A Decade of Streaming and Content Creation: Faces

Early streaming personalities often came from professional gaming backgrounds with a high level of skill in competitive games. Summit1g, tarik_tv, and ShahZaM were among the first and most popular streamers. These included League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, StarCraft 2. Prominent examples of these early influential figures include Peter "ppd" Dager, Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, Gustav "AdmiralBulldog" Forsen, and many others. They played a big role in the early stages of live streaming, drawing in other players. 

Viewers were highly engaged with specific game communities and were often drawn to streamers who exhibited exceptional skill, provided entertaining commentary, or fostered a strong sense of community around their channel. Streamers drew in a mostly young, male crowd. Viewers were into specific game communities, flocking to streamers who showed off skills and built strong communities around their channels.

Some honorable mentions are also due to the top YouTubers of 2015 creating “let’s play” content: 

• In 2015, PewDiePie was YouTube's top gaming channel with nearly 320 million monthly views. 

• TheDiamondMinecart (DanTDM), a British gamer and streamer, is particularly known for his Minecraft content, with 243.3 million views (appealing significantly to a younger demographic). 
• Canadian VanossGaming (Evan Fong) has over 231.8 million views of humorous, edited multiplayer gameplay montages featuring a group of friends in GTA V and Call of Duty. 
• Irish gamer and streamer, JackSepticEye (Seán McLoughlin), known for his energetic YouTube commentary, garnered almost 224.5 million views with diverse game playthroughs.

Come 2025, the roster of top streamers has diversified significantly in terms of content, platform, and geographical origin. Personality and community engagement have become central. 

Current Global Leaders (2025): 

• Ninja (Richard Tyler Blevins): a colossal figure with approximately 19 million followers. While initially known for Fortnite, he now streams a variety of games and maintains a broad audience. He is often cited as one of the highest-earning streamers. 

• Auronplay (Raúl Álvarez Genes): A top Spanish streamer with around 16 million followers. His content is heavily focused on "Just Chatting" and variety gaming.  
• Ibai (Ibai Llanos): Spanish mega-streamer, 15.3M followers, is known for large original events like the "La Velada del Año" streamer boxing (3.8M peak viewers), sports commentary, diverse gaming, and "Just Chatting" streams.
• Gaules (Alexandre Borba Chiqueta): A Brazilian Counter-Strike streamer and commentator with around 4 million followers. He commands massive viewership in Brazil and is a key figure in esports co-streaming, contributing significantly to event viewership. His channel saw 3.91 million hours watched in May 2025.  
• Caedrel (Marc Robert Lamont): A UK-based League of Legends commentator and streamer, also a major co-streaming personality. His channel achieved 8.29 million hours watched in May 2025, topping the Twitch charts.
• In Q1 2025, IShowSpeed (Darren Watkins Jr.) led YouTube Gaming streaming, focusing on IRL content like travel vlogs and events, alongside gaming (Fortnite, Red Dead Redemption 2). He had a high average concurrent viewership, around 79,100 in Q2 2024.
• Japanese VTubers, using animated avatars, have experienced significant growth and cultivated large, dedicated fan bases with tens of millions of hours watched. Prominent examples include Kuzuha Channel (41.7M hours watched in 2024), Pekora Ch. (37.8M hours watched), and Miko Ch. (32.5M hours watched), primarily from non-English speaking regions. 

The contrast between the top streamers of 2015 and 2025 is stark. In 2025, across platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and Kick, many popular figures focus on "Just Chatting," IRL content, or self-produced events, unlike the primarily gaming-focused leaders of 2015. This tells us that personality, broad entertainment skills, and community building are now crucial for being more “successful”, and these skills often outweigh specific game content. 

Furthermore, we're seeing a ton of big streamers emerging from Latin America, Spain, Japan, and the Middle East/North Africa, and they're not making content in English. This shift diversifies beyond just English content and really underscores the strength of local communities. 

What Games They Stream

In 2015, gameplay from established titles and the burgeoning esports scene heavily dominated the streaming landscape.

• The most watched games often had strong competitive elements. League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Dota 2 consistently topped viewership charts, largely due to their active esports tournaments and dedicated fanbases.
• Other titles that featured in Twitch's top 10 most-watched games: the digital card game Hearthstone, the sandbox phenomenon Minecraft, the early battle royale precursor H1Z1 (later known as Z1 Battle Royale), the shared-world shooter Destiny, and popular franchises like World of Tanks, World of Warcraft, and FIFA 15. 

By 2025, personality-driven content on streaming platforms exceeds traditional gameplay viewership, though gaming remains a central theme.

Top Streamed Games (Twitch, YouTube, Kick):

• Twitch viewership is consistently dominated by evergreen titles like Grand Theft Auto V (especially RP servers), League of Legends, Valorant, Counter-Strike 2, Fortnite, Dota 2, World of Warcraft, and Minecraft. New games, such as Marvel Rivals (launched in 2024), also rapidly gain popularity.
• YouTube Gaming: Similar major PC and console titles are popular, but YouTube also sees strong viewership for mobile games, especially in the context of esports. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is a good example. For VOD content: guides, tutorials, game reviews, and "funny moments" compilations remain highly sought after.  
• Kick: The platform's top game categories often include Grand Theft Auto V (especially RP), Dota 2, and Minecraft. However, non-gaming categories like Just Chatting and Slots & Casino frequently lead in viewership, alongside PUBG Mobile.

The most profound shift of the decade is the explosion of "Just Chatting" and IRL content as top-tier categories. This often surpasses major game titles in viewership and indicates a fundamental evolution in audience desires. Viewers are increasingly drawn to the streamers' personalities, opinions, interactions with the chat community, and glimpses into their daily lives. 

To find out more about the gaming market transformations over the past 10 years, stay tuned to 80 Level for more anniversary articles on content creation, gaming technologies, and other latest trends in the industry.