The list of fastest growing channels were dominated by Fortnite streamers in December 2018, according to Twitch Metrics, but who will have the most popular channel in 2019?
Twitch rounded out a massively successful year with a live stream in Times Square, as Ninja was joined by fellow streamers to ring in 2019 with some Fortnite – the most watched and streamed game over the past 12 months.
Ninja’s rise on the platform wasn’t without precedent, plenty of streamers have seen sharp increases in popularity, but combine Ninja’s growth with the success of Fortnite and it’s not hard to see why he has almost 13 million followers – over 7 million more than the 2nd most followed streamer, Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek.
Fastest growing Twitch channels
Both Ninja and shroud are seasoned streamers, both former professional players in Halo and Counter-Strike respectively, but, with the influx of brand new streamers in 2018 (over a million more on average per month than in 2017), will a new face be able to climb the ranks?
In December 2018, the fastest growing channel wasn’t Ninja, but instead FaZe Clan’s Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney, who – according to TwitchMetrics – gained over 400,000 followers in the last 30 days, compared to Ninja who has attracted over 365,000.
That gap somewhat closed since Ninja’s New Year’s Eve stream from Times Square, as the streamer was nearly 100,000 followers away from Tfue on January 1, but Blevins has since cut that margin to around 35,000.
Unsurprisingly, this top 10 list is dominated by Fortnite streamers, with only two (shroud and ZeRo) not streaming Fortnite as their primary game of choice.
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Judging by this, it will be a Fortnite streamer who will have the biggest opportunity to climb the ranks, maybe even compete with Ninja at the top, but that relies on the popularity of Fortnite remaining steady.
The game shows no signs of slowing down, even with increased competition from Call of Duty’s Blackout mode and PUBG now available on all platforms, Fortnite remains the undisputed king of battle royale.
Who will be the face of Twitch in 2019?
Some of Ninja’s guests at the New Year’s Eve event, like Jack ‘CouRage’ Dunlop, Tim ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar and Ben ‘DrLupo’ Lupo are perhaps worthy candidates. All are primarily Fortnite streamers, but could undoubtedly shift to another game if Fortnite was no longer the cultural zeitgeist.
Perhaps safe money would be on Tfue to rise to the very top, but his core following is very much Fortnite oriented, so there is a question mark over how well he would transition to another title, if Fortnite’s popularity was to wane.
Ninja is in prime position to keep his spot, however, despite a number of controversies – albeit minor ones – hitting him at the latter end of 2018. The popular streamer’s NYE event in Times Square gave him the platform to catch back up to Tfue in the fastest growing Twitch channel rankings and it’s fair to say that he’s not showing any signs of slowing down any time soon.
The real winner in all of this will be Twitch though, who continue to fend off competition from YouTube, Mixer and more to remain the prime destination for video game live streaming.