The "Special Events" category on Twitch is used by streamers to broadcast and engage with their audience during unique and one-time events. These events can include charity streams, real-life tournaments, subathons, and other noteworthy occurrences that are not part of the streamer's regular content.
For companies, Special Events represents a unique platform to broadcast your event or announcement to a worldwide audience of fans. Companies have found great success in announcing products and hosting press conferences on Twitch and other live-streaming platforms, reaching a large global viewer base.
La Velada del Año 3, organised by ibai, recently broke Twitch records peaking at 3.4M concurrent viewers. Ibai broke his own record, set by last year’s event in the boxing series, which sits at #2 Special Events streams by Peak Viewers; however, for analytical purposes, we are only taking the most popular stream from each event series.
In second place per Peak Viewers, are the Premios ESLAND hosted by TheGrefg. Premios ESLAND, or the ESLAND Awards, are an annual award show ongoing since 2021 for Spanish-speaking content creators. Peaking at 1.7M Viewers, the second iteration of the awards ceremony was highly anticipated following the initial iteration of the awards show also brought in over 1M Peak Viewers. As we will see from the statistics, Spanish viewership makes up a huge chunk of the Special Events statistics.
In third with 1.1M Peak Viewers, an Eleven All-Stars match-up between France and Spain. The event saw France and Spain bring some of their top creators to a football match hosted in Stadium Jean-Bouin, in Paris. French creator Aminematue was behind the event, and although he managed to sell out a football stadium the real viewership came online. With a clash of the titans bringing together both French and Spanish viewership, the event was broadcasted to over a million concurrent viewers worldwide.
Also representing France, Squeezie’s GP Explorer event. Squeezie is the most popular French streamer according to Twitch Followers and his GP Explorer event was the most viewed French Twitch broadcast of all time before Aminematue’s football match came along just a month later. The GP Explorer event, which received 1M Peak Viewers, saw French creators take to Le Mans — not for 24 hours but rather only 15 laps. The streamers competed in Formula 4 cars and came to grips with driving at a real circuit. The event was a massive success and the sequel has already been announced to take place this September.
Fittingly in 5th, PlayStation’s PS5 The Future of Gaming Show was a game library showcase for the upcoming PS5 console. PlayStation assembled over 1M Peak Viewers for this broadcast, seven years after their last console. PlayStation’s showcase of their console remains the most popular English stream by Peak Viewers and highlights that corporations can compete in the Special Events sphere alongside the content creators. The event is already three years ago, so expect to see more English streams catching up soon.
In 6th and 8th, we have Campanadas 2022 and Mundial de Globos 2021, both hosted by ibai and taking place in 2021. Campanadas 2022 saw ibai bring in the new year enjoying the festivities and atmosphere of the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid. The square is famous for its clock whose bells mark the beginning of a new year: hence the name “Campanadas 2022” (Chimes 2022). Mundial de Globos 2021, or Balloon World Cup 2021, was an event hosted by ibai based on the idea of not letting a balloon touch the ground. Players had a small living room set to play within and the event reached 600K Peak Viewers, almost 200K less than Campanadas 2022 (801K).
Moving away from the Spanish and back to the French, we have ZeratoR’s Z Event in 7th place. Z Event is a yearly charity event hosted for French streamers to come together as a community and support charity. The 2021 event featured a concert in front of an audience of nearly 400 people. Behind the screen, 720K Peak Viewers were watching from home. The event raised €2M Euro in only 24 hours and with the help of the merchandise sales the event collected more than €10M Euro overall.
Picking up the penultimate spot on the list, The Game Awards 2022. The Game Awards showcase the best video games of the year and were hosted to a live invited audience at the Microsoft Theater, Los Angeles. The event was live-streamed to more than 40 platforms, but it still brought in huge viewership on Twitch, specifically. 573K Viewers tuned in to view the stream concurrently, and games such as God of War Ragnarök, Elden Ring, and Final Fantasy XIV won awards. The first full clip for the at-the-time upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie was also shown at the event.
Last but not least, Casimito, a Brazillian football journalist and creator, hosted a Special Event with a Peak Viewership of 545K. The creator hosted a short pre-premiere for the 2022 Netflix docuseries Neymar: The Perfect Chaos. The series was highly anticipated, especially in Brazil where Neymar remains a household name. Casimito used the hype for the series well, reaching over half a million fans during his pre-premiere for the show.
The “Special Events” category on Twitch provides a unique and exciting platform for both creators and companies to engage with a global audience during one-time events. French and Spanish creators continue to dominate the Viewership statistics in this area, but English streams also receive relevant attention. Special Events allow creators to demonstrate their diverse content and reach their audience in a way different to a normal live stream. As streaming gets bigger and bigger, these records surely will not continue to last.
