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How content king Ludwig fought his way to the top
Content creator, event inventor, maverick, entrepreneur, mad man and world-record button masher, Ludwig Ahgren lives many lives and he’s levelling up in all of them
If you don’t know him, here’s the short version. Streamer, YouTuber, event maker, an internet renaissance man through and through, Ludwig (he’s mononymously famous) actualises the stuff most people only tweet or stash in the Notes app at 2am.
A month of straight streaming on camera. Chess with boxing between turns. A full orchestra making royalty-free music for creators. An anime fashion collaboration. Now, a Formula 4 grid in France, the entry step for open-wheel racing. A streamer consistently levelling up.
Why Ludwig treats time as the most valuable currency on Stream
Streamer, YouTuber, event maker, internet renaissance man: Ludwig
© Maria Jose Govea/Red Bull Content Pool
So what drives Lil Big L, The Wig, Double MM, Mogul Moves, Ludwig? How does someone wind up doing all this? Let’s call this the tutorial. He points back to his degree subjects at Arizona State University – journalism and English. How the pillars of every good journalist shape his morals as a creator: “Seek truth and report it. Minimise harm. Act independently. Be accountable and transparent.”
That fourth one momentarily slips him, but it’s a Fight Club-type thing – agree that it’s the most important pillar and leave it in the ether. The point nonetheless stands. “People want to think the person they watch is a good person,” he says. “You can’t really know if they are. You can only assume based on what they’ve put out. But for me, part of being a good person is following those pillars. Including the fourth one.”
Time is the other motivator. He will not waste it. Yours or his. “I try to never text on stream or eat off stream,” he says. “I imagine 20,000 people watching. Multiply a simple text that takes a minute or two and that’s 20,000 minutes. That’s a lot of human hours.” Ludwig’s driving maths boils down to this – make it worth watching or do not do it.
Ludwig’s early streaming years and creative experimentation
Let’s roll back a bit... Ludwig started streaming in 2018, then went full-time in 2019. “Back then, I had no reservations,” he says.“It was childlike enthusiasm. Just trying whatever I thought of.” He promised to get a DIY ‘stick-and-poke’ tattoo for 1,000 subs and did it live. “I nearly cried.” Throwing things at the wall and being unafraid, or rather very afraid, to try new things. Do the thing, then on to the next. After his button-mashing world record in 2019, Ludwig set his sights on a new record to crush. Here, we head into what many cite as the turning point in his career – Ludwig’s 2021 subathon.
I’m still very proud. To have that level of momentum and support from people was crazy
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The 2021 Ludwig subathon that changed Twitch history
It’s a simple idea: start a livestream, and the more subscriptions, the longer the stream keeps running. He figured a few days, maybe a week. It finally ended 31 days later. He’d had big numbers before, but nothing like this. No one had. At the time, it was the highest concurrent subscriber count in Twitch history – 282,191 – beating fellow streamer Ninja’s 2018 record by more than by more than 13,000 subs. “I’m still very proud,” says Ludwig. “To have that level of momentum and support from people was crazy. It’s something I’ve never even thought to repeat – it would feel almost artificial to try to recreate it.”
So he let it stand and turned towards the people around him. Three months later, Ludwig launched a comedy-chat podcast, The Yard, with friends Slime, Nick and Aiden. “It came from actual supreme sadness after the subathon,” says Ludwig. He wanted something steady, a table with familiar faces, work they could divide, cheques they could split, the circle kept close. “If I can make their lives better... that’s more valuable than knowing I got 130,000 viewers concurrent.”
Timeline
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Why Ludwig left Twitch for YouTube
After a run on Twitch that had amassed him more than 3m followers, Lud pulled off a Sixth Sense-level twist. In late 2021 he left the platform for an exclusive YouTube contract. The video-sharing site was throwing its hat into the streamer ring as a serious rival, and signing Ludwig was a clear statement of intent. He thrived on fresh turf and flexed his journalism chops by interviewing YouTube’s then-CEO Susan Wojcicki. “That’s something I have very fond memories of,” he says. In 2022, he lifted the Content Creator of the Year trophy. Today, he has more than 6.8m subscribers.
Betting big on live events and internet spectacle
Enjoying the drone-based delivery service at the Streamer Games
© Todd Gutierrez/Red Bull Content Pool
Having sped through the early levels with aplomb, Ludwig next sought a challenge altogether weirder and impossibly exciting. Initially, he considered ‘smash boxing’ – alternate rounds of video game Super Smash Bros Melee and boxing – but settled on chessboxing (same idea but with chess). He’d found it by clicking a recommended video. “That was my biggest bet on a ‘let’s do it’. It was a $1.5m USD [event],” he says. “The risk was high but it worked out because people did like it.” While it broke near even on money, it remains a fan favourite.
Streamer games and 'the Olympics of the Internet'
Ludwig and Squeex analyse the Streamer Games
© Marv Watson/Red Bull Content Pool
Coming in clutch
© Natalia Martinez/Red Bull Content Pool
After checkmates and uppercuts, where could anyone possibly go? How about the Olympics for the digitally inclined? Spawned from a singular idea – “It’d be funny to see fellow streamer Squeex run a 100m dash” – Ludwig’s Streamer Games, in 2024, concocted a slate of events for both the athletic and less sports-inclined, among them the 99m dash, 1m dash, tablecloth pull, volleyball and a tungsten-cube (20.5kg) toss. Ludwig also discovered his own top speed. “Turns out I’m slower than basically every streamer,” he admits.
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From streaming to motorsport: Ludwig’s Formula 4 challenge
Recently, Ludwig has progressed from sports to racing, not just in Beerio Kart (yes, that is a thing – you can work it out), but in real cars. “I’m trying to be a close second to Verstappen,” he says. Jokes aside, the work is real. “I’m training to drive a Formula 4 car so I can enter a race against 23 other streamers,” he says during our interview, which took place ahead of the race, GP Explorer 3 at Le Mans in France, in October 2025.
Offbrand and the cost of building creator infrastructure
Not every venture has been a swing and hit, but Ludwig carries equal love for them all. Creator events are rare and expensive, but in 2022 he started a co-operative production house, Offbrand, to do more of them. “I hired 90-plus per cent of the employees,” he says of the staff, who all shared co-ownership.
“It didn’t work, which was crushing, but also motivating.” Offbrand’s game publishing arm continues to operate. There are quests that look more like dares. Such as Tip to Tip with comedy-tech streamer Michael Reeves, where the pair travelled across Japan from Cape Sata to Cape Soya in 14 days. No expressways, no map, no phones. It’s one of the most heartfelt and interesting content series on YouTube. That’s Lud’s pattern: pick a direction and run at full speed, heart in hand.
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QTCinderella and the power of bringing people together
QTCinderella (2nd left) celebrates with team-mates at 2025's Streamer Games
© Natalia Martinez/Red Bull Content Pool
He speaks fondly of so many people, chief among them his long-term girlfriend, QTCinderella – creator of The Streamer Awards and host extraordinaire. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up QT. A lot of the events I do come from her. Being a host who brings people together and making them lifelong friends, that’s her. A super host, a superwoman.”
Underneath all of it sits the same filter: do not waste people’s time. “I realise there’s no real need to rush,” he says. “Outside of maybe a thirst for more views. Those come regardless of whether you make something people like.” The rule is the same either way. Make it worth staying for.
This article originally appeared in The Red Bulletin’s Gaming edition – GAMEPOP.
