Do we like Gronkh?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent record and real charity work, held back by a few spats where his tone or choices left a sour taste.
Erik Range, better known as Gronkh, was born in Braunschweig in 1977 and worked as a web designer and programmer before YouTube. He co-founded a company in 2007, then started making Let's Plays in 2010, and his Minecraft series ran to more than 1,200 episodes. He became the face of German gaming online and has streamed on Twitch since 2014.
The honours piled up fast: Webvideopreis wins in 2012, a Golden Play Button in 2013, a spot in the Computerspielmuseum Berlin's Hall of Fame in 2014, and Best Streamer at the 2020 Gamescom Awards. He also moonlights as a voice actor, including a role in the German version of a Spider-Man animated film.
On the harm test, the big flashpoint was early 2023, when he planned to stream Hogwarts Legacy. A clip of him asking “Bin ich ein schlechter Mensch, wenn mir J.K. Rowling egal ist?” went round Twitter, and he said it was cut out of context. He said trans people and their problems are not a matter of indifference to him, that he rejects Rowling's views, and he turned down an ad campaign for the game.
More recently he reacted angrily to Friedrich Merz mocking a children's book, saying “Dann bist du halt Abfall.” He apologised a few seconds later. In March 2025 he also changed a video title that echoed a banned Hitler Youth slogan after complaints. He said he took it from Game of Thrones and a game subtitle, and that he “will not fold on everything”.
The nice test is where it gets wobblier. In 2023 a moderator in another streamer's chat called him “eh ziemlich rechts” over his criticism of streamer Shurjoka, and he shared the message and asked Twitch if that was okay. In 2024 Shurjoka accused him of making fun of her claims of misogyny and trivialising women's suffering. He answered with a soup joke from Japan, which doesn't read as taking it on board.
In October 2025 he cancelled a stream after criticism in a fan subreddit over a fan channel, his game choices and sponsor placements. He said it had turned into personal attacks and affected him more than he liked. Most of the community still backed him. Separately, an iced-tea company he invested in alleged in a newsletter that he'd been out of contact for 14 months. He says he was only an investor and handed it to his lawyer.