Ibai Llanos is taking the Twitch record books into uncharted territory. On July 26, the Spanish streamer hosted La Velada del Año 5, the fifth edition of his annual influencer boxing spectacle. Thanks to a massive fan response, Ibai broke his own record by attracting more than 9.3 million peak concurrent viewers on his official broadcast of the event.
As with previous editions of the competition, La Velada 5 featured pugilistic perfection doled out by some of the most popular personalities on the Spanish-speaking side of the internet. Ibai’s enormous audience only represented a portion of the event’s total Twitch viewership. During the fight between Mexico’s Alana “Alanalarana” Scarlett and Spain’s Ari Geli, La Velada’s combined Twitch traffic peaked at more than 14 million concurrent viewers, according to data shared by Streams Charts.
Streams Charts also noted that La Velada 5’s Twitch audience nearly claimed the peak concurrent traffic record across all major digital streaming hubs. The 2024 ASEAN Championship, a football tournament contested by Southeast Asian nations, hauled in 19.5 million peak concurrent viewers across all qualifying YouTube streams.
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Chart-topping viewership is nothing new for Ibai. Each year’s Velada del Año (which translates to “the night of the year”) has claimed enough Twitch traffic to replace its predecessor in the record books. La Velada 4 reached astonishing heights when it hauled in more than 6.7 million peak concurrents, but the following year’s sequel managed to double that figure and then some.
So how does Ibai do it? What is it about this particular series that makes it so unbeatable in the realm of Twitch traffic? There are a few factors that can help us answer that question. Influencer boxing is huge in general, with the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson showdown achieving concurrent viewership numbers that dwarf Ibai.
One must also consider the power of the Spanish streamer community. For many Spaniards, Twitch is replacing traditional forms of entertainment. That trend has boosted viewership numbers for Spanish streamers, who have come together to form a close-knit community. One of Ibai’s contemporaries, TheGrefg, showed off the power of that community with his ballyhooed broadcast of the awards show known as Los Premios Esland.
Many of the fans who are driving Spain to the top of the Twitch charts showed up in person to watch La Velada. The event took place at a sold-out Estadio La Cartuja in Sevilla, where 80,000 spectators enjoyed the creator-on-creator bouts.
But La Velada is about more than just Spain — it’s a celebration of Spanish-language streaming content as a whole. The participants came from across the Hispanophone world, and the accompanying musical performances offered an eclectic mix, ranging from YouTube chart-toppers like Puerto Rico’s Myke Towers to pop icons like Los del Rio, the Spanish group best known for turning the “Macarena” into a multiplatinum single.
Despite its origins within the Spanish streaming community, La Velada has truly become a global event. Ibai should be proud of what he’s accomplished, but I’m sure he’s wasting no time preparing an even bigger spectacle for La Velada 6 next year.
