On Sunday March 14, popular Twitch streamer Ludwig started a subathon on his channel with the promise to keep streaming as long as people kept subscribing. The stream has now been live for over two consecutive weeks, and while it’s slowing down a little, it’s still showing no sign of stopping.
Ludwig mainly games with friends on the stream, but it also features hours of the streamer sleeping in his distinctive bright red racecar bed. In the early days of the stream, Ludwig even became the most-watched streamer on Twitch while he was sleeping. While he rests, the channel’s mods take over and play videos requested by viewers, turning the 24-hour stream into what is essentially a community YouTube party.
Initially, every subscription to Ludwig’s channel added 20 seconds to a timer that dictated how long he would stay live for, but in the wake of huge numbers of subscriptions, that has since been lowered to 10 seconds. Ludwig has also added extra conditions to a stream that seemed to have endless momentum, such as limiting users to 100 gift subs each, and adding a hard cap of 31 days in case the stream doesn’t end naturally before that.
Now 15 days in, the counter on Ludwig’s stream has dwindled to around 4 hours at the time of writing. It’s dropped quite a bit after staying in the double digits for all of last week, though loyal viewers seem determined to keep it going. The subathon has been hugely successful for the streamer, who has become the most subscribed to streamer on the site, according to The Verge.
Ludwig took his first proper break from the stream over the weekend, handing it over to some friends for a day so he could rest. After just one day’s respite he was back online again and will continue to stay live for as long as the counter lasts–which could be just for another day or two, or for another 15.
