How To Increase Your Twitch Viewer Numbers Without Burnout (Monday Musings 66)

Avg viewership drop!

At one point, I was thinking of writing down steps that will guarantee increase in your Twitch viewer numbers, but the problem is these steps may lead to burnout.

Once you burnout and take time off from streaming, your viewer numbers will decrease, so following the "fastest" techniques of gaining viewership may in fact backfire.

Sadly, it seems to be true that if you take 1 to 2 weeks off to refresh in a sudden and unannounced manner, your numbers may drop when you return.

The other unfortunate news in focusing on viewership numbers is if a crisis happens and you have to take time off, your numbers will drop. The conclusion is not to worry about the numbers, but if you really want to grow without burning out, this post is for you!

In other words, we need to find ways to avoid the inevitable burn-out of streaming so that you necessarily do not need to take too much time off from streaming, as consistency in following a schedule is the best way to gain and increase viewership.

These steps may lead to very slow viewer number increase, but it's better than crashing and burning like what happened to me. Indeed, coming back after a few weeks of re-evaluating things, my viewership numbers dropped by a whopping 50%. Note how it says -9 from last stream, total of 9 (exhibit A)!

Enjoy The Game
The first step is to play a game that you truly enjoy and find fun to stream. I decided to stream Borderlands 2 as a challenge to myself as I never succeeded in FPS games, and my community loves this game (a lot of Dark Souls fans also love Borderlands 2). Also the game has perfect Twitch game statistics (see below for details).

However, Borderlands 2 was a struggle to play, leading to many deaths and cringe-worthy gaming, and I wasn't enjoying streaming the game. My streams call to mind the unjust stereotype of women being bad at games. Although I recognize it as a masterpiece, it was not fun to stream for me, because of the demanding nature, and definitely a game that's more fun to play off-stream, which I intend to do.

Therefore, if you're a new streamer, it's so hard to focus and concentrate, not to mention on a game you're not familiar with. In other words, chose 5 games that you're really good at and that you love playing to start out with, and that your community would enjoy watching.

If you're a seasoned streamer, ignore this step and play whatever game you want as long as it falls in the "correct" Twitch game statistics if you want to continue to gain viewer numbers.

Twitch Game Statistics

Next, go to Twitch and type in the title of your games in question. If it's Fortnite Battle Royale that you're thinking, you'll see that all the large streamers will be on the first 20 pages, and then we relatively small streamers will be buried in the 5 trillionth page. No one is going to scroll through all those pages, rather, they'll click on the top page of streamers. You want a game where you will be near the top of the list.

Now, if the game you want to stream is Duck Tales Remastered, you'll see that there's a total of 0 viewers, so no one's looking for this game, except if a well known streamer like Shroud is somehow playing the game then there might be 30,000 viewers plus. But they're just watching the game coincidentally because it's Shroud, and not the game for itself. That again is a bad choice.

However, if the game you love and know very well like the back of your hand is Borderlands 2, that's a superb choice because it has a good number of viewers who actively look for the game. If you go to Twitch, you'll see that the top 2 channels will have about 50 to 75 viewers, then the next few channels will be around 20 to 30, and then your channel will be in the first page. Therefore, viewers looking for the game might chose your channel.

If they like your stream, you'll most likely get a follower and possibly loyal viewer. That'll surely increase your views, albeit very slowly.

Facecam
If the viewers looking for Borderlands 2 are looking at channels and see you on Facecam, they'll more likely click on your channel then a channel without, all things being equal (obviously a streamer like Lirik who doesn't use Facecam will get almost all the viewers, but Lirik is the exception).

Schedule
I thought an afternoon schedule would be just as good for me and my viewers, b/c it's a good time for the UK/EU audience who'll watch after work. However, I'm more of a morning person, and prefer to get all my "chores" done so I can have the rest of the day off.

It may seems like a red flag when I call streaming a "chore" but the reality is, even though it's fun (as long as I don't worry about viewership numbers), streaming is work being so demanding. It takes so much effort to play the game well, and read and talk to chat, being entertaining.

Indeed, engaging your audience will keep and increase viewership numbers. You can't expect to play a game without discussion, unless you're one of the few absolutely incredible challenge runners, and even then, they talk to chat.

After moving to morning schedule, it worked better for me because I don't have to fret and worry until 1 PM EST (that was my past schedule) about streaming. I can get it over and done with and move on.

When you start out, feel free to experiment which schedule works the best for you which may take a couple of weeks or so, and then try to pin down the exact hour you want to stream and stick with that schedule if possible. Indeed, anytime you change hours, your viewers will drop, so it's okay to experiment with your schedule when you start out with streaming.

Certainly, once you really like your schedule and you feel comfortable with it, keep that schedule until something comes up such as new job and the like.

In your channel panel description, I would recommend adding the stream elements or streamlab schedule countdown.

Mention in a "Schedule" channel panel that you'll stream one hour for the day(s) you're interested, in case there are days when you don't feel like streaming the "ideal" 4 hours or more. The mistake I made was starting out 4 days/week at 4 hrs/day. However, even though you note you're streaming 1 hour, you can always stream longer than 1 hour.

Once you feel that streaming 1 hour is "easy" then you can advertise that you'll stream 1.5 or 2 hours and so forth.

The rationale is that you can always stream longer, but you can never stream shorter than what your viewers expect per your schedule.

The reason why you want a set hour is so your viewers will know when to tune in when you're streaming, much like television shows. Even TV has recording and your videos can be re-watched (on Twitch dashboard, channels, turn on store past broadcasts), but the issue is you need live viewers for them to count in the demanding Twitch world.

Time Off?
Once you notice that you have a few viewers (or more) who chat in your channel and are at your streams faithfully, I think you can take time off, maybe 1 week at most, and your viewers might not drop that much when you return, because your faithful viewers will return to see you.

"But it's only 1 week," you ask, but in the world of Twitch, taking a week off is like an eternity.

Make sure you announce in advance that you'll be taking off and you'll be fine when you return.

Taking time off is crucial in preventing burn-out and then quitting streaming entirely, so if you feel burned out the 2nd or 3rd month of streaming, make sure you announce a 1 week vacation to your chat constantly so they're aware.

Again, the fact that maximum of 1 week off may be considered even "too much" if you want to keep your viewers, demonstrates the ultra-competitive nature of Twitch streaming.

Conclusion:

1. Find a game that is easy for you to play and that you absolutely love so your enthusiasm shines through in your streaming.
2. Make sure this game will have your channel in the top of streamers streaming the game, with adequate number of viewers watching the game (type the game title in Twitch search bar).
3. Facecam
4. Set schedule that works for YOU.
5. Time off when you notice you have a handful of faithful viewers, but if you start burning out before then, take time off, maximum maybe 1 week.

I'm hoping that these relatively painless steps will improve your viewership numbers but without the burn-out.

I can write about how to network to gain viewers, but I find it unhealthy so if I ever do, it'll be a huge caveat for that post.

However, the best advice I can give is to not worry about your viewership numbers, but rather enjoy the process of streaming, improving content, and being with your community, which is what I'm focusing on now and loving it!

Are you a streamer, and what other painless tips will help improve viewership numbers? Do you want to read about networking to increase your numbers in a future post?

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