How Ludwig Ahgren became one of Twitch's most popular streamers and broke a record before announcing a move to YouTube Gaming

• Ludwig Ahgren is one of the most popular gaming streamers on Twitch.
• Ahgren began streaming in 2018. His channel rapidly rose over the last year.

Ludwig Ahgren is a massively popular streamer with 3.1 million followers on Twitch, where he has been creating content under the handle "Ludwig" since joining the platform in 2018. He is currently the 61st-most-followed creator on the platform, according to the data analytics website SocialBlade.

Ahgren is known for playing video games with friends, chatting casually with viewers, and doing miscellaneous activities on stream.

On Monday, the 26-year-old announced on Twitter that he signed a deal to stream exclusively with YouTube Gaming, making him the latest in a line of streamers to make the switch from Twitch to YouTube.

Before Ahgren joined Twitch in 2018, he played in professional tournaments for "Super Smash Bros. Melee," a multiplayer fighting game made by Nintendo, according to a profile made for him on the esports community database Liquipedia. His earliest games date back to 2015 and his most recent match was in January, though he has never won a tournament, according to his Liquipedia profile.

Ahgren attended Arizona State University, where he "refused to join a frat, failed to join an a capella club," and was a member of the school's standup group, he said previously in a YouTube video. He reportedly graduated in 2017 with a cum laude distinction and two majors, English and Journalism & Mass Communication, according to a commencement and convocation program reported by the entertainment outlet Looper.

When Ahgren started streaming on Twitch in 2018, he mostly played "Super Smash Bros. Melee," "Mario Party 2," and "Dark Souls," according to a community-made Wiki page for him on the fan-information website Fandom.

Ahgren's rise from novice streamer to shattering a record

In June 2020, Ahgren had amassed 435,000 followers on Twitch, Insider previously reported. His channel grew rapidly during late 2020 and this year. He became known for playing the deception game "Among Us" with other popular streamers like Disguised Toast, Sykkuno, Pokimane, and Valkyrae.

He hit 1 million followers in December 2020 and surpassed 2 million in March, according to the social media analytics website SocialBlade.

In April, Ahgren broke the all-time record for having the most active subscribers on Twitch, surpassing professional gamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, who previously held the record. Twitch subscribers are viewers who pay an amount of money to support the channel and receive exclusive benefits.

Ahgren set the record after hosting a month-long "subathon," which is a special event where the streamer directs all their efforts at trying to gain more subscribers and often does specific activities in exchange for subscriptions. Ahgren still maintains the record for all-time most active subscribers, according to the data analytics website TwitchTracker.

Ahgren is moving to YouTube Gaming

On Monday, the social media star announced on Twitter with a comedic video that he was moving from Twitch to YouTube Gaming. The clip featured him switching from driving in a purple car to a red car. The colored cars appeared to reference each platform's respective logos.

—ludwig (@LudwigAhgren) November 29, 2021

As of Tuesday, Ahgren's Twitch account had over 96 million views in total.

The verified Twitch account left a positive reply to Ahgren's tweet, writing that the streamer was "a mogul in every sense" and wished him "best of luck" and to "keep doing big things out there."

Ahgren's move follows gaming influencers Benjamin "DrLupo" Lupo and Tim "TimTheTatman" Betar, who did the same earlier this year.

Ahgren already has 2 million followers on YouTube, where he posts videos under the handle "Ludwig."

Ahgren did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on the move to YouTube.