Ibai is on another level. This weekend, Ibai's La Velada Del Ano, the fourth annual creator boxing event, saw him beat his own records set at last year's event. At peak, 3.84 million people were watching the event. It sold out Madrid's Bernabeu Stadium (80,000 seats), featured some of Spain's top artists, and even had Will Smith perform! The production reflected a top-tier experience, and the event (even if you don't speak Spanish) was incredibly entertaining. It was the kind of spectacle that has defined live sports and entertainment in the United States for decades.
That last sentence answers a bigger question about English-speaking creators. Why don't English streamers put on this kind of event? Or, a more creator-specific question: how come Ludwig, who launched an event company called Offbrand, recently pivoted it into being a game publisher? And I think the answer is pretty simple: the English-language market has been saturated with big events for decades. It's not unique or special to do celebrity boxing when the original idea launched way back in 2002! A more current and direct comparison, the KSI vs Logan Paul fight in 2018 sold out 21,000 tickets and only hit 2.25M viewers live - and it was the first (technically 2nd) of its kind. In places where this kind of celebrity spectacle is less common, it creates an opportunity to bring it to market. And Ibai is one of the best at it.
And with that, let's get into the recap!
Twitch News
- Sub prices will be increasing on mobile later this summer.
- Ibai's La Velada Del Ano IV helped propel Twitch to a new all-time peak viewership record across the platform. The new record is 6.74M concurrent viewers via StreamsCharts.
- Ibai's La Velada Del Ano IV achieved a new channel viewership record, hitting 3.84M concurrent viewers via Sullygnome.
- To celebrate the above record, there is a new global emote of a fiery boxing glove called AnotherRecord.
- The Analytics Calendar got a visual update to make the start and end points more clear.
- The Bits card had the 'Custom Amount' field removed.
- Twitch added 12 new global emotes for each of the main fighters in Ibai's La Velada Del Ano IV.
- Due to changes to channel connections, Buttsbot is indefinitely offline.
- Honda is now an official partner of Twitch Rivals.
Streaming Industry News
- OBS Version 30.2 is now available. It includes Multitrack Video Streaming (known on Twitch as Enhanced Broadcasting) and adds additional fixes and functions.
- Streaming via encoder on Twitter (begrudgingly, X) is now limited to Premium accounts.
- StreamElements updated their Points/Bits/Sub Leaderboard for the first time in years.
- StreamElements will soon be launching multiple canvas layouts for multi-streaming as part of their OBS plugin.
- Fourthwall now supports Paypal for Memberships! That makes it even easier to build a new revenue stream! Plus, you get access to membership gifting, your own personalized app, and tons of other incredible features at no cost! Go check it out!*
- YouTube removed the email in bio function on the platform, leading to calls from PR people to bring them back. YouTube is aware and looking into the issue.
- Spotify is adding the ability to add text comments on podcasts.
- Kick announced that it has paid out $9.5M to creators since launching the Creator Incentive Program and launched Kick Bounties, a "first-to-complete" challenge.
- In China, livestreaming is facilitating the sale of agricultural products. If you've never seen a Douyu Corn Stream, you're missing out!
- Vimeo now allows creators to label content that includes AI-generated content.
- Discord Nitro users may soon be able to upload files up to 1GB (up from the current 500mMB)
- Twitter (X) now shows video file names publicly.
- Lurkit has added payouts via PayPal.
- Nutty shared a way to generate TikTok stream keys.
- Mythic Talent has partnered with NOA Talent to enable them to expand into the Chinese market.
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