Twitch has confirmed that the massive data leak earlier today is real. In the leak, Twitch’s source code was revealed, along with data such as all past comment history, Twitch-related projects, and more. Arguably, the most talked-about aspect of the leak so far is how it revealed the top Twitch streamers’ purported payouts on the platform.
Many Twitch viewers were shocked by just how much their favorite streamers made, but some streamers, like xQc, have hinted that these numbers are even larger in reality for most mentioned in the leak. Variety streamer Ludwig, who has 3 million Twitch followers, comes in at No. 6 on the now widely-shared screenshots compiled from the data leak.
Ludwig currently has an average of 22,000 concurrent Twitch viewers and 15,743 subscribers at the time of writing, according to Twitch Tracker. This subscriber number has significantly decreased from his all-time high back in April 2021, where he had the most Twitch subscribers ever and broke Twitch records with 283,066 subs. Ludwig’s Twitch revenue may have decreased since his famous sub-a-thon earlier this year, but he’s still making plenty of income from other sources, such as sponsorships and YouTube.
According to the leak, between August 2019 and October 2021, Ludwig made just under $3.3 million. This means that over the past two years, on average, he has made about $1.65 million just from Twitch alone. Keep in mind that this number doesn’t include the revenue from his sponsorships with NordVPN, Coinbase, American Eagle, Willow, and GFuel, which presumably significantly increases his income. And this leaked number doesn’t necessarily include any exclusivity contract Ludwig may have signed with Twitch, which often comes with a hefty signing bonus.
In a response to Ludwig’s Twitch revenue being among those leaked today, xQc responded that Ludwig built a brand for himself around appearing anti-parasocial, “but he farmed parasocial [interaction] by forcing pepperpains.” Pepperpains is an emote often used on Twitch when something is considered cringe. XQc also said that in his opinion, Ludwig is “forcing cringe, so he’s kinda cheating, but it is what it is.”
