In September, Hikaru Nakamura returned to the peak of the Chess viewership tables, and he maintained this presence atop the throne last month. The world number two has made it his mission to spread the word of his chosen sport globally after its spectacular growth during the lockdown era; judging by his activities, the American doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Like its most popular content creator, Chess has remained at the forefront of the streaming public's imaginations, with its success spawning more events. There have also been various competitions that either pit streamers against each other or team them up with pros to produce matches and moments that continue to be talked about today.
In October, live broadcasts of this ancient sport by individual influencers were viewed for 3.09M hours over an airtime of 4.7K hours. This was a reduction of 16.5% from the previous month, although the marginally higher airtime of 1.4% in September contributed to these higher numbers.
Moreover, there were fewer competitions that happened across the tenth month of the year, which also meant viewers were less inclined to catch videos of their favorite non-physical game. With that in mind, here's a look at the most-watched Chess content creators on live-streaming services by watch time.
Most watched Chess channels in October 2023
At number one is Hikaru Nakamura, whose channels on Twitch and Kick combined to register 687K HW. While the former notched a monster 546K HW, the green platform was able to add 141K to his collection. The American remains the go-to name for all things Chess, including coaching regular users and sought-after Internet stars, so readers can expect him to continue dominating such rankings.
Second is Crestbook, the handle run by Sergey Shipov, a Russian Grandmaster and the most popular chess commentator in his mother tongue. A pioneer in his homeland, he gives viewers an in-depth look at the games of the strongest GMs globally.
Coming in third is akaNemsko, the channel of Qiyu Zhou, also popularly known among netizens as Nemo Zhou. The Chinese-born Canadian is a Woman GM and FIDE Master and uses Twitch to live stream her various games, including playing strangers during her travels across the world, content which has made her pretty popular among fans of the game.
Raffael Chess is fourth, with Brazilian Chess enthusiast Rafael Santos running this YouTube handle in his own words, 'it seeks to spread chess and show the game as a form of entertainment, fun, and study.' The digital creator also constantly changes its content, although the focus remains on online games, match analysis, solving tactical exercises, and studies in general.
Rounding off the top five is GMNaroditsky, run by American chess grandmaster, author, and commentator Daniel Naroditsky. The recent Stanford University grad is into coaching and streaming the game full-time, and according to his bio, viewers can 'hop into my stream for great chess, good tunes, and an amazing community!'
The last five entrants include two channels run by professional players who also fly the flag high for female chess creators: AnnaCramling and BotezLive. Meanwhile, jacksarkisian is a 21-year-old Australian streamer of the game who is slowly climbing up the popularity charts. Dramaqueen_555 is another upcoming Chess streamer from India, Naimisha, and Шахматы & Сергей Ж is run by Belarusian chess GM Sergeai Zhigalko.
Most popular Chess channels in October 2023
Spanish Twitch megastar Rubius leads this table, having hit 18K Peak Viewers across October. Such is his popularity that despite the game not being among his five most watched or popular ones, when he did decide to give it a shot, it was viewed by thousands.
Next comes Hikaru Nakamura's Twitch channel, followed by n3koglai, a Russian-speaking influencer from Moldova. He is one of the newer channels on this rankings, but his success in Dota 2 and Chess broadcasting has helped him grow pretty swiftly.
CDawgVA is fourth, with the famous British creator a highly preferred choice for fans of the game who want to see good gameplay from amateurs. His ability to do well at various streamer tournaments like Pogchamps, alongside his charity activities, has endeared him to a large part of the online world.
In fifth is GothamChess, another regular on these lists over the past few months. Run by International Master Levy Rozman, it focuses on teaching viewers everything about the game, with the American calling himself 'The Internet's Chess Teacher.' He also provides commentary on various matches and events, making him another name that fans flock to for guidance and analysis.
Seventh is a VTuber, vedal987, quite the rarity in these leaderboards. What is so unique about this channel is that it is 'a chatbot that hosts livestreams, with her speech and personality generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) system that utilizes a large language model. This also allows her to communicate with viewers in a live chat.' It was created by a computer programmer and AI developer named Vedal.
NoWay4u_Sir, interestingly, is the handle of No Need Orga's LoL pro NoWay, who has parlayed his passion for the 64 squares into quite a successful channel. Filian is another VTuber who has made their way into the Chess circles, while Metharina is another well-known female creator of the game.
Most watched and popular Chess organization channels
Most watched and popular Chess organization channels across October 2023
There are two representatives each for Chess.com, chessbrah, and Chess24 across platforms. There's also ChessBase India, while BlitzStream, created by French national master Kévin Bordi, is the number one Chess website in France.
Saint Louis Chess Club is the official channel of a chess venue of the same name in the Central West End in St. Louis, Missouri. Most of its success came from live streaming the 2023 US Chess Championships: Awards Ceremony that was held at this location in mid-October.
Last is TCEC_Chess_TV, with TCEC standing for Top Chess Engine Championship. It is a computer chess tournament organized and maintained by Chessdom in cooperation with Chessdom Arena, with the organizers also regularly posting clips and analyses on their handles.
Most of the same names also made the list of most popular channels for October, with only new entrants making their way in. One is ChessKid, a website where "kids can play and learn Chess online with the best tools- tactics, puzzles, videos, lessons & more under a '100% safe environment.'"
ChesscomLive is an American site that 'broadcasts the biggest Chess events and brings the latest highlights and clips from the game around the world. Last is CollegiateChessLeague, a Chess.com initiative that pits rising college students from around the world against each other under challenging formats, with a hefty prize fund serving as extra motivation.
