Money
Breaking Down the Numbers Behind Kai Cenat’s Mafiathon 2
In November 2024, Twitch streamer Kai Cenat launched one of the most ambitious livestream projects in the platform’s history. “Mafiathon 2” was a subathon that ran continuously for an entire month, the whole of November. With a trailer loosely inspired by the Sopranos and featuring Kim Kardashian, the month of streaming was quite the spectacle. Cenat streamed around the clock, encouraging users to subscribe to his channel, promising that twenty percent of revenues would go towards a pledge to build a school in Lagos, Nigeria. The results shattered previous benchmarks on Twitch for subscriptions, viewership, and engagement, giving the livestreaming industry a rare and measurable case study in audience intensity.
Cenat’s total subscriber count at the end of the stream was over 725,000, according to the BBC. This more than doubled the previous record of roughly 326,252 subscribers set by VTuber Ironmouse during her own marathon event earlier in 2024. To sustain a subathon, each new subscription typically adds more time to a countdown clock that would otherwise run down and end the broadcast, creating an incentive to subscribe. Cenat kept the broadcast going for the full 30 days of November, and the subathon format was at the heart of that extended schedule.
A closer look at the numbers reveals the scale of the event. According to data mentioned by Time Magazine in their profile of Cenat for their 2025 Top 100 Creators list, the stream accumulated tens of millions of unique viewers over its run, with estimates as high as 50 million. According to Time, revenue from the subscriptions alone was calculated at “more than $3.6 million” for Cenat after accounting for typical platform fees and regional pricing. Concurrent viewership numbers were equally staggering, with peaks consistently in the hundreds of thousands. On one notable day in the marathon, peak viewership approached 643,000 concurrent viewers, placing the broadcast among the most watched on Twitch in 2024.
Audience engagement was not limited to subscriptions and raw viewership numbers. Mafiathon 2 also generated a massive amount of total watch time on Twitch. According to analytics from tracking platform Dexerto, Cenat’s marathon accounted for a large share of total hours watched on Twitch for November 2024. One report indicated that the stream alone was responsible for over 80 million hours watched, more than five percent of all hours streamed on Twitch that month.
Twitch typically takes a revenue share of around 30 percent for subscriptions. With an estimated 728,000 subscribers paying at least the base subscription rate, and after Twitch’s cut, Cenat had estimated earnings of around $3.6 million from sub revenue alone. This excludes additional income from donations, ad revenue, and higher tier subscriptions, all of which would add to the total earnings.
The involvement of celebrities also amplified viewership. During the marathon Cenat hosted guests such as Snoop Dogg, Lil Uzi Vert, and Serena Williams, among others. These appearances created breakpoints in the schedule that attracted even more attention from both his existing community and outside viewers. In addition to raw metrics, the impact of Mafiathon 2 on Twitch’s narrative for 2024 was significant. The streamer was highlighted in Twitch’s own year end reviews, and Cenat’s channel was named among top performers on the platform. These mentions reflect the numerical dominance of the broadcast in a year that saw many other high profile events and livestreams across gaming and entertainment categories.
Overall, the numbers behind Mafiathon 2 make it one of the most noteworthy experiments in livestreaming history. It set new subscription standards, pushed viewership into previously unseen territory, and provided a measurable example of what sustained viewer engagement can look like in live broadcast environments. The scale of the marathon, the retention of audience attention, and the monetary results together illustrate a new benchmark for content creators on Twitch and similar platforms.
