UPDATE: This article was updated on the 3rd of October 2024 with a complete overview of SUBtember 2024 and a full historical analysis of SUBtember.
SUBtember has just concluded: Twitch’s season of giving. Throughout September each year, Twitch offers discounts for upgrading and buying new subscriptions. This is just one of many Twitch-exclusive events that streamers and developers capitalize on to grow their community – much like Twitch Drops campaigns.
In SUBtember 2024, the event ran from the 29th of August until the 1st of October, with discounts of up to 30% off depending on the duration of subscription purchased. In a more innovative move for SUBtember, there were also two special 6-day periods: From the 12th to the 17th of September, Twitch added 10% on top of your Bits every time you Cheered for your favorite streamer. And, rounding out the event from the 26th to the 1st, Twitch gave streamers an extra Gift Sub for every 5 Gift Subs purchased for their channel.
As one can imagine, all of these benefits encourage streamers to hop onto the platform, run marathon streams, and provide special incentives to get their community tuning in. In this article, we’ll look at how successful SUBtember is at raising the number of Twitch subscriptions and which streamers benefited most from the event.
SUBtember 2024 Best Demonstrates How Discounts Drive Subs on Twitch
What are Subs on Twitch? Twitch subscriptions allow viewers to support and further engage with their favorite streamers. Depending on what “Tier” of subscription the viewer holds (Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3), they can access custom Twitch emotes, equip Subscriber Badges, and unlock ad-free viewing. Further complicating the issue, viewers get one free “Prime Sub” with Amazon Prime, and fans can also purchase Gift Subs for other viewers to grow the streamer’s community! Note that for the purposes of this analysis, only subs bought while streamers are online are included, but upgrading from one tier to another also counts.
In 2024, discounts on Twitch subscriptions successfully got viewers to open up their wallets. In the month of September alone, there were 16.3M new tiered sub purchases – a massive rise of 39.6% from August. Note that this value actually misses out on the first three days of SUBtember, since the event began on the 29th of August – in truth, the number of tiered subs for SUBtember would be even higher. It’s likely that in the weeks leading up to SUBtember, many viewers hold off on buying subscriptions until the discounts hit which causes a large initial burst of demand in SUBtember’s opening days.
Based purely on tiered subs, this makes SUBtember 2024 the event’s most successful edition yet. Since 2021, September has consistently seen a growth in new tiered subs compared to August – suggesting that SUBtember is effective in driving subscriber growth. This upwards trend was no doubt ignited by COVID-era demand, with 2021 seeing 31% growth in new tiered subs thanks to SUBtember. It’s worth noting, however, that Prime subs aren’t discounted at all during SUBtember. Any growth in Prime subs can’t be directly attributed to discounts… but they may be due to increased streamer presence throughout the month during subathons.
Ironmouse and FaZe Clan Make it Big in SUBtember 2024
Speaking of streamers, one streamer in particular had an incredible SUBtember. In SUBtember 2024, VTuber Ironmouse gained the most subs with 320.5K new subs – a full 221K ahead of FaZe Clan’s jasontheween in second place with 99.5K new subs. Not only is this record sub growth for a SUBtember event, but it also means ironmouse is now the most subscribed Twitch streamer ever, having flown past the previous record holder Kai Cenat with 306K subs. Apart from her popular streams with PirateSoftware, ironmouse also drew attention with her annual charity subathon for the Immune Deficiency Foundation – an event that earned her Content Creator of the Year in 2023.
Although lower than ironmouse, jasontheween’s sub growth is nothing to be sneezed at either. Jasontheween passed the 100K subs mark, making him the second most subscribed Twitch streamer after ironmouse. Leveraging SUBtember to one’s own benefit depends upon a combination of awareness, fan engagement, and extra streaming hours. Some common tips for how to garner new Twitch subs during SUBtember include:
- Labeling streams with SUBtember
- Giving viewers advanced warning of SUBtember and specific event details
- Running a marathon stream or subathon
- Offering limited-time sub tier emotes
- Providing incentives for viewers based on hitting sub goals (such as community games, challenge runs, or trying out games requested by fans)
SUBtember Viewership Goes to Subathons, New Game Releases and Controversy
Intriguingly, the streamers with the most new subscribers aren’t simply those who generated the most hours watched over the same period. The most watched streamers between the 29th of August and the 1st of October were Junichi Kato and stableronaldo with 10.1M and 9.7M hours watched, respectively. Junichi Kato is a special case however, as his viewership was boosted by a cheating scandal response video.
Stableronaldo, on the other hand, represents a more SUBtember-related phenomenon. As a member of FaZe Clan, stableronaldo and the other members took part in a 30-day straight subathon. This explains why 4 of the top 10 streamers by hours watched during SUBtember were FaZe Clan members: Stableronaldo, plaqueboymax, Lacy, and jasontheween. As a reminder, subathons are special Twitch events in which streamers run a marathon stream and encourage viewers to subscribe for all the usual perks. Every time someone subscribes during a subathon, the clock gets extended. Combining streaming challenges, subathons, AND SUBtember together is a recipe for live-streaming success.
The impact of subathons and FaZe Clan is also reflected in the top SUBtember streams. Specifically looking at streams either tagged or mentioning “SUBtember” or “subathon”, stableronaldo’s separate subathon streams take up 3 of the top 10 spots with a total of 1.1M hours combined. However, it was German streamer Eliasn97 who snagged the top 3 most watched SUBtember/subathon streams with a combined 1.5M hours watched. Eliasn97 marathon-streamed the new EA Sports FC 25 during SUBtember, pulling in millions of hours thanks to his pedigree as an ex-esports player. Kai Cenat also snuck into the top 10 with 345K hours watched on one of his streams.
Bonus Bits Week Successfully Gets Viewers Donating to Streamers
Apart from subscribers, Twitch added one extra incentive for streamers to commit to marathon streams: Extra Bits. From the 12th to the 17th of September, Twitch upped every Cheer by adding 10% of the viewers’ Bits onto their donation (as long as they donated at least 300 Bits). Obviously this Bits Bonus was meant to encourage streamers to promote Bits donations, as Partner or Affiliate streamers receive $0.01 per Bit donated.
The simplest measure of whether the Bits Bonus worked is seeing whether total Bits donations increased. During the week beginning the 9th of September, Twitch Bits totals jumped by 41.1% to 247.5K (up from 175.3K the previous week). By the next week, Bits had dropped back down – though still slightly higher thanks to 2 days being left on the Bonus Bits period. The bonus Bits promotion definitely worked then, either due to streamers pushing Bits donations or viewers feeling more generous knowing that Twitch was chipping in extra support on top.
With SUBtember over for another year and many more records broken as a result, Twitch will likely settle down a little over the coming weeks. TwitchCon showed the platform was centering itself on more community-driven events like SUBtember, including Hype Trains and Power-Ups. Stream Hatchet will be watching more of these community events as they unfold in the coming months.
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Sections of the original article regarding the first week of SUBtember 2024 can be found below:
SUBtember 2024 Discounts Have Their Intended Effect, Boosting Subscriptions
Discounts on Twitch subscriptions successfully get viewers to open up their wallets. In the week beginning the 26th of August, new subscription numbers jumped by 21% from 2.8M to 3.4M. Note that this really only accounts for the first 4 days of SUBtember, however, since the event began on the 29th of August. For the first full calendar week of SUBtember, subscriptions rose by a further 13.5% up to 3.9M. It’s likely that in the weeks leading up to SUBtember, many viewers hold off on buying subscriptions until the discounts hit – leading to a large initial burst of demand in SUBtember’s opening days.
There are some caveats to this data, however. SUBtember has notable exceptions to which subscriptions are discounted: Prime Subs aren’t included (unless they’re being converted to regular subscriptions), and subs bought through Twitch mobile don’t count (viewers have to tune into twitch.tv to receive their discount). Naturally, Gift Subs also aren’t included outside of that special 5-day window near the end of the event.
Getting High Viewership Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Gaining Subscribers
Looking at the first 7 days of SUBtember provides an insight into who the most in-demand streamers for new subscriptions are. In SUBtember 2024, VTuber Ironmouse gained the most subs in the first week with 28K new subs – a full 4.4K ahead of Kai Cenat in second place with 23.6K subs. Kai Cenat’s skyrocketing popularity through 2024 no doubt led to his swelling subscriber count. But Ironmouse’s dominance is a little more surprising. She has been increasingly popular ever since she won Content Creator of the Year in 2023 – but this recent spat of success may be more due to her recent Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 collab stream with PirateSoftware. This is backed by PirateSoftware’s own popularity, gaining 14.9K new subs himself.
Intriguingly, the streamers with the most new subscribers aren’t simply those who generated the most hours watched over the same period. The most watched streamers between the 29th of August and the 4th of September were Caedrel and Junichi Kato with 2M and 1.9M hours watched, respectively. In fact, none of the top 10 streamers by new subscribers overlap with the top 10 streamers by hours watched except for Kai Cenat.
The key reason for this apparent disconnect could be up-and-coming streamers vs. established streamers. Established streamers already have an abundance of subscribers who will have taken advantage of previous years’ deals to buy Twitch subs. Streamers like Junichi Kato (who has been popular for years) and Jynxzi (who blew up several months ago) have already caught their wave of growth. Compare this to streamers like plaqueboxmax who gained masses of new followers after joining FaZe Clan in April of 2024. Established streamers may also be less focused on crafting SUBtember-specific content, instead sticking to their regular (and popular) VALORANT and League of Legends streams.
FaZe Clan Dominates Subathon and SUBtember Streams
Naturally, a number of streamers plaster their streams with subathon and SUBtember titles to let their fanbase know they’re in it for the long haul. In SUBtember, streamer collective FaZe Clan blew everyone out of the water with 9 of the top 10 streams labeled “subathon” or “SUBtember” by hours watched. Ironmouse was the only exception, with 165K hours watched during her September 2nd stream as part of her subathon. Note that these streams are separate segments of multi-hour subathon streams.
The reason for this overwhelming response is FaZe Clan’s 30-day straight subathon event, announced in style with a live-action skit. This is one of the first major events that FaZe Clan has put together since it radically changed its roster back in April of this year, bringing in four new members that have upped FaZe’s viewership dramatically. Two of these new members have performed particularly well during SUBtember so far: Plaqueboymax and jasontheween. But it was long-term member stableronaldo (who joined back in June of 2022) who brought in the biggest labeled subathon stream with 386K hours watched.
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