‘La Velada Del Año III’ brings influencer boxing to new heights with record-setting Twitch stream

Ibai Llanos has rewritten the Twitch record books once again. The Spanish streamer drew more than 3.4 million concurrent viewers for La Velada Del Año III, the latest in a series of influencer boxing events.

The third edition of La Velada Del Año (which translates to “The Night of the Year”) took place at Madrid’s Civitas Metropolitano stadium, where 70,000 fans showed up to watch a series of fights and musical performances.

Ibai’s seven-hour stream of the event included appearances from top Hispanic creators and artists. YouTuber Fernanfloo won a close contest against gamer Luzu, Mexican streamer Samy “Rivers” Rivera participated in two matches, and Puerto Rican megastar Ozuna delivered a headlining musical performance. The main card proved to be a bit anticlimactic, as Chilean YouTube legend Germán Garmendia lasted less than two rounds against the big punches of his Argentinian opponent Coscu.

The event was not without its hiccups. Rivers’ first match pitted her against similarly-named TikToker Marina Rivera (a.k.a. “La Rivers“). During the fight, Twitch experienced significant outages, with more than 4,800 viewers losing access to the stream.

Ibai, who provided commentary for his blockbuster event, addressed the technical difficulties as they occurred. “It’s a shame because I think Twitch is down. I think Twitch is acting weird. Lots of people are telling us this in the chat,” the Spanish star said

. “We’re in contact with Twitch because the truth is it’s a shame to put on this event and then see that a platform with $300 million isn’t capable of providing a good server, but we’re trying and let’s see if we could fix it with a little bit of luck.”

Despite those glitches, La Velada Del Año III reached unprecedented highs. Its peak concurrent audience was big enough to break the previous Twitch record, which was also held by Ibai. La Velada Del Año II peaked at 3.3 million concurrents last year.

The astonishing achievements of La Velada have cemented Ibai among the most remarkable streamers in the world. His negative comments about Twitch’s infrastructure could raise questions about his future on the Amazon-owned platform. Ibai has been critical of Kick and has stated that he has no intention to join the ascendant Twitch rival. Even so, Twitch might want to invest in its servers. With so many of its top draws diversifying their streams, it must placate the stars who remain loyal to it.