The livestreaming industry in the German-speaking DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) has evolved significantly over the past two decades, becoming a media powerhouse. What began as small-scale interactions on forums and early internet platforms has grown into a massive community. What sets the DACH region apart from others is its time-proven dedication to gaming, in all forms of live media. The gaming sector still affects what content is popular there to this day.
Aside from these early adoptions, the esports industry took hold of the German-speaking region in the past decades, and this has continued the strong gaming legacy of the region. Combined, these two sides of gaming, competitive and casual, hold a large portion of the overall livestreaming viewership. With such a deep history of gaming, the topic continues to dominate the ever-changing and innovating livestreaming industry.
The DACH region’s livestreaming industry has been uniquely influenced by its strong gaming culture and interactive television roots. Early internet shows like GIGA and MTV Game One (2006–2014) introduced viewers to real-time interaction with hosts and gaming content, laying the foundation for livestreaming platforms. Let’s explore the DACH region’s journey from early internet communities to its current status as a global leader in livestreaming and competitive gaming.
Internet forums and IRCs develop popularity for live interaction, late 90’s
The roots of the DACH livestreaming industry can be traced back to the rise of internet forums and IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These platforms enabled real-time communication and content sharing, fostering tight-knit online communities. German-speaking platforms became popular for social networking, covering all kinds of hobbies and groups.
Forums brought real-time conversations to life online, and dissimilar to most chat rooms, saved a record of your messages for all to see. Online messaging boards not only became social hotspots, but archival records of a searchable knowledge base for endless topics. IRC, on the other hand, offered a more light-weight chat system, designed for instant real-time messaging. Both of these technologies left a significant impact on the entertainment and livestreaming industries in the DACH region.
With the ability to create online identities through usernames, avatars, and signatures, users felt more engaged than ever with their online communities. These internet message boards became so popular and ingrained in online culture, other industries began to experiment with the exciting new opportunities opened up by this innovation.
Some in the media industry saw the potential behind live viewer interactions, and began experimenting with bringing this technology to the entertainment industry. By communicating with fans, shows could build a more personal fan base and adjust their content to user demand. GIGA was a groundbreaking German television program that aired in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, most well known for its integration of their giga.de online forums and IRC chats.
Live-interaction media before Twitch — GIGA in the early 2000s
Launched in 1998, on NBC Europe, NBC GIGA combined traditional television production with internet-based interactivity, allowing viewers to influence the program in real time through chatrooms and forums. The TV show became a cultural icon for interactive broadcasting in the DACH region, with both the show and its hosts quickly building up personal followings
IRC channels played a particularly influential role in the early days of interactive broadcasting. Thanks to GIGA’s innovative integration of live interaction, people could suggest news to cover, give feedback on the show’s programming, and even send in real-time questions to the hosts. Eventually, the show broke away from NBC, and continued to dominate the German cultural sphere.
Shows like GIGA which integrated IRC-based chatrooms directly into their programming created a feedback loop where viewers influenced the direction of the content — a format that anticipated the direct audience engagement through Chat seen on modern platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Early online communities built through these platforms formed the foundation for the first generation of German-speaking content creators, some of whom would even make the jump to YouTube and Twitch later down the line.
GIGA was structured into different thematic segments, covering various topics such as internet culture, celebrity news, sports, gaming, and general tech. The GIGA GAMES segment, introduced in 2000, quickly became the most popular, reflecting the latent potential of gaming content in the online sphere. Hosts discuss games live on air while responding to viewer questions and comments, fostering a direct and interactive connection with the audience.
In 2009, amidst a financial crisis, the entire GIGA program was shut down. The show had been running at a loss for years, but its passionate fan community in the DACH region kept it alive for as long as it could. Former GIGA hosts Simon Krätschmer and Daniel Budiman left GIGA a few years earlier to join MTV. There, they began working on MTV Game One, a similar show to GIGA with a focus on live interaction of viewers. When GIGA shutdown, other GIGA alumni Nils Bomhoff and Etienne Gardé also moved to MTV Game One.
MTV Game One, which ran from 2006 to 2014, carried on GIGA's legacy with a more personality-driven and comedic approach to gaming content. While Game One didn’t have the same level of interactivity as GIGA, it helped maintain gaming's prominence in German media. Eventually, Rocket Beans TV was created as a YouTube Channel for the show. As the content creation industry as grown, Rocket Beans TV has become their own media production company and host a successful YouTube channel to this day.
Shows like GIGA and MTV Game One gave the German-speaking people, especially those interested in gaming, their first real taste of what livestreaming is. While these shows were limited by the technology at the time, it created the spark for platforms like YouTube and Twitch to dominate in this region later. Gaming fans in particular loved the livestreaming idea, and DACH’s large esports community was equally excited about these innovations.
DACH’s journey to European esports powerhouse
The DACH countries emerged as a central hub for gaming and esports in Europe in the early 2000s. Germany, in particularly, was an early adopter of competitive gaming, hosting esports tournaments and gaming conventions. The country is the birthplace of esports companies like ESL, and dominated the continent culturally with their massive Gamescom series. The trade fair showcases the best and newest of the gaming industry, and has hosted hundreds of thousands of guests.
Founded in 2000 in Cologne, ESL became a cornerstone of competitive gaming as a premiere online gaming league. After building up massive regional and European audiences, ESL continued to grow and grow, eventually becoming an industry-leader. In 2016, entertainment company MTG purchased a 74 percent stake in ESL for over $86,000,000 USD.
ESL’s success on the global stage has come as a result of its various esports tournaments. Events like ESL One built a name for the company across Counter-Strike and Dota 2, and their most recent events like IEM Katowice 2025 for CS2 fell just shy of 1,300,000 peak concurrent viewers. These highly popular esports events have turned Germany into a global hub of esports competition; events like ESL One Cologne and now IEM Cologne turned the German city into the ‘cathedral of Counter-Strike’.
In 2022, ESL and esports platform FACEIT were acquired by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and merged to become the ESL FACEIT Group. Although ESL has eclipsed its region and gone global, the history and impact of this company left a mark on DACH esports. These countries continue to host a strong gaming and esports community and enjoy strong viewership for gaming content in livestreaming.
While ESL is definitely the largest esports figure in Germany, they are not the only star of the show. Gamescom has become a global icon and representative of Germany on a global stage, where many major game developers and publishers announce new titles and showcase demos — often livestreamed to a wider online viewership. Although Gamescom may predate the modern livestreaming industry, the trade fair was quick to adapt. Now, the Cologne-based event enjoys free exposure from streamers hosting IRL livestreams on the trade floor, and other creators co-streaming the live events from home.
Austria’s legendary Red Bull brand has also entered the gaming and esports sphere in recent years. The company has always had some investment in gaming, but in the past years, we have seen the energy drink company host more and more of their own esports tournaments. While not as established as ESL in the esports tournament sphere, Red Bull has still penetrated their brand throughout all of esports with sponsorships, affiliates, and hosting livestreamed events.
Some companies like Riot Games may not be German, but host their EMEA divisions in the largest DACH country. Since the early 2010s, Riot Games has been investing more and more into their esports scene. While League of Legends is most famously known for its massive Korean audience, Riot Games’ Valorant Champions Tour EMEA and League of Legends EMEA Championship are both based in Berlin. The ripe culture of esports tournaments in Germany has also led to countless German, Swiss, and Austrian esports teams.
Together, all of these esports and gaming companies have shaped the livestreaming industry in the DACH region. Through their tournaments, trade fairs, and work in DACH, they have fostered a passionate gaming community. The rise of professional esports, along with the continued growth of livestreaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube, has transformed the way gamers and fans experience entertainment. DACH’s esports history is a crucial part of its current, gaming-heavy livestreaming industry.
Most popular streaming platforms in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
With the DACH region’s long history in gaming and esports broadcasting, Twitch quickly found a position for itself in Europe here. German-language viewership has long been a significant part of Twitch’s European audience, and they are still one of the continent’s forefront demographics. Compared between the two major livestreaming players, Twitch and YouTube, German-speaking audiences generally prefer Twitch.
Throughout the livestreaming industry for German speakers, a slight majority of the total content consumed has to do with gaming or esports. History is hard to beat here, and while new and exciting ways of engaging streaming audiences outside of gaming are constantly emerging, they can’t match the gap. Outside of gaming content, Just Chatting and IRL livestreams, such as Special Events, are the most popular kind of broadcasts.
Sports broadcast also have a significant level of popularity in the countries. Football is a classic sport for these viewers, and gaming streams of football titles and real-life football games both achieve significant viewership. Compared to the rest of the global esports industry, FIFA esports events are highly popular in the DACH region.
With a rough overview of the DACH livestreaming industry in grasp, let’s take a deeper look at what exact categories these viewers are watching, and which streamers dominate the sphere.
Most popular streaming categories and channels in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
Similar to many other livestreaming demographics, Just Chatting of Twitch topped the rankings for watch time last year. The category allows viewers to connect more directly with broadcasters, and enjoy a wider array of content compared to gaming categories. Speaking of gaming, Minecraft, League of Legends, and Grand Theft Auto V are the top games to watch for German-speaking viewers.
These popular titles roughly fall in line with the global livestreaming industry, except EA Sports FC titles. The aforementioned top games are highly popular on a global scale, and with Just Chatting & Special Events, often dominate rankings. Standing aside from these typical categories, the football games were noticeably more popular in the DACH region than others.
Special Events is a noteworthy category which flourishes when streamers have the budget to really make something special happen, meaning already popular creators enjoy great success. Last year, it was dominated by Elias “eliasn97” Nerlich and Kevin “Papaplatte” Teller, who together accumulated over 34M hours of watch time in the Special Events category. These two broadcasters stand at the forefront of the livestreaming industry for German-speaking viewers, and they have achieved a popularity which almost eclipses the rest of DACH.
Eliasn97 and Papaplatte were by-a-mile the largest creators from Germany. They are both highly active as full-time streamers, and at his peak, Elias’ Twitch was watched by over 208,000 concurrent viewers last year. These two stream a variety of content, but their special events and IRL streams generate most of their viewership.
The wild popularity of these top creators cannot be understated. In 2021, a part of the German-speaking community started using Papaplatte’s newest addition to German, ‘papatastisch’, a combination of his name and the word for fantastic. That year, the word was a candidate for Germany’s youth word of the year, but eventually lost to ‘cringe’.
Other popular streamers include former esports professionals like Frederik “NoWay4u_Sir” Hinteregger, who built up an audience for himself while playing for some of Germany’s most popular League of Legends teams. With such a large competitive gaming and esports audience in Germany, sometimes competitive gamers rise to the top.
Our ranking not only provides a peak into the current livestreaming trends, but its history through those who remain. Many of the creators in this ranking have been working in the content creation industry for well over a decade, having seen the industry totally transform. Maximilian “HandOfBlood” Knabe, BastiGHG, Marcel “MontanaBlack88” Eris, and Erik “GRONKH” Range have been icons of German livestreaming and online videos for a long time.
While newer creators like Eliasn97 lead the for the new generation of livestreaming, the DACH region’s long history is still alive in other top creators. These streamers originally started marking Lets Plays and other trends on YouTube, but eventually joining the livestreaming industry as it developed. Now, they interact with their viewers live and directly to more success than ever. Many of them continue to host variety gaming content streams, although IRL content is undeniably popular for some. This blend of competitive gaming, esports, and interactive entertainment ensures that gaming remains central to the livestreaming scene in the DACH region.
The livestreaming industry in the DACH region has undergone remarkable growth, transforming from early online communities and niche platforms to a major cultural and entertainment force. This evolution has been fueled by a combination of pioneering content creators, emerging gaming industry, and a growing appetite for real-time, interactive experiences. As both gaming and esports gained massive popularity, livestreaming provided an accessible way for creators and fans to connect, setting the stage for a broader media shift.
As the livestreaming scene continues to evolve, it shows no signs of slowing down. With an increasing number of viewers and creators, the industry is constantly expanding. Looking ahead, the statistics from 2024 will offer valuable insights into the current trends and the future potential of livestreaming in the DACH region.
