Who Is Anomaly?

In the dynamic world of content creation, masked YouTuber and streamer Ludwig “Anomaly” Lagerstedt stands out with his infectious energy, amusing humor, and chaotic style of content. His videos and personality have captured the hearts of millions of people, so in this article we’re exploring what makes him such a viral sensation amongst the Counter-Strike community.

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Before The Fame

Ludwig Lagerstedt, better known by his online alias “Anomaly,” was born in Sweden on December 9th, 1994. The 29-year-old first got into content creation when he started his first YouTube channel called warhaammer on March 21, 2007. He mainly uploaded stop-motion Lego animations at the time. His first video from 2007, is still available on his YouTube channel, but the rest of his old content has mainly been set to private or been unlisted.

He also used to have a YouTube channel by the name of wwwENERGIDRYCKnu where he would review energy drinks and coffee, which was affiliated with his website under the same name. Since then he’s come a long way and made a lot of changes to his style of content creation. He now focuses entirely on Counter-Strike content, and it’s safe to say that it’s been a successful transition.

Content Creation & Streaming

Anomaly is mostly known for being a Counter-Strike content creator, boasting an impressive following on multiple platforms.

YouTube Channels

Anomaly’s main YouTube channel currently has an impressive 3.3M subscribers and has amassed over 1B views in total. His content mostly revolves around Counter-Strike, with each iteration of the game being featured on his channel at one point or another. His current videos mainly consist of case unboxings, CS2 update videos, various CS2 gameplay videos revolving around fun/creative ideas, CS2 highlights from his streams, pranks, occasional skits, and even travel content.

His most popular YouTube video ever is titled Trolled By Valve, which quickly skyrocketed to 15 million views, and was released over 10 years ago. The video shows Anomaly chaotically opening CSGO cases in a heavily edited format, with a lot of swearing and antics – a perfect representation of his style of content. This is one of the videos that first caused him to blow up on YouTube and has now spiraled into the career he has today due to his hard work, dedication, and genuine love for the game.

He also has two other channels, one being Anomaly & Papanomaly which features content he makes alongside his dad, and the other being Anomaly 3 which revolves around CS skin economy and showcasing rare skins. On his third channel, the Anomaly 3 one, he refers to himself as a “Professional Skin NPC” as seen in his bio.

Streaming

Anomaly has been incredibly successful on YouTube but has also diversified to live-streaming by streaming on Twitch. This pattern of success followed him to Twitch as well, as now thousands of people watch him play CS2 live on stream every week. His Twitch channel has reached over 2.8M followers and peaked at 125K concurrent viewers in April 2020. While he doesn’t follow a strict schedule, he tends to stream 3-5 times a week, for about 5-6 hours each time with an average of around 3-4k concurrent viewers per stream.

Label

Skins & Trading

Anomaly is a popular name in the CSGO/CS2 skin and trading community. Due to his extensive knowledge of the game and the in-game skin economy, shown on numerous occasions via his YouTube content, the CS skin community has embraced him as an expert and trusted trader. He holds an incredibly high-value collection of CS2 skins in his Steam inventory, totaling a whopping $170K+ according to SteamAnalyst.

In early 2016 he unboxed a StatTrak™ AK-47 | Case Hardened (Factory New) with the widely recognized Scar pattern, known for being the #1 Case Hardened pattern in the game. While he knew the skin was rare, he didn’t know exactly how much the skin was worth, so he started doing research before eventually deciding to auction the skin off. The auction started at $10.000, and eventually ended at a whopping $32.000, being sold via bank transfer.

In late 2016 to early 2017, he sold his inventory to support his father as his family-owned business was having financial struggles. This is a clear testament to his character outside of the online persona he typically portrays, one that his community wants nothing more than to support. Fast forward to 2024, he has done a tremendous job of rebuilding his inventory since then, all the way to the aforementioned state we see today.

He has since also purchased another AK-47 | Case Hardened (Minimal Wear) with the 661 Scar pattern from another CSGO player who happened to get one in a trade-up contract, before CS2 released. The player contacted him asking for advice, mentioning he was scared about getting scammed but that he wanted to sell the skin. Anomaly offered to buy it himself, and eventually paid $77.000 for the skin which the player then used to purchase himself a literal sports car. Anomaly was happy to finally be reunited with the legendary skin after his immense success as both a YouTuber and streamer earned him the opportunity.

It’s safe to say that Anomaly remains a highly respected and trusted figure in the CS2 community to this day, as he continues to prove his knowledge and expertise as a skin trader and player.

Maintaining His Privacy

While many content creators want nothing more than to be famous, and would love to be recognized walking down the street for their local coffee, Anomaly wanted to take a different approach. First proposed by his mother, Anomaly decided to wear a balaclava while filming his content to maintain his privacy. Before he found the balaclava approach, he would use a bucket on his head with cutout eyes and a drawn-on smile. The bucket eventually broke, leading him to the balaclava.

In 2021, there was an incident in which Anomaly was attempting to switch scenes in OBS during his Twitch stream. While doing so, he accidentally ended up showing his face without the balaclava on stream. Due to the live nature of a stream, there was no deleting the footage or going back after that, so he simply laughed it off and went back to his normal stream antics. The white balaclava has since become an iconic part of his brand, something he himself stated on an episode of the popular Misfits podcast.

Conclusion

It’s safe to say that Anomaly is a prominent figure in the CS2 and CSGO content creation space. His contagious laugh, eccentric personality, and energetic style of content have helped him grow into the popular content creator we all know him as today. Meanwhile, his extensive knowledge of the game and its skin ecosystem, as well as his trusted status remains the backbone for his key role in the CS trading community.

Nobody knows where Anomaly’s story leads from here, but we expect to see him continue to rise in popularity alongside the recent release of CS2. Anomaly has entertained millions of viewers throughout his years of content creation, acting as an inspiration for many, and leaving all of us excited to see what he does next.