Twitch poker made an impact in 2018 as the media landscape moved farther away from edited TV shows and into long unedited live streams. According to the social media tracking site SocialBlade, these 5 poker Twitch streamers reached a wider audience by playing the same game in their own unique ways.
Poker Twitch Streamer #5: Jaime Staples - Poker Staples
2018 Followers: Over 16.4 thousand.
2018 Views: Over 1.4 Million
Jaime Staples had an interesting 2018, not only did he enter yet another weight loss prop bet, but he also grew his Twitch and YouTuber follower count enough to make it in both Top 5 lists. This did not translate into the number 1 spot in either list for a variety of factors, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
SocialBlade projects he will gain another 16 thousand followers in 2019.
Poker Twitch Streamer #3: Parker Talbot - Tonkaaaap
2018 Subs: Over 21.8 thousand
2018 Views: 2.8 Million
Team NeverLucky was very fortunate last year, with over 21 thousand new followers and almost 3 million views in 2018. One of Tonkaaaap’s biggest strengths is his personality. While other poker content creators try to sell poker as a (sometimes sanitized) lifestyle or put on a personality, Parker is just himself, and that alone has proven to be refreshing on this day and age.
And SocialBlade agrees, it projects him to reach 100,000 followers in the next six months.
Poker Twitch Streamer #2: Jason Somerville - RunItUp
2018 Follows: 10.6 thousand
2018 Views: 3.8 Million
The king of Twitch poker, Jason Somerville has lagged behind this year, keeping an irregular streaming schedule and focusing more on the business side of RunItUp. In 2018 he did more to promote other streamers than himself and seems to be great at it, considering four out of five streamers on this list are under his Team RunItUp umbrella.
It’s strange that he’s not in the number 1 spot anymore, but his influence on Twitch poker and poker media in general, is more far-reaching than what the pure numbers can say.
He’s expected to end 2019 with over 240,000 Twitch followers.
Poker Twitch Streamer #1: Lex Veldhuis
2018 Subs: Over 54.4 thousand
2018 Views: Over 8.9 Million
Every other streamer on this list has had a great year, Lex had a better year than anyone else in Twitch poker. Regularly you can see Poker in the Top 15 Twitch directory because he draws in up to 10,000 concurrent viewers to his stream. He also has one of the most intensive streaming schedules of this list, playing five days a week from 9 to 5.
His success is expected to carry on to 2019, by the end of it Social Blade projects he will reach over 220,000 Twitch followers.
Well, that’s our list. Who didn’t make it in this year but should have? Let us know in the comments!