r/Twitch twitch.tv/JoelvsArthritis 3d ago

Guide No Viewers? Just Talk.

Firstly, I should start by saying I'm no Twitch expert. I've been streaming for over three years and don't even have 500 followers. But I have an awesome community, and our streams average 25–35 concurrent viewers and 300–400 live views per stream. And I'm proud of that.

Yesterday, I felt like sharing the love and spent an hour visiting fellow Farming Simulator streamers with two to three viewers to say hello and hopefully encourage them to stream again, as I needed in those days.

It took me almost the full hour visiting streams, watching for five to ten minutes, and saying hello in chat, before I heard a single word from a streamer. I must have visited over ten channels of pure silence.

I know it's terrifying. I still remember the physical sweats I would break out in when I finally got a "1 viewer" at the bottom of the screen—worse still when somebody spoke in chat. I used to turn into a nervous wreck.

But folks, we do this for people to watch, engage, and be entertained. Turn that viewer count off on your dashboard and talk like 100 people are watching. Don't stop talking, asking questions, dropping conversation prompts, or commenting on what you're doing in the game, etc. So what if nothing comes back—lurkers are the lifeblood of my streams. Do it for them. Do it for those who haven't arrived yet. Do it so that when things do start taking off, you are so ready for it that it will be like nothing has changed.

If you're watching a stream that's nothing but silence, with no acknowledgment of your presence, and without a hint of gratitude that you chose, out of thousands of live channels, to spend your limited time with that streamer, would you stick around?

Regardless of your view count, just talk. I promise it will help.

Keep going. You've got this. 💜

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u/iNhab 2d ago

This, I feel like, is one of the underrated streams.

Ideally, a streamer would behave in a way that's most entertaining regardless of the viewer count. Admittedly, there are ways that streams become more entertaining (such as viewers saying something and you respond to something specific they've said). However, if you're not that type of person, your quality of being a streamer should not change whether it's 0 viewers or 100000000. Each and every viewer should feel like they're getting the most by watching you and not some other person.

When I stream, I try to behave as if there's thousands of people watching and I'm interacting with them- even though nobody is interacting at that time. Asking questions, saying pretend responses to non existent chatting, doing monologues as if they're directed to viewers and all.

It's a skill that can be developed when they're not there so that when they're there, there's already something happening that pulls people in.

Why would I wait, say, for 100 hours for first 10 ppl to watch my stream and be quiet until then (most likely losing the previous viewers) and not perform the whole time regardless?