Twitch as the most popular live-streaming website make it harder for a streamer to stand out on Twitch. Your followers will be notified every time you start to stream on Twitch
Gaining followers on your channel, especially for new streamers is hard. Followers even though not as important as subscribers, are still needed as a Twitch streamer because you need to have 50 followers first before you can become Twitch Affiliate
- How to Get More Followers on Twitch
- The method that won’t get you a follower on Twitch
How to Get More Followers on Twitch
Twitch followers are hard to gain because followers will be bombarded with notifications on their email and Twitch account. So you need to gain viewers’ trust before turning them to your channel followers. Even though your followers will slowly increase as long you keep streaming on Twitch, there are many methods to make it faster.
Here are detailed tips and guide on how to get more followers on your Twitch channel and the method you should avoid if you want real followers on your channel
1. Ask your viewers to follow your channel
Simply asking your viewers to follow your channel is the best way to convert your viewers to follower
Maybe some of you, especially if you are YouTuber will think this method won’t work. Let me tell you, even though this method has been used for so long on YouTube, many Twitch streamers never ask their viewers to follow their channel?
Why?
Because unlike on YouTube where you record the video, on Twitch, streamers need to live stream their video. So they need to speak live, in front of their audience
Unlike YouTubers, Twitch streamers will be embarrassed when they ask their viewers because in online world and you don’t know who your viewers are. Your brain may think that asking your viewers, a stranger on the Internet to follow your channel is something that you shouldn’t do
Of course, your brain is dead wrong, so this method will work simply because many viewers won’t expect it for you to ask them to follow your channel
Should you ask your viewers to follow your channel?
You should ask your viewers to follow your channel. Following is free, unlike subscribing. It will be harder to ask your viewers to subscribe to your channel instead of following your channel. So don’t forget to ask them to follow your channel
But this method has limitations. The followers you gain are only viewers that have been watching your channel for a long time without following your channel.
Maybe they forgot or don’t bother to press the follow button. Some of them may think they don’t need to press the follow button because the Twitch algorithm will keep recommending the channel you have been watching to
You need to ask those kinds of viewers to follow your channel to make them think they should follow your channel after watching your stream for a long time
The limitation of this method is it won’t work for new viewers. New viewers that had just enter your stream won’t bother to follow your channel because they still don’t trust you
Some chatbot commands let you automatically send messages on the chat room to ask your viewer to follow your channel. But this can annoy your viewers if done incorrectly, so you should set the duration carefully
If you’re still a new streamer with a little number of followers, you can say “Thanks for following my channel”, every time the follower count increased. Thanking your viewers can make them think you’re a friendly streamer, which makes them watch your stream in the future
2. Stream at a consistent time
This is the point where most Twitch streamers failed. Many streamers only treat streaming as a hobby, so they only stream when they have time to do so
Even if your viewers like you, they won’t watch your stream because they don’t have time. Unlike YouTube where your viewers can watch your content anytime, your viewer can only watch you on Twitch during live on stream
Even though your viewers can watch your saved live stream video from VOD, I can bet that they won’t watch the VOD.
Why? Because the feeling is different. They don’t watch it live, so they don’t have anticipation. They can only watch the chat history without actually joining them.
To be honest, YouTube is a better experience for recorded video than Twitch. Your viewers will watch the edited stream on YouTube instead of watching it from your VOD’s
Why you should stream at a consistent time
While the point of following is to make your viewers can know when you start streaming, if you stream at random times, many of your viewers won’t bother to follow your channel.
Some of your current followers may unfollow you if you have a stream at an inconsistent time. They don’t want to get a notification that you just start a sudden stream at night
Therefore you should be committed to your schedule. Streaming at regular times can make your viewers feel that you were really serious about streaming. On my experience, serious streamer, even if only part-time usually get more followers than hobbyist streamer that stream at random times
So you need to have a consistent streaming schedule. Besides having a consistent schedule, you need to carefully choose the time when you start streaming on Twitch Channel
But you can still do a surprise stream outside of your regular schedule. This can let you know how many of your followers that respond to the announcement and can let you gain new followers that watch Twitch outside of your usual schedule
3. Create a great quality stream for your viewers
Your viewers will judge you if your stream quality is low. A decent PC setup that let you get higher FPS during streaming is important for both the streamer and the viewer
As a gamer, you definitely don’t want to play on 30 fps. Your gaming performance during the stream can be lower because of the lag hindering your skill. Your viewers also won’t enjoy watching your laggy gameplay
Not just the FPS number, your stream video quality, and audio quality matter when you are streamering. For video quality, a good webcam can show your face clearly without any distortion.
According to Psychology Today, most relationships are built on non-verbal cues on your face. This is why showing your face as a streamer are important
Showing your face can make it easier to connect with your viewers and make them follow you. Popular webcam like Logitech C920 and Logitech C922 which are used by most streamer is good enough for most streamer
If you have money, you can spend more to buy Logitech Brio Webcam to show your face at 4k (Which is unnecessary since most of your viewers will watch your stream at 720p and 1080p)
Audio quality can be improved by buying a better microphone for your streaming setup. It’s a no-brainer that most of the top 100 streamers on Twitch used expensive studio microphones for their streaming setup.
If you have no money to improve your streaming setup, no worries, you can get free performance from tweaking your OBS setting. A decent tweak on your OBS setting can improve the quality of the stream massively without upgrading your PC
Don’t just think you only need to improve your streaming hardware, think about your Twitch layout
A good quality streaming layout can greatly improve the experience for your viewers when they watch your stream. Custom designed transition, notification, alert, and animation for your channel can make your channel stand out from the rest streamer on Twitch
4. Advertise your channel on Social Media and YouTube
You can use social media to promote your Twitch channel. Set up Instagram, Twitter and other social media account for your channel. You can use your private social media account to promote your channel but beware that it is better to separate your private account and your working account
According to my experience, Instagram and Twitter work best for Streamer because most gamers use Instagram and Twitter. I don’t recommend creating a Facebook page because it’s only effective for Facebook Gaming Streamer
Share your best clips on Instagram and Twitter to gain potential followers for your channel. Join gaming groups on Facebook and Discord and actively engage to promote your channel
Besides social media, you can upload your clip and stream on YouTube. Edit your stream to make it shorter and more comfortable to watch for the YouTube audience. Make sure you only upload streams after 24hr to comply with Twitch Affiliate Agreement.
Besides uploading your clip to YouTube, you can also upload it on TikTok. It won’t work as good as YouTube but many TikTok users are gamers according to The Vice
You can also join Reddit subreddit r/Twitch to make yourself known on the Twitch streamers community
5. Actively engage with your viewers during the stream
I know some of you think it’s hard to keep speaking with your viewers. We all have been through it.
But you need to realize one fact. The reason why your viewers open Twitch is that they want to actively communicate with the streamer.
If they just want to watch your content, they can easily search the content on YouTube
So you need to be active and don’t make your viewers bored when they watch your stream
If you don’t know what to say during your stream, you can just tell what happens on the stream
If your viewers ask a question, try your best to answer their question. You can also tell your life experience to make the stream more lively
6. Choose and focus only one game on Twitch
If you’re good at playing one game, then you should keep playing the same game over and over again
Why? Because it’s the most simple method to gain a loyal audience on your channel
Focusing on only one game can make your viewers believe you really like the game. So, if your viewers also like the game, they will simply follow your channel.
This is more common on a small game that has only a few streamers stream the game on Twitch. Shift is a popular Twitch streamer and speedrunner that only plays SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle of Bikini Bottom. He managed to gain loyal followers because he is good at speedrunning the game.
For a competitive game like League of Legend, CS:GO, and Dota 2, it’s a bad idea to only focus on one game unless you’re really good at playing the game, even as good as the pro player. If you’re not at their skill ceiling, then people won’t watch your stream, so choosing which game you focused on is important
7. Be yourself
This is the most important point that many streamers forgot
Even though you can learn few things you should do as a streamer from popular streamers like xQc and Ninja, don’t imitate them
If you imitate them, you will always be the knock-off version, not the real one. What is more disheartening is, people that who like you won’t like the real you.
Having a streaming persona can work, as it’s one of the best methods to make people subscribe to your channel, but make sure your streaming persona doesn’t trail too much from your real character.
The method that won’t get you a follower on Twitch
Many streamers are tempted to use a shortcut or cheating method to increase their follower count on their channel. You should avoid those methods because the reason I explained below
The two most common methods are buying followers and doing a Follow2Follow campaign. First of all, let me warn you that using the shortcut and cheating method is a bad idea and can risk your channel getting banned by Twitch
Why you shouldn’t buy followers on Twitch
Twitch will ban you if you game the follower count on your channel. Buying Twitch followers broke Twitch Term of Service, and as a Twitch streamer you should avoid buying followers to your channel
The second reason why you should not buy followers is that it’s an only artificial improvement. It’s a useless number that will waste your time and money you spent on. Those fake followers won’t watch your channel. What’s the point of increasing your follower if nobody watched your channel?
Why you shouldn’t do the Follow2Follow campaign
Even though Twitch can’t immediately ban you if you do a Follow2Follow campaign, if you keep spamming Twitch users to follow your channel, they can report your channel. If you are serious about streaming on Twitch then avoid getting reported for doing a stupid thing
Do you think followers that came from the Follow2Follow campaign will watch your stream? Stop dreaming! Most of them will quickly unfollow your channel after you follow their channel. So what’s the point of doing the campaign?
Instead of searching the get rich quick scheme method on Twitch, it’s better to honestly hone your skill to gain followers for your Twitch channel. I hope you can persist on your journey and avoid searching for cheating methods that can harm your Twitch channel