Most people who decide to stream on Twitch want to grow their audience to some level. Some just want dozen or so followers and fans who keep them company in chat. Many want to level up to Twitch Affiliate and many of those are interested in attaining Partner status. The techniques you use to grow your audience to any level are pretty much the same. We’ll go over these below, hopefully answering your questions and re-enforcing some of the techniques you think you can skip.
The author is a Twitch Affiliate who attained that status after 9 months of streaming on Twitch.
1. There are no shortcuts
When Twitch Affiliates, Partners and other veteran streamers tell you that there are no shortcuts, they are absolutely telling you the truth. You have to stream consistently, develop your style, find your game, achieve Twitch milestones, and follow the techniques used by successful streamers. The Twitch goals for reaching Affiliate and Partner status are reasonable milestones. If you can’t match these goals, your stream is not sustainable long term.
But you are maybe pointing out an Affiliate streamer you know, who started streaming recently and reached Affiliate in a couple of weeks. That happens. It’s uncommon. Most often, these cases involve people who were very active in the streams of popular Affiliates and Partners (see “Community” below). They decided to stream and got some large raids from another streamer that knew about them. Other cases typically involve somebody who is the spouse/partner of an established streamer, but again, it’s likely that the spouse was active in their partner’s stream.
Realistically, you should plan on streaming consistently for 6 months before you might achieve Affiliate status.
2. Listen to what veteran streamers, both Affiliates and Partners share about audience building
You will often see people ask popular streamers and content creators how to build their audience and channels. Many will share what worked for them and many of the techniques and strategies outlined here. Also, pay attention to what they ask you not to do. Don’t ask for raids. Don’t promote your channel unless the streamer clearly asks people in chat to promote their channels. Respect the space, time and hard work the other streamer has put into their channel. Look at how they operate. What can you replicate yourself?
3. Stream consistently, but don’t overdo it
Your goal is consistency and predictability. Quality over quantity. You need to stream on a regular basis, maybe 2-3 week, at consistent times so your audience knows when to expect you. You’ll be surprised when you gain followers who tell you that they look forward to your streams. It may take some experimenting to find the best times for you and your audience. This will depend on your personal life and the game. I found that a perfect time for me to stream Geoguessr / Chatguessr, a geography/map game with chat participation, was late afternoon and early evening. This is a time when I’m free and it’s also late night in Europe/Africa, where the game is more popular than in the U.S. or elsewhere.
If you are streaming a popular game, like Minecraft or Valorant or Fortnite, you can pretty much schedule those streams when you want to stream. The big game with large player bases effectively make it irrelevant when you stream. People who like your style and the game, should find you.
Also, please don’t “over stream,” either streaming every day or streaming for six hours or longer or both. Take care of yourself. Streaming constantly is not going to build your audience. You’ll come across as desperate and will dilute your brand. Take care of yourself.
At the same time, your streams should be on average 2-4 hours. Any shorter and you come across as too casual and you miss out on opportunities, both in game and with chat. Longer streams open you up to more raids, which tend to kick in more after you reach Affiliate.
4. Respect your audience
You want to grow your audience and increase your followers, but you have to treat them with respect. You start by making sure that you understand that your community always has rules and guidelines. Not everybody is welcome. Don’t fall into a people-pleasing trap, desperately looking the other way when people act like assholes in chat. Nobody wants assholes in chat, so make sure they are timed out or banned quickly. Your loyal followers and supporters and donors expect that.
This doesn’t mean you have to turn your chat and community into a peaceful group of church ladies. There are plenty of church lady groups who cuss up a storm. You know your audience and yourself, so set parameters for what’s allowed and what isn’t. Enforce those guidelines fairly and consistently.
Also respect that your audience includes members from all walks of life. Some people may speak English (or your language) as a second language. Some people have bad days and problems and overshare. You may have younger viewers who don’t understand adult customs and etiquette. Sometime it’s best to ignore things in chat that might be from a young person.
Also respect your audience by being consistent, honest, transparent and fair. It’s OK to have a bad day. Chat understands that you are human.
5. Your game or channel may not be what you think it is
Of course, the main reason why many people start streaming is to share their love for a game or games with other people. Or they like to share their passion for music, cooking, crafting, art, and so on. Many small streamers, who never make Affiliate, are happy to have people in chat and a small loyal community. Understand that the game or passion you want to share in streams may have a limited audience. Or you may be a new streamer playing a game with many existing channels. You need to average 5 viewers per stream to make Affiliate, which can be hard to achieve streaming Minecraft, Fortnite, Pokemon, or whatever is popular this week.
Be open to the possibility that the game or passion which brings the followers to your stream is not the one that you planned to focus on. Or it might be your personal style or flair that people want to watch and follow. Maybe you are really a variety streamer!
When I started streaming in September 2020, I figured that I had to stay in the narrow lane of Minecraft, which is a game I love to play and stream. I heard that variety streaming would dilute your “brand.” I streamed for 8 months and found maybe 25 followers, some of which are now subscribers and big fans. I had some bad nights, where I stopped streaming after 30 minutes. But in April 2021, I found a new game that was up my alley and which turned out to have a “play with chat” option that increased my audience.
I have been a geography and map nerd ever since I was a little kid. I found Geoguessr in early April, which is an awesome app and game that challenges players to identify location on Google Streetview. I had been “playing” my own version of this game over a decade ago when it was released in 2007. I then discovered that Twitch streamers were streaming something called Chatguessr, which allows chat to guess during matches, with the app putting guesses on a scoreboard. After I set this up and started streaming, I leveled up to affiliate in several weeks.
Now I’m not explaining here that Geoguessr is going to turn you into an affiliate. It probably won’t. It has a small community. But pay attention to what interactive games with chat can add to your streams. Or, maybe you haven’t found the game yet that clicks with your community. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Maybe your jam is streaming Minecraft and playing live music. Maybe you are a PVP streamer. Or maybe you have a personality or streaming style that clicks with viewers, who patronize your streams no matter what you are doing.
6. Throw in some art
You’ll need original art for your avatar, channel, social media and online channels. You’ll need emotes and viewer reward images. You can do this yourself and you can hire professional artists. If the latter, make sure you are paying them fairly.
7. Your reputation is a valuable asset
How you act and behave in your stream and in the chat of other streamers will be noticed and will set how people in the community think of you. If you engage in unethical behavior (stealing ideas from other players without attribution) or if you act like an asshole (sexism, racism, insensitive remarks), this is noticed and affects your reputation. Nobody is going to support a streamer who is unethical or behave like an asshole to others.
8. This is about community
I’m pretty sure that the thing most people love about Twitch is the community. That attracts new people and keeps them sticking around. Twitch smartly encourages this with follows, subscriptions, raids and everything else. People like hanging out in streams, interacting with the creator and other people in chat. This community spills over into other channels, including Discord, Twitter, Youtube, Reddit, Patreon and fan-run SMPs. Raiding is an informal way to build connections between streamers and share communities. Twitch also make it easy for the community to financially support streamers easily with bits, subscriptions, donations, and more.
If you think you can build your channel without participating in this community, good luck with that.
9. Learn techniques from other non-gaming sources
There is a ton of resources out there on how to grow your business, do marketing, network across a community, and how to create art. Many of you probably think: videos! Sure, there are lots of videos out there, but there are way too many half ass videos. Check out books, magazine articles, and courses. Check out books and resources on podcasting. This format is closely related to streaming and there are great resources out there for people making podcasts and growing audiences. Most of that is applicable to Twitch streaming.
10. Don’t count on raids
One obvious mistake you might make in growing towards Affiliate is thinking that “just the right big raid will push me over the top.” Don’t count on it. You probably see new, small streamers get some big raids from larger streamers and more rarely, from a Partner. It happens, but it’s probably not a common way to build your stream. The only way to cultivate this without being awkward and breaking etiquette is to be active in other streamers streams. Once you make Affiliate, you’ll start seeing more raids from people who you may not know about. That will help you grow your audience, with all the cool things that brings.
Leveling Up To Partner
I’ll be honest and say up front that I’m not a Twitch Partner. I may never be a partner. But if you listen to what most Twitch Partners say, they usually share the same advice above. Most of this is similar to how content creators, artists, musicians, and businesses promote themselves in real life.
How long does it take to get from Affiliate to Partner? Be prepared for a long grind. From what I’ve observed and heard, the average amount of time is one year. That’s even more true right now, with Twitch viewership being down 30% compared to last year. The 2020 numbers are a special case, given the pandemic keeping many people at home. On the other hand, new people are discovering Twitch daily.
You should follow the advice above and be professional about your streaming, being mindful of that year time frame. There is no guarantee that you’ll make partner even if you do everything right. You might be streaming a game with a limited audience. It’s hard to maintain an average of 75 viewers per stream, which is why Twitch has established that number as a hurdle. Twitch wants to make sure that your streams are popular, consistent and reliable.
Good luck!