It took 31 days of non-stop streaming, but variety streamer Ludwig Agren finally broke Twitch's all-time sub record of 269,154 set by Ninja in 2018." You are here. This is a new Twitch record," he announced to his 80,000+ viewers the moment he surpassed the sub count benchmark.

The accomplishment came just as Ludwig was preparing to end his month-long subthon. It was not supposed to last this long. Ludwig began streaming on March 14, and set a simple rule: if you want to be a part of it, you have to be a part of it. That was four weeks ago. Viewers kept the dream of "never-ending streaming" alive for a tremendous amount of time, but Ludwig finally pulled the plug tonight, April 13, at 9 p.m. PT, because he needed time away from the webcam. Given the chance, this show could go on indefinitely.

For a while, the unlikely stream seemed to be coming to an end. I said as much over two weeks ago when the timer reached eight hours. To be fair, Ludwig must have been surprised. He and his moderators had already begun planning the finale in case the timer hit zero that weekend. It is quaint at this point.

I have continued to check the subson since then and have witnessed the stream nearly end thousands of times. There have been a few times when the timer has gone under a minute, but viewers always throw in their $5 subscription in the nick of time, often adding several hours within minutes.

On the last day of the stream, Ludwig promised to match each subscription with a donation to St. Jude Children's Hospital or the Humane Society. This last-minute boost propelled him to the top of the charts, where he now ranks as the most subscribed streamer now and ever, with 273,058 (and growing as of this writing).

One wonders how long Ludwig will stay on top as he returns to a more regular streaming schedule. Three years after setting his last record (and leaving Twitch for a while to sign a Mixer exclusive deal), TwitchTracker estimates Ninja's current active subscriber count at about 7,800. That's still a lot, but far from peak. (Microsoft paid him a lot of money)