A new study conducted by online gaming platform Solitaired has revealed that former Manchester City striker Sergio Agüero is still at the top of his game when it comes to followers on gaming streamer Twitch.
The study looked at how many followers celebrity Twitchers have on the platform, and found that, perhaps surprisingly, the unassuming former City goal merchant came out on top with 4.66m followers and 17.5 million views across 23 game streams, ahead of the likes of PSG forward Neymar Jr, who claimed 2.13 million followers on Twitch and 3.7 million views across his nine game streams for second place.
The study looked at how many followers each celebrity account has and how many views and game streams, excluding reruns, they have gained.
Agüero, who announced his retirement from football at 33 last year due to a heart condition and set up his own esports team during lockdown in 2020, Twitches as ‘SLAKUN10’ and plays a mix of games from FIFA to VALROANT and Grand Theft Auto.
Formula 1 McLaren driver Lando Norris ranked third with 1.36 million followers, although he has gained more views than the top two combined and claims in his bio that he is a ‘TEMPORARAYAYRLY FULL TIME STREAMER, drives in Formula 1 every now and then too…’. He has attracted over 21.9 million views with 51 game streams and has also founded Quadrant, his own eSports and content creator team.
All-time City top scorer Agüero also saw off American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known by her Twitch name ‘AOC’, with one million followers. Ocasio-Cortez has served as U.S. representative for New York’s 14th congressional district since 2019 and began her Twitch account in March 2020. Her most streamed game is Among Us, and at the start of her very first stream, she directed her viewers to ‘I Will Vote’, a website that aims to help people establish a voting plan.
The top five was rounded out by hip hop star T-Pain, with 898,536 followers and 5.84 million views across 111 game streams. T-Pain is also the CEO of Nappy Boy Gaming and has played various games ranging from Call of Duty: Warzone to Forza Horizon 5.
Taking up the sixth to tenth spots were ‘Circles’ singer Post Malone, comedian Andy Milonakis, a second Formula 1 star in Charles Leclerc, with 606,887 million followers, Logic – the first musician to sign a deal with Twitch in 2023 with a seven-figure deal is stream exclusively to the site, and EDM artist Deadmau5.
A spokesperson for Solitaired said: “Twitch is a unique platform as it is solely dedicated to live-streaming and offers a real-time interactive chat experience. It’s interesting to note the range of celebrities, even just in the top ten most followed, from footballers, musicians to politicians. It’s amazing to see how welcoming the Twitch community is to a diverse range of streamers.”
There are several accounts worth noting that haven’t been included in the list. An account dedicated to Bob Ross, who died in 1995, streams old episodes from the ‘Joy of Painting’ and has 2.1 million followers – enough to put it third on the list – was not included due to being created by Twitch. Music artists Soulja Boy, who had 831,818 followers, and Snoop Dog, with 822,828 followers are also omitted due to their Twitch accounts being no longer available.
