completed his 31-day “subathon” to break Ninja’s record of most active subs on Twitch at 269,154 peak active subs, reaching 283,066, making him the streamer with the most active subs on the Amazon-owned platform.
The move
The move was announced on November 29 after Ludwig’s appearance on Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo’s Twitch web show Parasocial. He announced the decision on Twitter with a two-minute cinematic video, saying that he would begin streaming on November 30.
Ludwig is shown driving a purple car while conversing with roommate and manager Anthony “Slime” Brune about whether if Ludwig would be as successful if he were bald like Slime. The conversation went on until they arrive at a shopping center’s parking lot and get out of the car.
While they are picking a shopping cart, the purple car explodes. The camera pans to a red but similar-looking car parked opposite to their destroyed purple car.
“Pretty much the same one [in comparison to the purple car],” said Slime.
Ludwig agrees, saying that the car is just a “different color”. The two then get in the car and head home. Ludwig turns on the car’s radio and music begins to play.
“Wait, don’t you get in trouble for playing music?” asked Slime
“Not in this car, not in this car,” Ludwig answered with smugness in his tone, and the camera zoomed out with the “Mogul Moves” plate number, a familiar tagline for Ludwig.
The last sequence of the conversation is a soft jab to Twitch DMCA-striking policy to content creators who use copyrighted music in their streams. Even an unintentional slip-up often leads to a potential strike. In 2020, hundreds of Twitch streamers were given DMCS takedown notices, including on videos they had decided to remove in the past. It is understood that YouTube’s rules are more relaxed than Twitch’s.
The move was also announced by YouTube head of Gaming Ryan Watt who also revealed the news on Twitter.
“I’m excited to announce @LudwigAhgren will now be streaming exclusively on @YouTubeGaming,” Watt wrote. “Our focus is building a world class VOD, short form, and live platform.”
The exodus
Watt added that YouTube did not plan to stop there, indicating that the red platform would bring even more Twitch streamers to Gaming. Just before Ludwig announced his move, YouTube Gaming had also signed major Twitch personalities TimTheTatman and DrLupo who are now streaming exclusively on the platform. They joined Dr Disrespect who had a permaban by Twitch in 2020 and is currently looking to sue it.
Ludwig previously said that he held some valuable “secret info” on other streamers leaving Twitch for YouTube Gaming, but kept secret his own plans to sign a contract with the latter. He revealed his move just after DrLupo’s move was official. It is rumored that streamers were moving because Twitch did not offer them profitable exclusive contracts, as they used to do for Fortnite streamers during the game’s peak.
Despite a notable number of big names moving to YouTube, Twitch is still holding on its own against the Google-owned platform. It was reported that in the third quartal of 2021 that Twitch had a 41 percent increase in year-on-year viewership growth as opposed to YouTube Gaming with a 12 percent decrease, as per Stream Hatchet.
It seems like from now on, however, Twitch has to proceed with caution as it is likely that other streamers will follow a similar path.
