Few streamers can claim to have shaped the modern live-streaming landscape more than Ibai Llanos. As a Spanish streamer and internet celebrity, Ibai has championed a number of charitable initiatives and collaborative events that have put European culture on the world stage. None is closer to his heart, perhaps, than La Velada del Año.
La Velada del Año (meaning “The Evening of the Year”) is an influencer-boxing event that was originally held to feed off of the hype created by influencer boxers. However, the event has since eclipsed these beginnings and has become a mainstay of live-streaming culture in its own right. On the 13th of July, La Velada del Año IV (the fourth edition of the event) was held at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid: An 80K seat arena that plays host to football team Real Madrid. This ambitiously large venue preempted Ibai’s belief that La Velada del Año IV would be the most popular edition of the event yet.
In this article, we’re looking at the most popular parts of La Velada del Año IV and how it compares to previous events, not to mention the popularity of the sponsors that made such a spectacle possible.
La Velada del Año IV Thrills with Celebrity Singers and Big-Name Boxers
La Velada del Año IV was a roaring success across live-streaming platforms. Over just eight hours, the event brought in 24.9M hours watched with a peak viewership of 3.8M. By all measures, this performance demonstrates the continuing strength of La Velada del Año. By concentrating all of the action into just one evening, Ibai was able to focus online audiences’ attention and rally 80K people to attend the event in person. At between 30 and 140 Euros per ticket, that’s a lot of base revenue.
Ibai filled time between boxing matches with performances from famous Spanish-speaking singers like Julieta Venegas, Anuel AA, Paulo Londra, Bizarrap, Young Miko, and David Bisbal. The highlight of the evening, however, was a special appearance from performer/movie star Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith, who performed a collection of classic hits and new songs based on his past two years in the public spotlight. The event was packed to the brim with barely a minute of dead air.
Of course, the boxing matches were the main event. La Velada del Año IV featured six different fights. Most of them were one-on-one competitions between mega-popular Spanish-speaking streamers. The main event was between YouTubers ElMariana and YoSoyPlex which was held at the end of the evening and brought in 2.3M hours alone (with Plex winning the match by the judge’s decision).
While ElMariana and YoSoyPlex brought in the highest hours watched for a one-on-one fight, most of the fights had near identical average concurrent viewers at roughly 3.5M each. This suggests that viewers mostly tuned in for the event itself, rather than to cheer on any particular fighters. There were a couple of other formats that performed admirably as well: The women’s two-on-two tag team battle brought in 1.8M hours watched, while the “King of the Track” event pitted 10 different streamers against one another in tight 1-minute rounds for a massive 2.4M hours watched.
Food and Drink Sponsors Get the Most Attention from La Velada del Año IV Viewers
Pulling off such a grand event requires an array of sponsors. In the case of La Velada del Año IV, sponsors came from both local and international brands across an array of foods, beverages, services, and lifestyle products. The bulk of sponsors were food and beverage brands, such as Maxibon, Grefusa, and PRIME – the most popular brand among streaming audiences with 217 chat mentions. PRIME unsurprisingly grabbed viewer attention, having been launched by fellow boxing influencers Logan Paul and KSI. It’s worth noting that any mentions of “prime” relating to Amazon Prime and Twitch subscriptions were removed.
Among the services sponsoring the event, both Spotify and Revolut were well-noticed with 161 and 141 chat mentions, respectively. Given the number of musical guests performing and the younger age demographic, Spotify’s presence at La Velada del Año IV makes perfect sense. Revolut presumably sponsored the event to connect with an international audience that may use Revolut’s financial services during future travel. Lastly, Alsa and Vicio both had lower mentions than other brands – however, by featuring on the headgear and gloves of the combatants, these national brands received more on-screen airtime.
La Velada del Año IV is the Most Watched La Velada del Año Event So Far
With La Velada del Año now firmly established as a mainstay of the live streaming calendar, Ibai pushed hard to make this year’s edition the biggest yet. Ibai succeeded, with La Velada del Año IV bringing in the most hours watched out of any previous edition. This includes La Velada del Año III which had 1.8M fewer hours watched and had 10K fewer people in attendance at the stadium. La Velada del Año IV also brought in the highest peak viewership yet, at 3.85M compared to just 3.44M for last year’s event.
La Velada del Año may have reached its maximum potential, however. The difference between the 2023 and 2024 editions of the event was very slight compared to the growth from past years. Although the viewing figures nearly guarantee at least a couple more versions of the event, Ibai may need to reshape the format to milk more hours out of its fights. It’s hard to keep up the hype when previous editions like La Velada del Año II caused such a stir due to breaking Twitch’s highest concurrent viewer count.
Regardless, Ibai is on a roll with organizing events. Between his annual La Velada del Año series and his emerging football live-streaming empire with the Kings League and Kings World Cup, Ibai has become an unstoppable event-producing force. While he may find it hard to top La Velada del Año next year, Stream Hatchet will be eagerly awaiting his next streaming venture.
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