From prank videos to most-watched streamer: How Kai Cenat became the number one content creator on Twitch

Twitch phenom Kai Cenat is one of the most well-known creators on the platform in current times. The creator is exponentially popular on the purple platform and enjoys over 12.1 million followers on his Twitch channel. His prominence within the streaming community is evidenced by his being given the Streamer of the Year as well as the Best Just Chatting Streamer award in the 2024 rendition of The Streamer Awards.

Despite establishing his dominance within the streaming sphere over the past few years, his content at the start of his career was primarily hosted on YouTube and was significantly different than the content he outputs today.

This article explores his career trajectory from being a prank YouTuber to becoming a streaming fiend and being ranked the top creator on Twitch.

Note: Statistical data for the article has been sourced from TwitchTracker and SocialBlade.

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Exploring the career trajectory of Kai Cenat from YouTuber to Twitch

Kai Cenat was born on December 16, 2001, in New York City. The 22-year-old native grew up alongside three siblings, which included two brothers and a sister. He started uploading content online even before officially starting YouTube. Kai started his content creation journey on Instagram and Facebook, uploading short-form comedic content. His first post on Facebook was made when he was just 13.

Eventually, he would start creating content on YouTube in 2018, uploading his first video on the platform on January 14 of the same year. Kai Cenat's initial videos were focused on producing prank and challenge-related content, involving him trying out the "world's hottest pepper" ringing the bell of dorm rooms in his college, and running away.

Apart from this, he would also upload "Storytime" content, giving his audience insider information about his personal life experiences. Soon enough, Kai found his first taste of fame on YouTube, with the second part of his college "ding-dong ditch" challenge going viral and reaching much higher viewership as compared to his other videos at the time.

Kai Cenat dropped out of college in 2020 to focus entirely on his YouTube career. In mid-2020, he became the last person to join the Any Means Possible (AMP) group through existing member Roberto "Fanum." His subscriber count had also started to increase exponentially by this time, with him hitting his first million subscribers on YouTube in September 2021.

Not too long after, the creator rode the wave of virality and made a shift to streaming-focused content on Twitch in February 2021. His content underwent a dramatic change as well, now revolving around making reaction content as well as gaming broadcasts. Within a year of joining Twitch, Kai had already accumulated a million followers on the live broadcasting platform.

Apart from releasing songs such as Bustdown Rollie Avalanche and Smoking on Fredo, Kai Cenat also diversified his content in 2022 by hosting celebrities on his livestreams, including rappers Bobby Shmurda, Lil Baby, and 21 Savage.

He started receiving recognition on a big scale after winning the Streamer of the Year award and being nominated for the Breakout Streamer award in the 12th Streamy Award in 2022. By the end of the year, he had risen to 3.5 million subscribers.

The following year, 2023, was one of the most eventful for the creator. He started a month-long subathon on January 31, 2023, and managed to amass over 300,000 by the end. On March 1, 2023, he became the most-subscribed creator in Twitch history, with 306,621 concurrent subscribers.

Further, he was also embroiled in a controversy after he decided to do a giveaway of 300 PS5 consoles while visiting New York City in August 2023. After a massive crowd collected around Kai, running well into the thousands. As things risked getting out of hand, the NYC police deployed approximately 1,000 officers at the scene. He was arrested by the authorities and charged with multiple charges, including felony rioting, inciting a riot, and unlawful assembly.

In 2024, Kai Cenat hosted multiple streaming marathons of a variety of games, including single-stream playthroughs of Red Dead Redemption 2, FromSoft titles like the Souls-borne and Elden Ring. Most recently, he hosted a single-stream playthrough of the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree. He managed to beat the DLC after over 99 hours and 1,070 deaths in total.

Today, the creator stands at the number one rank on Twitch, with a monthly average viewership of over 100,000 viewers per stream and a staggering figure of 14 million hours watched.

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Kai Cenat recently hosted a special Fourth of July livestream, featuring YouTube's most subscribed creator Jimmy "MrBeast." The two paired up to prank Kai's audience by constructing a 1:1 scale replica of the streamer's room in the middle of a field, and then setting off a large number of fireworks within the room.