About this chart race
Ninja was the most-followed channel on Twitch for five straight year-end lists, from 2020 to 2024. He lost the top spot in 2025 to KaiCenat, who is not on the list at all before 2023 - he appears that year on 8.2 million and is first two years later on 20.1 million, finishing 2026 on 21.4 million.
Ninja did not collapse; he stopped growing. He went from 16.5 million followers in 2020 to 19.3 million in 2026, a gain of 2.8 million in six years, and added just 0.1 million between 2024 and 2026. On a platform where the people around him were doubling, standing still was enough to lose first place. The gap between first and second at the end of 2026 is 1.0 million.
The largest gain of all belongs to Ibai, who went from 4.4 million in 2020 to 20.4 million in 2026 - a rise of 16.0 million, more than Ninja's entire 2020 total. Auronplay, Rubius, TheGrefg, Juansguarnizo, ElMariana and ElSpreen all climb with him.
That is the change the chart is really showing. In 2020 two of the top ten channels streamed in Spanish; in 2026 five of the top ten do. The English-speaking names from the 2020 list are mostly still there - Ninja, Tfue, xQc and Rubius all remain in the top ten - but they have been overtaken rather than replaced. Tfue was second in 2020 on 9.8 million and is tenth in 2026 on 11.5 million, having gained 1.7 million in six years.
This animated ranking shows how followers on twitch changed across 19 series between 2020 and 2026. The bars re-order themselves as the years advance, so overtakes are visible as they happen rather than hidden inside a table. Use the list on the left to choose exactly who competes, drag the slider to jump to any year, or open the table view to read the underlying numbers.
As of 2026, KaiCenat leads with 21.4 millions.
Included in this race
KaiCenat, Ibai, Ninja, Auronplay, Rubius, xQc, TheGrefg, EasyLiker, Juansguarnizo, Tfue, Shroud, ElMariana, ElSpreen, Pokimane, Sodapoppin, TimTheTatman, Myth, Heelmike, Summit1g.
Source
Data from Wikipedia - List of most-followed Twitch channels. Every figure shown comes from this source — nothing is estimated or generated.
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