Ludwig breaks Ninja's Twitch sub record after streaming for 31 days straight

Ludwig breaks twitch sub record
(Image credit: Ludwig Ahgren)

It took 31 days of non-stop streaming, but variety streamer Ludwig Ahgren has finally broken the all-time Twitch sub record of 269,154 set by Ninja all the way back in 2018. "There it is, you were here. This is the new record on Twitch," he announced to an audience of over 80,000 just as his sub count crossed the threshold.

The achievement comes just as Ludwig is preparing to wrap up the month-long subathon. It wasn't supposed to go this long. Ludwig began streaming on March 14 with a simple rule: each sub adds ten seconds to a countdown clock that signals the end of the show. That was four weeks ago. Viewers kept the 'never-ending stream' dream alive for a ridiculous amount of time, but Ludwig is finally pulling the plug tonight April 13 at 9 pm PT for some well-needed time away from a webcam. Given the chance, the subathon could probably continue indefinitely.

For a while, it has appeared as if the unlikely stream was winding down—I said as much over two weeks ago when the timer was at 8 hours. Man, was I hilariously wrong. To be fair, Ludwig must've been surprised as well. He and his mods had already begun planning a finale in case the timer struck zero that weekend. Seems quaint at this point.

I've continued to check in on the subathon since then and have witnessed the stream almost end what seems like a thousand times. The timer has dropped below one minute on several occasions, but viewers always chip in with $5 subscriptions in the knick of time, often adding several more hours within minutes.

For the final day of the stream, Ludwig promised to match each sub with a $5 donation to either St. Jude Children’s Hospital or the Animal Humane Society. The last-minute boost helped propel him to the top of the charts, where he currently ranks as the most subscribed-to streamer right now and of all time with 273,058 (and rising as I write this).

As he returns to a more regular streaming schedule, I'll be curious to see how long Ludwig stays on top. Three years after setting the last record (and leaving Twitch for a Mixer exclusivity deal for a while), TwitchTracker estimates Ninja has around 7,800 active subscribers today. That's still a lot, but far from his peak. (Not that he needs the money anymore. Microsoft payed him a lot.)

TOPICS
Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.

Read more
The speedrunner Niftski reacts as he breaks the Super Mario Bros. world record.
Super Mario Bros. speedrunner sets a new world record on a PC using keyboard controls and boldly proclaims they're 'now 0.3 seconds off of absolute perfection'
Pint, a lalafellin mage, looks towards the sunset sky and closes his eyes in gracious defeat in Final Fantasy 14.
FF14 streamer yields to the MMO's bounciest catgirl, after inspiring them to beat his new speedrunning record 3 times before he could finish making a video about it
A cameraman, floating in a cloud, looks rather unhappy at Mario in Super Mario 64.
Viewers watch in horror, unable to help, as blindfolded Super Mario 64 speedrunner almost gets a world record that wouldn't have counted: 'I would've cried'
Elden Ring Malenia
'That's why they call me the Elden Ring sicko' proclaims streamer as he beats FromSoft's RPG at NG+1000 without taking a single hit
dinossindgeil celebrates a hard-earned victory over seven consecutive souls games without a single hit, at level 1.
Streamer achieves git gud godhood by beating all mainline Souls games at level 1, back to back, without getting hit—then explodes into tears of relief
Shroud.
After losing his father to cancer, mega streamer Shroud is running a January 'Fragathon' where he'll donate to cancer research for each in-game kill
Latest in Platforms
Screenshot of Children of Clay showing a mysterious clay model
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 10, 2025)
discord
Brace yourself for Discord to get worse: Reports swirl that the company is in talks with bankers about opening itself up to shareholders
The Spy from Team Fortress 2 holds up a folder with an accusatory expression.
Steam users react ecstatically to update that lets them access their heaving game notes via the web, also it fixes Monster Hunter Wilds video recording
HasanAbi
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker suspended after saying Republicans would 'kill Rick Scott' if they really cared about Medicare fraud
Screenshot from Faceminer showing a PC desktop with several windows open
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 3, 2025)
PORTSMOUTH, UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 20: A man smokes a cigarette while he looks at a smart phone screen on October 20, 2024 in Portsmouth, England. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Meta says sorry for turning Instagram into a horror show of violence, gore, dead bodies, and other graphic content that 'should not have been recommended'
Latest in News
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam