The main point of this piece is that successful streamers tend to be far more consistent than their non-streaming peers.
For example, getting as many viewers as streaming sensation PewDiePie (at the time of writing, over 64 million, as of July 2017, according to ESN) means a lot.
PewDiePie’s daily views on YouTube for his particular channel alone might not sound high, but consider that to be in the top ten, that’s incredibly good.
Or to put it another way, only having around ten viewers a day means you’re likely to lose quite a few subscribers every time a live stream doesn’t go to plan.
Why successful streamers succeed
The main reason for this is that being a successful streamer has a lot to do with consistently producing high-quality content.
That’s not to say that mediocre content won’t go down well, but generally, and streaming being quite an unpredictable form of entertainment, an element of surprise is often required to keep viewers entertained.
Many may find a funny joke or two is enough for their daily streams.
But if you have no choice but to play through the campaign mode on Fallout 4, you might have to hope for a Fallout 4 skill tree that’s friendly to your LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) experience.
The point is, if you’re consistently producing good, quality content, people will stick around to see what you’re up to next.
The tricky bit comes in with consistency. If you have a stream that’s six hours and a stream that’s an hour, they don’t necessarily both compete for your viewers.
Sometimes you can be just as popular as PewDiePie’s daily view count, and other times you can be dwarfed by him.
Being able to maintain a decent ratio of viewers to unique views is an important factor in being a successful streamer.
Here are the three things you should consider
While there’s no guarantee of becoming a successful streamer, there are certain things you should consider to make the most of your streams.
Creativity and timing
The first thing you should focus on is your content.
If you’re going to start making streams, you may want to use some of the same streamer’s scripts for a bit to get some experience.
But once you have your own voice, you’ll need to go out and grab some of the attention yourself.
This may sound obvious, but you’re not exactly the first person to make a video game stream, and what you have to draw viewers to your channel will be all about personality, not just your talent.
Being one of a few people talking about a particular game is not going to help much when there are a hundred other channels all talking about the same game.
Having a go at speaking to your viewers on the channel and trying different things is a good idea.
I had an idea for a monthly game jam, where people would make short games based on themes that I would choose.
I chose a Raspberry Pi because there was an obvious talent pool for that alone.
However, what I would do is ask people to send me the links to the videos and see what I think, whether I liked the game, and what it took to make.
There are so many different ways to go about this that it’s impossible to cover them all here, but it would be something that would really help.
In the end, I realized it was much more about finding ways to connect with the viewers, and whether the game was good or not.
It’s almost all about the writing, or the sense of humor, and how they make people feel in their videos.
You don’t have to limit yourself by what you’re good at, but you should be doing something you enjoy and that feels natural, that people will feel connected to.
Playing the games you want
You may have read the quote at the start of this piece, but it’s still worth saying it again because it might be one of the most important things you can focus on to increase the number of views to your channel.
People watch your streams to be entertained, so your goal should be to make sure you’re doing that as often as possible.
Streamers usually stream games they don’t own or ones that have very low replay value.
Most games that get a high number of views are ones that people feel really comfortable watching, which usually translates to the game being played well and the action intense.
I recently had a goal of using titles that I was interested in myself.
I streamed Horizon Zero Dawn and did a playthrough of the entire game in a single stream, which is probably the best way to be able to show what you’re capable of doing.
Another example is Injustice 2, a title that got lots of views with my dedicated gameplay videos, with the latter being watched by nearly 2 million people.
So remember, as much as you want to avoid playing PUBG or Call of Duty because you think it’s terrible, people want to see you stream it because it’s a much better game, and there’s a big potential audience to find people that like it.
You need to remember that when you’re going about trying to gain views on your own streams.
Hype your streams in advance
This seems obvious, but always be in your stream’s description saying something like “this stream is now live” or “I’m about to start playing this game.”
Even if you’re only going to be talking about your favorite game for five minutes, it’s important to get that across before you even press the play button.
This goes a long way to setting the tone for your stream, so people know they’re about to tune in to something interesting.
In conclusion
As you can see, a successful channel doesn’t just revolve around your stream itself, but the entire environment around it.
So remember, don’t focus on trying to get likes on Facebook or even videos on YouTube – it’s the whole system that’s crucial to you as a streamer.
If you can focus on creating fun and engaging channels that people enjoy, chances are that you’ll get more views than you could ever have imagined.
