The most popular musicians in live streaming

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Twitch has diversified its content as it has evolved, bringing more than just gaming streams to the table. Music has become increasingly important to Twitch, with many creators who specifically stream them playing their musical instruments and engaging with music content. Streams Charts has compiled a list of some of the most popular musicians who go live on Twitch. 

This list of rappers, rockers, and record producers does not include streamers on Twitch who stream music-related content, but rather musicians who built a career outside of Twitch, before jumping onto the purple platform. Snoop Dogg is someone fans might expect to be on this ranking, as he made headlines multiple times in 2021 with his Twitch streams, but he has since deleted his Twitch channel and moved on from live streaming, it seems.

Naturally, some musicians and artists may not feature on this list as it is impossible to feature every musician in live streaming. This list is a sample of the overall diverse musician section of live streaming and not a definitive ranking of every artist.

Recently, Metro Boomin, an American record producer, announced on Twitter he would be joining Twitch. Metro Boomin, Leland Tyler Wayne, has over 4.4M Followers on Twitter and has collaborated with some of the most famous rap legends: Kanye West, Drake, Future, and more. Kick could not hold in their disappointment at Metro Boomin's decision to join Twitch, as live streaming platforms from all sectors compete to sign the most popular names.

disappointed mr boomin

— Kick.com (@KickStreaming) January 4, 2024

Music Artists on Live Streaming Platforms (Twitch, YouTube, Kick)

Metro Boomin (3K Followers)

Metro Boomin is one of the newest musicians to join Twitch, having announced on Twitter to come follow him roughly a week ago. The record producer has already collected 13K Followers on Twitch, although the majority of these are from his 2019 streams.

Back in 2019, Wayne began streaming GTA Online and Call of Duty titles on Twitch. He didn’t stay long on the platform, streaming only once in 2020 and never since. His recent announcement on Twitter means he will likely return to streaming soon, and it’s unclear if his content will revolve around music or be video game streams.

Weird Paul (20K Followers)

Second on our ranking is Weird Paul. Paul Petroskey is a lo-fi musician who has been writing and recording since the mid-1980s. Paul joined Twitch in 2020 and has been streaming since, slowly and organically building an audience for himself on the platform.

Paul’s content on Twitch is nostalgic, lo-fi, and for lack of a better word, weird. His most popular content since joining Twitch was his three-year Twitch anniversary stream, where he also used a 90s camcorder as his webcam for the broadcast.

Mark Hoppus (61K Followers)

Mark Hoppus is an American musician most well-known for being the bassist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Blink-182. Like many others, Mark turned to live streaming during the pandemic lockdowns and began streaming himself in 2020. His most popular live stream was a test broadcast which was not even his first time on Twitch.

Although he originally streamed music-related content on the platform, he has since stepped away from music on Twitch, rather preferring to stream content such as him playing the New York Times crossword puzzle, a Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough, or hosting various watch parties on his channel.

Steve Aoki (81K Followers)

Steve Aoki is an American DJ and music producer and one of the most successful EDM artists in North America. In 2013, he was nominated for a Grammy Award and in 2018 he even created a song together with Blink-182.

Steve created his Twitch channel in 2014, although similarly to Mark Hoppus he did not begin streaming regularly until the pandemic lockdowns. His most popular content on Twitch has been his sponsored content in collaboration with Alienware. He garnered 80K Peak Viewers for his Call of Duty Warzone Alienware stream, and other streams like the Alienware-sponsored live DJ set and his Alienware-sponsored house tour also received 60-70K Peak Viewers.

21 Savage (124K Followers)

21 Savage is a British-American rapper who released his debut mixtapes just over a decade ago. Since then, he has collaborated with some of the most famous musicians from around the world, some of whom are present in this list. Post Malone, J. Cole, and Drake are just some of the artists that 21 Savage has worked with.

Although he hasn’t streamed much on Twitch, he has built up a sizable following for his broadcasts of Call of Duty gameplay, which he broadcasted in 2019. He also more recently appeared on KaiCenat’s stream to play NBA 2K. 

Drake (159K Followers)

Drake is a Canadian rapper and musician and one of the most well-known musicians of modern times. Drake started taking steps into the live streaming sphere in 2018 when he joined Ninja for a Fortnite game, making it one of the most popular English gaming streams ever conducted. In 2022, Drake created his StakeDrake Twitch channel, part of his partnership with the online gambling company. 

Drake streamed gambling content to Twitch in 2022, garnering 159K Followers and reaching 112K PV during a gambling stream in the middle of the year. Drake has yet to stream outside of this sponsored context, and in 2023 he moved to a new Kick channel, which although no longer partnered with Stake in his name directly, still has exclusively featured Stake-sponsored content. 

His last stream on Kick on December 18 reached 141K Peak Viewers, a new personal record for the rapper. Some content from these Kick streams has also gone viral on social media, like TikTok, giving the Canadian musician some more of the spotlight.

Matt Heavy (256K Followers)

Matt Heafy, or matthewkheafy on Twitch, is an American guitarist most well-known for his role as the guitarist and lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Trivium. He’s a well-known face to any heavy metal fan, and he has broken into the Twitch scene with his daily broadcasts.

He does also stream video game content on the platform alongside his music content, but the musical streams are the most popular. In 2021, he set a Peak Viewers record for his channel at 23K concurrent viewers. The stream reached its peak when his band Trivium live streamed a band practice for all fans to watch.

Herman Li (272K Followers)

Herman Li is a Hong Kong-born musician who plays for the power metal band DragonForce. The band was formed in 1999 and has built a reputation for his fast and technical playing. Herman has established himself as one of the original musicians to hop onto Twitch, as he created his channel in 2017. 

Since 2017, Herman has consistently streamed music-related content, although he has taken a step back from live streaming in 2023, as he is busy touring with DragonForce. His most popular ever content was his coverage of the DragonForce UK tour in 2019. Herman live streamed the behind-the-scenes of the band’s tour and even some of the shows. He reached 28K PV for these broadcasts, which remain his most popular content to date.

ortoPilot (307K Followers)

OrtoPilot, Matt Hutchison, is slightly different to other musicians on this list, as he began his content creation career alongside his musicianship, rather than using his music-related career to jumpstart his time on Twitch. 

OrtoPilot started on YouTube almost two decades ago, posting guitar covers to his personal channel, and has since built up a significant following for himself. He streams regularly on Twitch and he reached 60K Peak Viewers during his December marathon streams. In 2020, he would stream every day between December 1 and 25, playing live music and hosting streams. Ibai, one of the most popular creators in the world, hosted his broadcast and brought tens of thousands of viewers to his stream, allowing ortoPilot to reach 60K PV and gain tens of thousands of new followers.

Sintica (318K Followers)

Sintica is a German live streamer and DJ who has built a sizeable audience for herself on Twitch. Sintica is perhaps not as well known as other musicians on this ranking, but she still generates a sizable amount of watch time through her dedication to live streaming.

In 2023, Sintica was one of the most-watched musicians on Twitch, thanks to her daily broadcasts. She hosts a mixture of content on Twitch, as can be seen in her most popular content. In August 2020, she reached 17K Peak Viewers during a stream where she played hard-style music, before moving to GTA V gameplay later in the stream. This mixture of gaming and music is the middle ground many streamers have settled on for Twitch.

Kenny Beats (335K Followers)

Kenny Beats, or Kenneth Charles Blume III, is an American record producer, engineer, and songwriter. Kenny has built a career for himself as a record producer working with some of the biggest names in rap music. Denzel Curry, Vince Stapes, JPEGMAFIA are some of the rappers he has worked with, but he has also worked with other songwriters like Ed Sheeran and Dermot Kennedy.

Kenny rose to fame not only as a record producer but as an internet personality. He hosts “THE CAVE” on YouTube, where he brings various rappers on to create a song for them to freestyle over. The series has an emphasis on a casual vibe and a judgement-free zone, allowing musicians to be themselves and express themselves freely. 

On Twitch, Kenny has hosted various “beat battles”, where aspiring producers submit music for him to judge and decide whose music is best. In August 2020, one of these beat battle streams became his most popular content ever on Twitch, as 74K fans concurrently watched the broadcast.

Deadmau5 (537K Followers)

Deadmau5, Joel Thomas Zimmerman, is a Canadian electronic music producer and musician. He is one of the most well-known names in electro-house and dance music, and his iconic mouse helmet is one of the most recognisable brands in music.  

Deadmau5 is no new name to the live streaming community; he created his Twitch channel in 2014 and has been known as a live streamer for many years. His content is not only music production, he has expanded into both video game broadcasts and even software development live on Twitch. His most popular content on Twitch so far was a PUBG stream, where his gaming skill earned him 6K Peak Viewers.

Although not the most popular musician to broadcast on Twitch, deadmau5 is a veteran of the live streaming community and will likely continue to stream for a long while, although he has not yet streamed in 2024, taking a break since the holidays.

Logic (548K Followers)

Logic, or Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, is an American rapper and record producer. After building up considerable fame, he made a short-lived retirement announcement in mid-2020, wanting to step away from the music industry. 

Logic had streamed a handful of times on Twitch before this, and after his announcement he was approached by Twitch to sign an exclusive deal with the platform. According to Logic himself, the deal was worth 7 figures and saw him stream semi-regularly on Twitch and even participate in the PogChamps 3 Chess event.

In late 2021, Logic took another step back, this time from the internet in general. Wanting to disconnect from the online sphere, Logic began streaming much more irregularly, and only streamed 4 times throughout 2023, to a much lower viewership than he had previously garnered. 

Post Malone (886K Followers)

Post Malone is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter from New York. In 2022, he hosted four charity streams of Apex Legends, featuring various musician friends and online Twitch celebrities. The streams benefitted a new charity every day, and in total, the four streams received over 1M Hours Watched and created over $200K in charity donations.

Since the charity streams, Post Malone has returned to Twitch twice in late 2023 to broadcast himself playing Apex Legends once again. These streams were not as well advertised as the charity broadcasts, but he nevertheless reached considerable viewership. He currently has 886K Followers and only 6 streams on record.

T-Pain (955K Followers)

Finally, the most popular musician on Twitch is T-Pain. T-Pain, Faheem Rashad Najm, is an American singer and songwriter who is most well known for his creative use of auto-tune in the early 2000s. He won two Grammy Awards of twelve nominations, and his 2007 single with Flo Rida became a certified diamond record.

In 2019, T-Pain already had over 100K Followers on Twitch, but the pandemic lockdowns are what shot him to the top of Twitch. He began streaming much more regularly and very quickly developed a sizeable audience of fans who became loyal viewers of his stream. Although he regularly streams gaming content, he also puts his musical talents to work on stream. He reached 20K Peak Viewers in 2020 testing out a new MIDI device on stream.

T-Pain is one of the rare musicians who moved to Twitch and can be considered a full-time streamer. In 2023, T-Pain was live for over 650 hours throughout the year and garnered over 700K Hours Watched. Judging by the Followers Gain of his channel throughout the past 90 days, T-Pain will likely reach the 1M Followers milestone on Twitch sometime in early 2024.

Twitch, and live streaming in general, is becoming a genuine career path for people of all walks of life. Provided you have an existing fanbase or following, it is quite attractive for creators to begin streaming on Twitch and transfer this audience into a loyal source of viewership. Many musicians have dipped their toes into Twitch and content creation, and many others have settled into the industry as full-time members. Keep up to date on the newest live streaming trends with Streams Charts objective and data-driven overview of the industry.