Understanding what is Twitch viewer count is important. In case you misunderstood, you may think that your stream is deserted when nobody chats in the chat room while you are streaming. On the other hand, if you have no clue what viewer count is, you may be overwhelmed when the number dips to zero
What is Twitch viewer count?
According to Twitch Help, The “Viewer Count” is the number of current viewers that watch your stream live. As long anyone opened your stream on their web browser, it will be counted as a viewer. If they close the stream, then they are no longer counted on the viewer count, so the number will decrease. Not all views will be counted on Viewer Count
Viewer count is confusing many Twitch streamers. For example, you have 50 viewers on the viewer count, when you usually have more than 300 viewers during your stream.
If you believe that the number of viewers is still the same as before, not because your viewers are giving up on your channel, then maybe it’s because you have many fake viewers previously
The reason is it’s because not all viewers will be counted on viewer count. You may ask what will count as a view on Twitch?
What counts as a view on Twitch Viewer Count?
All viewers that open your stream live are counted as a view. Guest or non-Twitch users are still counted on the viewer count. Lurkers that watch your stream but don’t interact in the chat room are still counted on viewer count. Bot view won’t be included on the viewer count. Viewers that lurks to more than one channel may not be included on the viewer count
If someone navigates to your channel page or click the link from social media, if they only stay for a few seconds and then leave without even opening your stream, then those viewers won’t be counted on Twitch viewer count
So, they need to open your stream to be counted on the viewer count. And it must be a real person, not a computer.
Bot views from any sources won’t be included in Twitch view count. Twitch algorithm is improving, and Twitch keeps removing bots. It’s getting easier for Twitch to detect bot views and remove them.
You won’t get banned from getting bot views because Twitch can’t know whether you are the one who purchases the bot views or not
Is Twitch viewer count accurate?
Twitch viewer count at the most time is accurate. As long the viewer is detected as a real viewer, not a view by bots, the viewer count number will increase. But there may be a delay in registering viewers for up to 30 seconds when a viewer just enters your stream. So, the number can fluctuate quickly on your channel
Sometimes, the viewer count is buggy. This bug is usually fixed by Twitch immediately. But in some cases, you get the rare bug that is hard to get detected and fixed by Twitch.
So the only solution to fix the bug is you need to restart the stream (which is not worth it in most cases) to get the correct viewers number.
How to check viewer counts on Twitch?
You just need to open the stream and scroll down. Viewer count is displayed in the red number below the subscriber button. The “Viewer Count” can be viewed by anyone in the stream, including to your viewers.
If you are not sure whether viewer count shows incorrect numbers or not, then you can compare the data from the Twitch “Viewer List”
Check out:
What is Twitch Viewer List?
The “Viewer List” show the list of Twitch users that connected to your IRC chat room during your stream. Viewer list only shows the users that have an account and connected to your chat room. So, Viewer List don’t include the lurkers that don’t open the chat room and viewer without a Twitch account.
Viewer List can be seen by clicking the Users in The Chat at the top right corner of the chat room. It will show you the list of users in chat at the current moment. You can even search for a Twitch user using the search bar. Some channel may hide this list to protect viewers privacy
Difference between viewer count and viewer list on Twitch
There is a huge difference between the viewers list and viewers count. They are connected but also separated from each other. Most of the time, the number of viewer count will be higher than the viewer list, because not all users have Twitch account and participate in the chat room. Twitch User that included in viewer list also counted in the viewer count, but the reverse is not necessarily true
Twitch lurkers and twitch users that refuse to open the chat room are calculated in the “Viewer Count” but not shown when you open the the “Viewer List”, because only logged user are showed on “Viewer List”.
This is the reason why the Viewer Count will be higher than the number of users shown in the Viewer List.
In rare cases, viewers will connect to your channel chat room using IRC software without opening the stream, causing the viewer count to be lower than the viewer list.
There is a rare bug that causes an error on the viewer list data. When many viewers click on a stream at the same time yet immediately close, the username will linger on the viewer list until you close the stream
Do Viewer Count Matters on Twitch?
Viewer count only matters if you want to achieve Twitch Affiliate and Twitch Partner because it’s one of Twitch data observe to evaluate your channel. For casual streamers, viewer count doesn’t matter that much, because it will take a long time to increase the number of the viewer on your channel.
Viewers number is vanity metrics that don’t matter that much for most streamers.
It’s good if it increases, but don’t hold your hopes up. It will take times for viewers number to stabilize to a higher peak
Should you care about the number of viewers during your stream?
You shouldn’t care how many viewers on your stream, because it’s not worth worrying it. Because sometimes the number is not accurate. It sometimes glitches anyway, so you don’t need to care about the viewers number shown on Twitch
Even if it accurate, it increases the expectation you have on the viewers of your stream
The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment
It will make you focus on the numbers more than you streaming the game you played. Focus on the stream first before worrying about the viewer count
I recommend ignoring the viewer count if you are a hobbyist streamer. But if you aim big, you can use the data to improve your stream
You can track when the number of viewers increase and decrease
- Do you make mistake during streaming when viewer count decreases?
Analyze the mistake and don’t do it in the future
- Why the viewer count suddenly increase?
What did you do during the stream that causes it? If you can dig the reason, then maybe you can repeat in the future stream to get extra viewers on your stream
In a nutshell, viewer counts don’t matter that much. So stop worrying about the number of viewers on your stream unless you’re aiming to become a Twitch Partner