Kick it off with a game that has the suggested viewer count above, stream consistently and when you see your viewer count begin to increase, switch it up to the more popular games. Our suggestion is to start with 1–3 games that you stream regularly. This is completely up to you and the streaming personality you create for yourself. Use the directory to find a game that you enjoy to play with a viewer count in the hundreds or thousands, this will give you a proven audience and enough visibility for people to find you. A great resource for choosing a game to stream is the Twitch Game Directory, it displays all of the games being streamed on the site and the number of viewers that each game has at any given time.
Channels and game lists are categorized by viewers, so if you are streaming a game like DOTA 2, FIFA or League of Legends- keep in mind that people will have to scroll through hundreds of channels with more viewers before they stumble across your stream. Start with semi-popular games, the only way for Twitch viewers to discover new streamers is by browsing. Make comments on some of the most recent gaming news, talk about the latest season of your favorite show that you binge watched the entire season of in one sitting… Do anything to differentiate yourself from the hundreds of others playing the same game as you. You are in the spotlight now, so make sure that there is always something unique or entertaining happening on your channel that gets a viewer interested enough to stick around for a bit.Ī good way to start a dialogue with your viewers could be letting your ‘inner gamer’ out say what you are thinking, explain why you are doing what you are doing and what your next move is, express your excitement and your frustrations in an engaging fashion… NINJA is a streamer that does this very well. In fact, your viewer numbers may not even register until they have already left your stream. Something to take note of is that viewers are watching on a 7–20 second delay. Use the couple minutes of attention that you get to entice the viewers that you get.
It is important to understand that when you get started, you’ll only be streaming to fewer than ten people at a time, and those people will likely just stumble upon your stream and stick around for a minute or two- so be entertaining. This is by no means an in depth guide to the technical aspects of getting started as a Twitch streamer think of this as a compilation of best practices that we have observed as regular Twitch streamers, viewers and partners with some of the biggest names in eSports. So you are into Twitch, and you are interested in starting a channel of your own… But where should you begin?