2022 has been a big year for Twitch and YouTube. The number of active streamers and concurrent viewers was down compared to 2021, but there have been some massive moments in the industry throughout the year.
We also saw some new streamers burst onto the scene and make an immediate impact, and other already established streamers have breakout successes relative to how they were plodding along before.
That’s the very definition of a breakout star—someone who suddenly becomes very well-known or successful in a particular field or area, or has a remarkable achievement that helps them pull it off.
With that definition in mind, we’ve shortlisted 10 of the biggest breakout Twitch and YouTube streamers whose careers boomed in 2022 based on achievements, followers gained, viewership numbers, and more.
10. Zoil
In tenth place, we have Zoil. The towering British star has been active since 2017 but only had 341 followers in 2018 and 583 in 2019. It wasn’t until 2020 that he started taking off. By the end of the year, he had more than 30,000 followers. It shot up to 75,000 before 2022.
This year, however, Zoil made massive strides thanks to his hilarious antics at ShitCamp in September. He was one of the event’s highlights, despite being ‘lesser known’ than some of the other attendees. His antics saw him gain 162,000 followers—more than double the amount he had before, and it’s still on the rise.
That, combined with his channel’s numerical growth, earns him tenth spot.
9. Kkatamina
Like Zoil, Kkatamina has been streaming for a few years. Since 2020, to be exact. And like him, she boomed in popularity in 2022. Kkatamina gained around 100,000 followers this year. She also cemented her place as a dear friend of the OfflineTV and Friends community. She’s become inseparable from Fuslie, Sykkuno, and Valkyrae.
Kkatamina’s rise in popularity is one thing, but the fact she became an integral part of that already famous circle saw her presence as a streamer grow in leaps and bounds, making her deserving of the ninth spot.
8. QTCinderella
It’s been a massive year for QTCinderella—one that saw her receive a nomination for The Streamy Awards Breakout Streamer of the Year—which she lost to YouTuber iShowSpeed.
QTCinderella has been around the block a few times in the four years she’s been a streamer, but it’s the little things she did in 2022, like branching out into podcasts, launching The Streamer Awards to give streamers more recognition, and signing with Misfits to do even more for the streaming industry, that makes it a breakout year.
Besides all the cool things she’s done, QTCinderella’s follower count on Twitch increased by an impressive 260,000. And now that she has proper financial backing, the streaming world is truly her oyster.
7. Emiru
Emiru had a massive year—and that’s after taking an unplanned hiatus for a couple of months to deal with ongoing issues.
The 24-year-old cosplayer turned streamer joined One True King at the start of the year. Her popularity has been on the rise ever since. In fact, calling it a rise is an understatement. It’s a tidal wave. Emiru gained more than 500,000 followers on Twitch this year, and because of that, her channel hit one million followers in August. She also became the centerpiece of a dedicated 24/7 lo-fi music stream.
All of these things—and more—make her deserving of a place on the list.
6. Aminematue
Aminematue isn’t a name many English-speaking Twitch users are familiar with.
Still, the French streamer had a massive breakout year thanks to streaming a football match between France and Spain he organized himself in the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup.
He went from having 717,000 followers in January to over 1.8 million in December, gaining around 1.1 million followers. 400,000 of them happened during and after the event, showing just how big it was. Plus, the fact he managed to pull it off was a tremendous feat.
5. Tarik
Tarik is another streamer who has been around for a while. He’s a former CS:GO pro, after all. But 2022 has been a massive year for him as a streamer. It’s elevated him into the upper echelons of Twitch.
Around the halfway mark of the year, Tarik’s channel blew up due to the popularity of his VALORANT watch-along streams. The VALORANT community loved having him on board. They welcomed him with open arms. Sentinels must have sensed Tarik was doing something special because shortly after he boomed, they signed him as a content creator. In the span of a year, he gained 1.2 million followers, doubling his total.
Tarik is the perfect example of how established streamers can have breakout years long after their debuts.
4. AriGameplays
AriGameplays is a 24-year-old content creator from Mexico who, despite already being immensely popular on TikTok with a whopping 24 million followers, made waves in the Spanish-speaking community on Twitch in 2022.
She’s been active on Twitch since 2016. This year, however, she gained 2.5 million followers after participating in TheGrefg’s Cero Albañiles Fortnite series, Ibai’s La Velada del Año 2 boxing event, creating a clothing line, and more.
AriGameplays spread her wings in more ways than one as a content creator this year, and for that reason, she deserves the fourth spot.
3. ElSpreen
Argentinian Twitch streamer ElSpreen’s channel grew exponentially in 2022 thanks to his Minecraft content. He gained four million followers this year alone, and by doing so, became one of the biggest Spanish-speaking stars in streaming.
ElSpreen’s rise has been controversial, though. At first, he was hit with a ban in October and had no idea why but he was eventually told it was for offering items and additional features to boost viewership numbers.
The extent of how much it impacted his numbers remains a mystery.
Still, going from two million to six million followers in the span of a year is insane, and even though he hasn’t branched out as much as others on this list, his numbers alone are enough to put him in the top three.
2. Kai Cenat
Kai Cenat has had one of the biggest breakout years on Twitch in the Amazon-owned platform’s history. It might even be the biggest.
The quick-witted star started streaming in 2021. He gained 800,000 followers that year but toppled that by a long shot in 2022, gaining 2.5 million followers and becoming a household name who regularly collaborates with stars like Adin Ross and xQc.
His breakout success this year runs a lot deeper than that, though.
Kai Cenat was the most-subscribed streamer on Twitch at one point, with more than 100,000 active subscribers. Celebrities like 21 Savage and Lil Baby also showed up on his stream, helping him topple one viewership record after another.
And if that wasn’t already impressive enough, he also won the Streamer of the Year award at The Streamy Awards 2022. The 21-year-old’s career couldn’t be in a better position after this breakout year.
1. iShowSpeed
The number one breakout streamer of the year is hit YouTube sensation iShowSpeed. The spirited 17-year-old has been active since 2016. He posted his first video in December 2017, showcasing his NBA2k18 skills. His videos remained the same for years. He even posted Fortnite ones here and there.
Little did he know, he was on the verge of becoming a star.
In 2020, iShowSpeed’s streams averaged 10 viewers a stream. His numbers steadily grew, and in 2021, things started accelerating. He hit one million subscribers halfway through the year. An impressive feat, no doubt. But it wasn’t until 2022 that he took off like a rocket ship.
Despite being embroiled in one controversy after another, iShowSpeed’s viewership and subscriber count exploded. In August, he became the fastest-growing streamer on YouTube and continued to make headlines. Today, he has 14.5 million subscribers, and his streams have become so big, guests like Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold and popular music star Lil Nas X have appeared as guests on some streams.
iShowSpeed’s unstoppable momentum in 2022 hasn’t gone unnoticed, either. He won the award for Breakout Streamer at The Streamy Awards 2022, and his YouTube channel is still growing heading into 2023.
Honorable mention: Luis Enrique
Considering he was the coach of the Spanish men’s national football team at the FIFA World Cup in 2022, it wouldn’t have been fair to include Luis Enrique on the breakout streamer list.
Still, his bold decision to beat the media spin by streaming directly on Twitch throughout the tournament made him one of the fastest-growing streamers on the Amazon-owned platform, by a wide margin.
Things didn’t pan out well for him and his star-studded Spanish team. He was sacked after their relatively early elimination, and his critics tried to label the distraction of his streams as a contributing factor. It’s also unlikely he’ll stream again.
Still, Enrique’s endeavor deserves an honorable mention.
