The Game Awards are right around the corner, with the show airing next month from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The show recently revealed the nominees for its various categories, including the five prospective picks for The Game Awards Content Creator of the Year.
As with any awards show, there’s a fair amount of controversy surrounding the nominees. Several big games were snubbed for award nominations, and many feel the same about the options for Content Creator of the Year. The controversy prompted one of the nominees to weigh in, with Dream tweeting out his personal picks for this year’s top five streamers.
Dream shared the list of top streamers on November 19. His picks include Ludwig, xQc, Rae, Mizkif, and a tie between Ranboo and TommyInnit. Most of these shouldn’t need much introduction, being some of the biggest streamers on Twitch. For example, Ludwig, whose full name is Ludwig Ahgren, was the most subscribed streamer on Twitch between March 22 and May 12 of this year. Meanwhile, Rae, also known as Valkyrae, has been Twitch’s most-watched female streamer since 2020 and already has one Game Award win under her belt.
The other four are similarly popular on Twitch. xQc is a former professional Overwatch player and another former most-watched Twitch streamer. His recent interest in chess started a major trend on the platform last year. Mizkif, meanwhile, went from being an obscure Twitch streamer in 2016 to one of the platform’s biggest. He came in behind Trainwreckstv and Hasan Piker as the third most-watched streamer during the US’s 2020 presidential election. Finally, Ranboo and TommyInnit are both popular streamers coming from the Minecraft community. They’re both big names, though Dream admits he may be a little biased, considering they both got their start streaming from his private Minecraft server.
Looking at the official Game Awards nominees, Dream himself is a massive streamer famous for his Minecraft speedruns. Fuslie started as a League of Legends streamer and recently joined the LA-based gaming organization 100 Thieves as a content creator. Spanish streamer Ibai, primarily known as an eSports commentator, is the tenth biggest Twitch streamer globally and recently made a Forbes list of the most influential people in Spain. Fellow Spaniard TheGrefg also received a Game Award nomination. He holds the Guinness World Record for most concurrent Twitch viewers and is the seventh most-subscribed Twitch streamer worldwide. Finally, Brazilian streamer Gaules has the honor of being the most-watched Twitch streamer on earth.
Notably, Dream points out in his tweet that he only speaks English, explaining why his picks are less geographically diverse than The Game Award’s official nominees. And while views aren’t everything, it is not surprising that The Game Awards chose to include some of the world’s biggest online content creators.
The Game Awards 2021 will air on December 9.