Twitch streamer Ludwig has been hosting a "subathon," where viewers can extend a timer that's counting down to the end of the stream by subscribing, and he pulled a last-minute move Tuesday night that saved it from ending early. Each subscriber extends the timer by ten seconds and also gives Ludwig $5 before Twitch's cut. As the stream was appearing to be on its last legs following almost a month of consecutive streaming, Ludwig made a lucrative offer that helped the stream get a massive surge in life.
Ludwig's stream has been viewed by tens of thousands of people each day and has helped him garner over 200,000 subscribers. Some question the ethics of Ludwig's Twitch stream, believing it might set a negative precedent for those who want to mimic his success for money, clout, or both. Although Ludwig has been taking the time to sleep - albeit on camera - and maintain his health and hygiene, it's not impossible to imagine someone this non-stop streaming approach taking a toll on his or imitating streamers' daily lives and mental health. Ludwig was just about to have a chance to wrap his 20-day subathon up and go about his normal life again before making an offer his audience couldn't refuse.
At one point on April 6, Ludwig's stream timer hit 26 seconds. That close call seems to have prompted Ludwig to save the proposed month-long experiment, offering to match all of the subscriptions given to him over a ten-minute period. The streamer amassed over 4,000 subs in that short time, bringing the timer back up to over 20 hours. In the long stream's dull moments, Ludwig has had no shortage of content for viewers (including an accidental reappearance of disgraced YouTuber CallMeCarson), and it seems likely Ludwig will continue to find ways to his viewers and extend the countdown until he's ready for it to be over.
As Ludwig tries to make it to a full month of consecutive streaming, he's pulling out all the stops to make it happen. Whether or not this is "cheating" is more semantics than anything else, but it is helping him bring in a lot of extra money. In just ten minutes, the streamer raked in over $20,000, not accounting for Twitch's cut. That's well over half of America's median income as of 2019. Given Ludwig plans on paying his mods for their time with much of this money, it's not the worst thing in the world.
Given that Twitch is notorious for its rule enforcement, it should probably look in to enacting some kind of policy that encourages streamers who want to attempt something similar to Ludwig to do so responsibly. It seems like it'll only be a matter of time after Ludwig ends his stream and more creators attempt copycat streams to pad their wallets or followings, but not everyone may be able to manage and handle such an undertaking as well as Ludwig has so far.