Ludwig's subathon
A subathon is a type of livestream in which viewer donations add more time to a descending timer that counts down to the end of the stream.
[1] Throughout the streams' duration, Ahgren received 282,191 subscriptions, breaking the previous record set in 2018 by Tyler "Ninja" Blevins of the most concurrent subscribers on Twitch.
The subathon's content consisted of talking to his viewers and stream moderators, playing games, and sleeping, among other various daily activities.
[3] Twitch—then Ahgren's livestreaming platform—also saw heightened popularity in 2020, partially due to the COVID-19 lockdowns creating a higher demand for online entertainment.
[4] According to Taylor Lorenz of The New York Times, Ahgren's stream may be "an extension of the trend of creators monetizing more and more parts of their lives".
[1] While subathons existed in the Twitch community prior to Ahgren's stream, they usually did not span multiple days,[8][9] and were not as prevalent.
[1] The livestream's content consisted of playing games, such as Super Mario Odyssey and Pokémon; cooking; talking to his viewers and moderators; watching movies; exercising in his garage; and sleeping.
[15] Blevins replied on Twitter by saying, "I would be lying if I said [I] wasn't a little sad, but congrats [Ludwig] on holding the new sub record".
[15] The subathon's timer did not run out; Ahgren set a cutoff date for the stream—April 13—to prevent it from continuing indefinitely.
[15] For every subscription purchased on April 13, Ahgren donated $5 to the Humane Society of the United States and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
[15] Similarly, a viewer interviewed by The New York Times' Taylor Lorenz said the stream gave comfort and connection.
[4] Peter Marsh of ABC News compared the stream to a high school sleepover, and said the stream "developed a life of its own, with in-jokes, memes and characters",[9] while Bijan Stephen of The Verge wrote, "It's incredible to me that [...] Twitch still has its own distinct culture and its own set of stars who seem to do stunts like this just because they seem cool".
[25] Grayson wrote, "No matter how much (or how little) he makes off this subathon, Ahgren will remain a rich person who takes a chunk of his money directly from people who are poorer than him.
[1] Streamers Sykkuno, iiTzTimmy, and Ironmouse held subathon streams as a result of this trend started by Ahgren.
[28] Ahgren's subscription record remained unbroken until February 28, 2023, when Kai Cenat reached more than 300,000 subscribers during his 30-day subathon.
