Like many other live streaming subcategories and communities, the chess community in live streaming is always changing and seeing creators come and go. Throughout 2023, many channels rose to stardom, whereas other creators took a step back from content creation and slid down the rankings. In this piece, we will explore a ranking of the most watched chess-related channels in live streaming for the entire year, with the help of our extensive statistics database.
Most watched Chess streamers of 2023
In terms of the chess live streaming, Hikaru Nakamura remains the top dog of the community with 9.65M Hours Watched. Despite being one of the best chess players in the world, Hikaru finds the time to be a full-time streamer while competing at the highest level of the game. Hikaru recorded the most Airtime of any creator in this top 10 ranking, highlighting his dedication to the game.
The majority of Hikaru’s watch time came from his Twitch stream, although his time on Kick was not unsuccessful. In fact, if Hikaru’s watch time generated on Kick was considered separately from his Twitch viewership, he would take the top two spots of this ranking.
Crestbook Шахматы, Sergei Shipov, finished second on this ranking with 3.19M Hours Watched. His average viewership was much lower than other streamers in this ranking, but he recorded the highest Peak Viewers figure of any of these creators during 2023. He is a well-known Grandmaster-turned-commentator and his coverage of the World Chess Championship 2023 earned him 49.2K Peak Viewers. As will be the case for other creators on this ranking, the majority of his watch time came from his coverage of Chess events, where he was often the de facto Russian-language official broadcast.
Chessbrah is hosted by Canadian Grandmasters Eric Hansen and Aman Hambleton and features both more casual content but also coverage of competitive events. In 2023, the chessbrah name generated 2.52M Hours Watched. BlitzStream, created by Kévin Bordi, is the number one Chess channel out of France. The channel has been a staple in the Chess community for years, and the go-to destination for any French-speaking Chess fan, totalling 2.27M Hours Watched for the year.
AnnaCramling, a growing content creator from Sweden, generated 2.45M Hours Watched throughout 2023. 2023 was a highly successful year for Anna, as her viewership increased significantly, despite her streaming less Chess throughout the year. Anna has been breaking out into other content creation, appearing on other streamers’ broadcasts and collaborating with various streamers from across the live streaming industry, such as Trackmania racing streamer Wirtual.
GothamChess, the famed Chess YouTuber, claimed sixth on this ranking, thanks to 2.24M Hours Watched generated by his Twitch streams throughout the year. Although undoubtedly much more well known for his YouTube channel, which has over 4.5M Subscribers, Gotham’s content is highly popular, despite him having one of the lowest Airtimes on this ranking.
GMNaroditsky, the second Grandmaster of this ranking, finished just behind GothamChess. Grandmasters are often highly popular on live streaming platforms due to their famed title and skills within Chess. Magnus Carlsen is a Grandmaster that many fans likely would have expected to see on this ranking, but the former world champion took a step back from streaming in 2023, and recorded 51% fewer hours live than in 2022. Magnus still received significant viewership, and ranked 11th overall, just outside of this top 10.
Raffael Chess or Rafael Santos, similarly to Cresbook, generated most of his 1.61M Hours Watched through covering chess events and matches. Raffael Chess is the defacto Portuguese-language coverage channel for many Chess events, and he has enjoyed this status by collecting large amounts of watch time through his event coverage.
Three women representing female chess in live streaming BotezLive and akaNemsko placed on ranking with 1.61M and 1.25M Hours Watched on Twitch, respectively. BotezLive is one of the very few Twitch channels that is owned by two separate creators, sisters Andrea and Alexandra, and despite streaming much less Chess in 2023 than previously, the two sisters enjoyed a fairly high spot on this ranking.
AkaNemsko, Qiyu Zhou, is a Woman Grandmaster and FIDE Master who moved into the live streaming industry on Twitch during the pandemic. She found quick success on the platform and has since become one of the most recognisable women in Chess. She streamed much less Chess throughout 2023, but her Average Viewers figure shows a positive dynamic compared to 2022.
The final two creators are streamers who missed the cutoff point and were not able to try and cheat. xntentacion and AlessiaSanteramo are two accomplished Chess players who are building a name for themselves in their respective communities. Bartosz Rudecki, otherwise known as xntentacion, is an 1873 FIDE-rated player from Poland who has quickly become the biggest Chess creator from his home country. Alessia Santeramo is an Italian Woman FIDE Master who became a national champion at a young age. She has been streaming on Twitch since before the pandemic and has been slowly but surely building a sizeable audience for herself all this time.
In terms of the most watched Chess organization channels of the year, this ranking is dominated by various channels associated with chess platforms Chess.com, chess24, and so on. Many of these channels are options for different languages, such as chess24 en Español. The Chess Twitch account was the most watched of these, having garnered 11.19M Hours Watched throughout 2023.
ChessBase India is an English-language Chess coverage channel based out of India. The channel garnered 1.15M Hours Watched thanks to its diverse coverage of various Chess events and tournaments. ChessBase is a German company, but their Indian distributor is well-loved, being the biggest chess news portal for the country.
Moving away from specific channels and instead looking at the Chess live streaming sector as a whole, the statistics are favourable for Chess. Not only did more channels go live and more streams were hosted throughout 2023 than in the previous year, but viewership was also growing. Compared to 2022, watch time for Chess in live streaming during 2023 was 19.5% higher. The 2023 statistics for Chess show that more Chess creators are breaking into the industry, but this is not diluting watch time. As more people begin to stream Chess, more fans are tuning in and watching Chess broadcasts, leading to an all-around healthy growth for the Chess section of live streaming.
The Chess section of live streaming is a huge industry after the pandemic boom, and it is constantly changing and seeing trends come and go. As Chess streamers establish themselves within the industry, they may move away from the game and branch out into other areas of live streaming. ChessWatch helps you keep a finger on the pulse of the chess sector in live streaming, with objective and reliable data.
