Who is El Rubius? Tracing the origin of the Spanish YouTuber who challenged xQc for a boxing match

YouTube and Twitch phenomenon Ruben “El Rubius” is a Spanish-Norwegian YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Aged 32, Ruben enjoys massive popularity on the internet, with a whopping 40.4 million subscriber count on his main channel on YouTube.

On top of being the #1 YouTuber in Spain, he also does exceptionally well on Amazon-owned Twitch with 12 million followers on the platform.

At at Ibai’s La Velada Del Año II on June 25, El Rubius created a buzz when he challenged former Overwatch pro xQc to a boxing match — which is set to take place next year. With a concurrent viewership of 2.8 million, the event shattered all past records. He said:

"X (xQc), I'm waiting for you...Come."

Surprisingly, xQc has accepted Rubius’ summons and is ready for the big bout in the next installment of La Velada Del Año. With things spicing up between the two streaming giants, it’s no wonder the fight is going to be one of the biggest highlights of the coming year.

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Exploring El Rubius' rise to prominence

El Rubius is the most popular Spanish-speaking content creator, and known for his gaming montages, vlogs, and Let’s Play videos on YouTube. The Spaniard created his channel “elrubiusOMG” in 2012, which now has more than 40 million subscribers — indicating the mammoth support Rubius has.

Early life and career

Born in Spain to a Norwegian mother and a Spanish father, Ruben's life was full of ups and downs from the beginning. His parents divorced when he was three years old. His mother then married Hector, the person Rubius refers to as “The Godfather.” Sadly, they got separated when he was 16.

After moving to Norway and completing his studies there, he moved back to Spain to live with his godfather.

Rubius created his first channel on the platform in 2006 and named it “elrubius.” However, he didn’t start posting content regularly until 2011. He grew in popularity after he began uploading video montages of Skyrim on a regular basis — which were accompanied by his unusual and comedic takes on various situations.

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El Rubius' popularity boom

After the aforementioned events took place, the content creators started a new channel in 2012, where he regularly uploaded montages of various games such as Battlefield and Happy Wheels. He started gaining popularity soon after and hasn't looked back since.

His channel’s growth exploded when he started a new segment on his channel named "X (video game) in 1 minute" wherein he tried to summarize the video game in an ironic and humorous manner in the span of 60 seconds.

In 2014, Rubius published a book titled “The Troll Book,” which blew up and reached number one in sales in Spain for eight weeks. It was also a bestseller at the Madrid Book Fair 2014.

In 2016, after reaching 20 million subscribers on YouTube, he tweeted about it — which currently stands at the ninth place in the list of the most retweeted tweets ever.

El Rubius later went on to feature in Virtual Hero, an eponymous anime based on his life. He also appeared in promotional videos for Passengers alongside Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, Bad Boys for Life alongside Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The content creator also starred in the 2022 movie Uncharted with Tom Holland as his co-star.