Twitch has become a popular live-streaming platform, especially for gamers. Interest in Twitch skyrocketed in 2020 as many bored gamers stayed home during the lockdown. Even as the world slowly reopens, Twitch remains popular with 9.2 million active streamers on the platform every month. The top-ranked streamer is Ninja with 18 and then 3 million followers.
Of course, the vast majority of the more than 9 million streamers cannot boast of 16 million followers. Many people can’t even expect 16 people to watch the broadcast. Streaming without an audience seems to make little sense; you could also play alone.
Many streamers know this problem. There are too many other people streaming to hope to find an audience organically. Instead, you should consciously try to boost Twitch followers. And once you get to the point where you have an audience, it’s much easier to build a community of followers based on that. So how do you get more views on Twitch?
Here are our tips on how to gradually progress from a newbie to someone with a familiar name, reputation, and talking point chat on other channels.
Here’s how to get more viewers on Twitch:
Invite your friends and family to watch
One of the easiest ways to attract viewers to your first shows is to invite people you know in real life to watch your channel. Unless they’re gamers (or don’t like watching Twitch), they probably can’t stay here forever. It’s still a great way to grow your audience early in the streams so you have someone to talk to on your channel.
I know some streamers even invited their parents. It reminds me of when my parents watched college football games. Isn’t it healthy?
Are there people around you who want to support you in getting started with streaming and make it easier for you to get started? It can be family, colleagues, classmates, or friends.
Publish your VOD videos to YouTube
Twitch is not the best platform in terms of findability. There are no powerful features for viewers to find new creators, which is why so many new streamers aren’t streaming to anyone.
Therefore, the best way to get more viewers on Twitch is to build an audience on Twitch first and move it later. And this is where YouTube comes into play. Unlike Twitch, it’s easy to get discovered on YouTube as long as you create quality content, add thumbnails, and write catchy, clickable titles.
If you do it right, the YouTube algorithm will distribute your videos widely and get you tons of viewers/subscribers in no time. Next, don’t forget to add a call to action (CTA) to your videos so that viewers on your YouTube channel are encouraged to watch your live streams and upload them to Twitch.
Play and stream the popular game
Playing a popular game can be a double-edged sword. Players of channels like Grand Theft Auto, Apex Legends, Valorant, League of Legends, Minecraft, Call of Duty, and Fortnite can join a huge selection of channels. For example, when I wrote this article, there were 198,000. The Grand Theft Auto shows alone were watched by people, with 64,000 watching Portuguese streamer Loud_Coringa.
On the other hand, ten Grand Theft Auto streamers had no viewers and many of them only had one or two. But even those at the bottom of the Grand Theft Auto leaderboard can dream. Users can sort streamers in different ways. One of them is to sort them by viewers (from lowest to highest).
There is a chance that some will want to try out the new streamer. Grand Theft Auto and the other games mentioned above are certainly popular. Many potential viewers want to stream someone playing the game.
‍Always talk
I’ve seen countless streams from people wanting to know why they’re having trouble attracting and retaining viewers. In 95% of cases, one reason is that their plane is QUIET. You can almost hear the crickets chirping.
Usually, you have to speak during the broadcast to bridge the gap. Even if no one is on your channel, you have to talk. You can share your impressions of the week, comment on the gameplay, or answer random questions.
One of the things that sets you apart from other streamers is your personality, and if you don’t express yourself, viewers can’t see it. Most new viewers come to the channel, watch it for a while, and then decide whether to stay or not. If they say you just focus on the gameplay, they probably won’t come back.
Organize contests on social networks
Running social media contests can be an extremely effective strategy to increase viewership on Twitch. Here’s how it works: First you need to register for the free tool. We recommend SweepWidget because it supports Twitch.
Then choose a prize that will allow people to enter your contest for a chance to win. This may be different from Steam game keys and game credits, which generally work well for Twitch viewers.
Next, you set the contest entry requirements the actions users must take to enter the contest and have a chance to win.
I also recommend adding an entry requirement where entrants must share the contest with only one person (this will help the contest spread across the internet and reach more people).
Find out more about the competition
When someone logs into Twitch, they are presented with different channels that the streaming platform thinks they will like. The more time they have already spent watching streams, the better and more accurate the Twitch recommendations will be. Over time, your feed should appear in the suggestions on the homepage.
However, many viewers prefer to search for channels. They then click the Browse button to go to a page with two tabs: Categories and Live Channels. When viewers select categories, Twitch primarily presents them with a list of games. However, it also includes other popular categories such as:
For example, “Chat only” (currently the most popular category on Twitch). When someone clicks on a category, Twitch shows screenshots of streamers whose content matches that category. For example, if someone selects Minecraft, Twitch will show all Minecraft streamers on the next page. We give many examples of this in the photos of the release of the most viewed games on Twitch in 2021.
