The first quarter of the new year was dominated by influencer events, political discourse, media football leagues, and the onset of a fresh esports season across titles. We also witnessed the release of several video games, many of which created strong hype among content creators and set the bar for the rest of the year.
Among streamers, gaming marathons, international tours, and Hype Train streams all helped create records in the first three months of the year. In short, there's been lots of activity. Bringing it all together, Streams Charts has ranked the top creators by their overall watch time to see who has topped the charts for their respective regions in the first quarter of the year.
Most Watched North American Streamers in Q1 2025
American streamers dominated these standings, with the top name in the first three months of the year being Zack "zackrawrr" Hoyt, the former One True King (OTK) co-owner. The American star was particularly busy trying out almost all the new video games released. His quarterly watch time rose by 39% following this increased activity, helping him touch 26.22 million Hours Watched (HW).
Following him in second is Kai Cenat, who began the year on the back of the second edition of his successful subathon, labelled Mafiathon. The American did another marathon towards the end of February, playing the massively popular Batman: Arkham video game series continuously until he finished the four main games in the series: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins, and Arkham Knight. He also attended the WWE Royal Rumble and appeared at the 67th Grammys, doing more than enough to stay in the public consciousness.
Rounding off the podium is Timothy "TimTheTatman" Betar, one of the foremost Call of Duty content creators. Having jumped on the Marvel Rivals bandwagon, he finished the year's first quarter as the game's top influencer on Twitch and YouTube Gaming. The American also played other shooters from time to time, including Splitgate 2, Overwatch 2, and War Robots: Frontiers.
Fourth is Hasan "Hasan Abi" Piker, who was one of the top streamers to cover the swearing-in of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States. Two good friends follow in fifth and sixth of these Q1 rankings, with Nicholas "Jynxzi" Stewart and Case Dylan "Caseoh" Baker accruing over 19 million and 17 million HW, respectively.
The ever-popular Félix "xqc" Lengyel was the lone non-USA name here, flying the flag high for Canadian streamers as well. One of the many new-age online personalities to adopt multistreaming recently, his combined efforts from Kick and Twitch gave him around 17.61 million HW. Most of the Quebec resident's videos were focused on Marvel Rivals, with both his channels ending among the action shooter's 20 most-watched creators for Q1 2025.
The rest of the leaderboard when it comes to Twitch stars consists of Chance "sodapoppin" Morris, Jaryd "summit1g" Lazar and Maxwell "plaqueboymax" Dent, whose content varies from Music to World of Warcraft to The Isle. The last of these three genres is an open-world survival title released in December 2015 that is still in its early access but has witnessed a surge in its livestreaming viewership recently thanks to a new hot test that was introduced earlier this year.
Darren "IShowSpeed" Watkins Jr was the only one to concentrate solely on YouTube Live broadcasting, taking seventh place. The young sensation began the first quarter with a tour of South America and closed it with his China excursion, essentially livestreaming a lot from different parts of the world, much to the amazement and joy of his fans.
Most Watched South American Streamers in Q1 2025
The top content creators by watch time in South America (excluding Brazil) continue to mostly come from Kick, continuing its rapid growth into a viable alternative to the big two platforms a little over two years after its birth. Stiven "mrstiventc" Caicedo was atop this leaderboard, with the Colombian star keeping busy in the first quarter of the new year thanks to IRL content from his trips to Argentina, Ecuador, and Japan.
Peruvian superstar Andy "ElZeein" Merino is second with 11.87 million HW, with much of his content also focusing on the Kings League, apart from the IRL genre and games like Rust. When it comes to the popular hybrid football competition, he was the chairperson of the Peru team that participated in the record-breaking Kings World Cup Nations 2025. He also continues to cover the matches of his side, Persas FC, which is participating in the ongoing Kings League Americas 2025 Split 3.
Third is perhaps Kick's most recognisable name today, Fernando "westcol" Alvarez, who topped the LATAM list last year. The Colombian megastar is another who has been kept busy by happenings in the Kings League, including acting as co-president of Colombia at the Kings World Cup Nations 2025. He also owns a team in the Kings League Americas, called West Santos FC, which remains the event's most popular team thanks to his global fan following.
Peru gets two more representatives in the form of Daarick "Darrick" Leeroy and Marx "elglogloking" Loayza. Both might seem like fresh faces in our rankings, but they have been consistently creating content for years. Both are known for their humorous IRL content, with the former also birthing his own fan club, TetaArmy, that follows and supports all his livestreaming endeavours.
Among the remaining names are five Argentine stars: Bruno "brunenger" Kruszyn, Manuel "mernuel" Merlo, Ivan "spreen" Raul Buhajeruk, David "davooxeneize" Quint, and px6. They all focus on IRL content, with Spreen being the biggest name of the bunch. He is one of the country's most recognisable online stars and was a massive part of the success of the local version of the popular Minecraft streamer event, Squid Games, held in January.
Most Watched Brazilian Streamers in Q1 2025
Leading the pack not only among Brazilians but globally in the first quarter of the year is Casimiro "CazéTV" Miguel. He recently broadcast one of YouTube's most popular livestreams ever and has even jumped on the Kings League hype train thanks to the ongoing inaugural Kings League Brazil Split 1. The Rio de Janeiro native, by far the most sought-after football commentator worldwide, has brought a whole new set of fans to the popular media league's inaugural season, leading the HW and PV metrics among channels co-streaming the competition.
Next is Gilson da Silva "Frei Gilson" Pupo Azevedo, a Catholic priest and singer who leads the Som do Monte ministry, which seeks to carry religious messages through music. He is one of the most celebrated religious figures in Brazil, having used the power of social media and livestreaming services to project his work to millions of his countrymen.
He is followed in third by Alexandre "Gaules" Chiqueta, the country's legendary esports broadcaster who has also shifted his attention to the Kings League Brazil, where his club, G3X FC, sits second on the table. Interestingly, while his YouTube channel continues to bring the best of competitive Counter-Strike to fans, his Twitch handle covers all of his teams' matches in the hybrid football league apart from content on other genres.
Fourth is "Victor "loud_coringa" Augusto, the legendary Free Fire streamer who jumped on the Kings League expansion into his homeland. The Sao Paulo resident owns Loud SC, which sits in the seventh out of ten spots on the table after three matches. Religion has another representative via the fifth-placed Bispo Bruno Leonardo, whose particular focus on Christian teachings and evangelism has earned him millions of followers.
The remaining five names are a mix of gaming, IRL, and political content, with the last of the three segments represented by Fábio Teruel, a Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil. Grand Theft Auto V gets a look in thanks to frequent practitioners Aliffe Henrique "PaulinhoLOKObr" de Carvalho and Gabriel "gabepeixe" Baptista, with Alan "alanzoka" Ferreira, one of Brazil's most popular Twitch streamers, completing the line-up.
Most Watched European Streamers in Q1 2025
When looking at European content creators, most of the names here come from major regions like Germany, France, and Russia, although the leader — star LoL caster Marc "Caedrel" Lamont — came from the United Kingdom. Having ended 2024 as one of Twitch's five most-watched streamers, the Englishman continued to remain busy in the first quarter of the new year, broadcasting games from regional and global series like NLC, EMEA Masters, LCK, and First Stand.
In second is EA Sports FC star Elias "eliasn97" Nerlich. Apart from livestreaming games like Valorant and Among Us, he has spent a lot of the first quarter of the year broadcasting matches from his version of a media football tournament, the Icon League, which he co-created with German legend Toni Kroos.
Other Germans on this leaderboard are Kevin "Papaplatte" Teller and Mark "ohnePixel" Zimmermann. The latter continued to be one of the foremost names for Counter-Strike content, with his coverage of the game's various competitive tournaments attracting thousands of viewers. Meanwhile, Papaplatte enjoyed himself with various IRL broadcasts and collaboration streams that continued to position him as one of his nation's top creators.
There are two massive French names as well in the form of Kamel "Kamet0" Kebir and Mohamed Amine "aminematue" Mahmoud. The former, who covered a lot of matches played by his team, Karmine Corp, ended as one of the top LoL streamers in Q1 2025. Aminematue, meanwhile, broadcasted a lot of IRL and influencer events, including the Match for Hope 2025 and the Stream for Humanity 2025 marathon.
Russian-speaking viewers had two streamers to follow — Dmitrii "Recrent" Osintsev and Vadim "evelone2004" Kozakov— in the first quarter of 2025. Their videos ranged from games like CS2 and PUBG: Battlegrounds, with quite a few Just Chatting broadcasts interspersed in between.
Tenth is Sergio "knekro" García, the former esports player who creates content for Movistar KOI. Interestingly, in January, his Twitch channel became the esports organisation's official co-stream for the League of Legends EMEA Championship. As a result, he has emerged as the game's most-watched Spanish-speaking co-caster in Q1 2025.
There is also Gianmarco "Tumblurr" Tocco, perhaps the most famous Italian Twitch influencer today. A football lover, he was naturally involved with the global projects of the Kings League, acting as one of his country's presidents at the Kings World Cup Nations 2025. He was also one of the leading voices in bringing the hybrid football event to his homeland, and with the first split beginning last month, the Rome resident has been busy covering the matches of his team, Stallions.
Most Watched Asian Streamers in Q1 2025
Some trends among Asian streamers included the popularity enjoyed by the top VTubers, especially on YouTube. Another big talking point was the gradual rise of SOOP Korea, which inherited many of Korea's top Twitch streamers after its shutdown in the country last year. The platform had three representatives in the top ten, with its continued growth putting it near the top of the livestreaming services market in the region.
Atop this list is Junichi "加藤純一うん〇ちゃん" Kato, the renowned Japanese content creator who topped the Asian standings for 2024 as well. He has spent the first three months of the new year trying out a variety of games like Valorant, Overwatch 2, and 7 Days to Die. The Tokyo resident was also involved with the Kings World Cup Nations 2025 as President of his national team.
Second is Korean IRL streamer BJ향이+ㅁ+, whose broadcasts on SOOP Korea have earned her over 18.5 million HW in Q1 2025. She is followed by hololive VTuber Pekora Ch., who has spent a large part of her time online playing titles like Minecraft, Pokémon Smaragd-Edition, and Monster Hunter Wilds.
Other VTtubers to make the cut are Miko Ch and Kuzuha Channel, with their content focusing on numerous games and influencer events. These two have consistently been among the most watched names when it comes to Virtual YouTubers. Moreover, their willingness to evolve and not stick to one game or genre has helped them stay relevant among fans.
Japan also gets extra representation in the form of Twitch sensation Chikara "fps_shaka" Kawakami and k4sen. These are two of the country's most recognisable faces in the global landscape, and the fact that they don the hats of co-casters and participate in various community competitions adds to their fame.
Among Koreans, SOOP Korea has more entries in the form of Sang-ho "이상호" Lee and Kim "김민교." Min-kyo, both of whom gave LoL lots of airtime. Lastly, we have the Indonesian Mobile Legends: Bang Bang star Schevenko David "RRQ Skylar" Tendean, who continues to livestream his rank-push gameplay videos to his thousands of fans.
Most Watched MENA Streamers in Q1 2025
Atop this list, which reiterated Kick's absolute dominance in the Middle East and North Africa region today, is Ilyas "ilyaselmaliki" Elmaliki. The Moroccan sensation has enjoyed an explosive last couple of years. This recent success has also seen him collaborate with the Kings League as the Morocco team president and contribute to various disaster relief causes back home and abroad.
Following in second and third are Hani "absi" Qablan and Maher "maherco" Sultaneh. Both were among the ten most-watched MENA streamers last year, and they have continued to remain active in the new year. Their content mainly came from games popular in the region, like PUBG Mobile, Respect RP (GTA), and Counter-Strike 2.
Two names that are pretty familiar to those following the livestreaming industry on Kick or Saudi Arabia closely come next. Ahmed "sxb" Alqahtani and Mofareh "drb7h" al asiri are the two biggest content creators from the Arab nation, even topping the 2024 MENA region leaderboard for watch time. The duo continued to play plenty of Grand Theft Auto via either the fifth instalment's Online component or the popular Repsect RP server.
Splitting the above two Saudi online stars by coming in fifth is atro, the Netherlands-based Iranian streamer known for his PUBG Mobile gameplay videos. He is joined by another prominent player of the above battle royale shooter from the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates' Muhammed "raydin" Alaa Huseyin.
Three more Moroccans, Yassin "bougassaa" Bougassaa, Soufiane "vodkafunky" Gharbaoui, and Mostafa "nahoule82k" Boujrharhe, round off this top ten list. Apart from prominent games like GTA V and EA Sports FC 25, their content in Q1 2025 involved newly released titles like R.E.P.O. and Assassin's Creed Shadows.
