Since the launch of the live-streaming platform Twitch in 2011, gaming has become a lucrative activity for many, transforming young people into celebrities with a loyal online following and millions of viewers. With some Twitch streamers gaining mainstream stardom (Tyler “Ninja” Blevins appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, for instance), gaming and streaming can no longer be considered just hobbies. To see who earns the most on the platform, the team at Sportingpedia aggregated subscription data for each month of 2024 from the tracking website TwitchTracker.
Looking at the 60 Twitch creators with the most paid subscriptions as of February 2025, we identified those who generated the largest revenues from the fee subscribers paid to watch and interact with them last year. Twitch and YouTube star Kai Cenat emerges as the top-earning streamer, making an estimated $4.4 million to $6.2 million, depending on the percentage of subscription fee revenues he received from the platform.
Here are a few key takeaways from the report:
- 23-year-old American streamer and YouTuber Kai Cenat, the fourth-most followed person on Twitch, earned the most from subscriptions last year. His estimated revenues range between $4.43 million and $6.2 million, depending on whether he received 50% or 70% of the earnings from subscriptions.
- Another 23-year-old American, Nicholas “Jynxzi” Stewart, ranks second in terms of subscription-related revenues for 2024, earning between $3.6 million and $5 million, followed by Case Dylan Baker, better known as caseoh_, who earned between $2 million and $2.85 million.
- The top-earning Twitch creators, however, are not those with the largest following. The most followed streamer right now is Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who has more than 19 million followers yet only 2,400 or so subscribers.
- Compared to YouTube and Kick, Twitch pays creators significantly less. The platform keeps half of the revenue generated from paid subscriptions ($4.99-$24.99 per month).
The report also delves deep into the earnings of Twitch’s highest-paid streamers, revealing how subscription models, gifted subs, and monetisation strategies contribute to their substantial revenues. Multi-platform strategies, leveraging other social media and streaming platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, along with brand partnerships, allow streamers to maximise their income and future-proof their careers.
Twitch’s most followed streamer, Ninja, for instance, has more followers on YouTube than on Twitch. If we look at streamers’ total number of followers on Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, the most popular streamer is Norwegian-Spanish YouTuber Rubén Doblas Gundersen, better known as elrubiusOMG or simply Rubius.
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