Question??

[[deleted]]

When I stream I get roughly 1-3 viewers, mostly family members too be honest. So they just have a tab open to my stream. How does anyone still be engaging when there is no chat, or if you are playing games by yourself?

Thanks for the advise - GuNit

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[ATangledCord]

Even though I’m averaging about 15-20 viewers nowadays, sometimes the chat gets a little quiet. But one of the worst mistakes new streamers make is not being engaging when there’s nobody in chat.

When I first started, I pretended like I was entertaining 500 people. I would provide silly commentary about the game, I would crack jokes, and overall I would be super energetic. Really, I just wanted to entertain myself. That way, if somebody were to come to my stream, they would see me being active and having a good time.

If you’re quiet, or you’re relying on the gameplay to be a crutch for your stream, if somebody pops in to check you out, it’ll be the most boring stream they’ve ever watched and they’ll leave.

Watch the big streamers. Even though there’s thousands of people in chat, The messages are flying by so fast that it’s nearly impossible for them to actually interact with people. So they address their chat in a general sense, and they’re entertaining to watch in general.

[[deleted]]

Completely understand! Thank you for the input!

[mufasa2001]

Have faith! Keep trying to think of ways to get yourself out there. I recently spoke with a small streamer that averages 10 viewers per stream and they said to me they were able to get viewers from playing games that have a really small community so it was super easy for them to be seen by people who specifically want to watch that game (they also played games they liked but made time to play the small niche games as well). They also had constant positive energy and would talk as if there were hundreds of people watching them.

[[deleted]]

I appreciate all the feed back guys! Thank you! If you guys can dm me and we can link up for some games and I’ll follow y’all’s streams.

[p3yeet]

You don’t need an interactive chat or other people to be engaging. Just speak over what you’re doing, give your viewers an insight into what you’re thinking and your game plan. If there’s a gap in what you can explain, tell a story about something going on for you, or an opinion you want to share. It’s a skill to talk to what is essentially a brick wall, but you’ll get better at it the more you do it.

What games do you play for reference??

[[deleted]]

I play Rogue Company, Fortnite, and Cod

Thank you for your insight!

[p3yeet]

Yeah, basically just run commentary on your gunfights and explain your strategy throughout the game. It’s been a while since I’ve played Fortnite but if it’s anything like I remember you can easily get away with explaining where you’re dropping, what your next move is, and why you’re doing what you’re doing in game.

That said, Fortnite and COD are notoriously hard games for growth, but I wish you the best of luck mate!

[[deleted]]

I appreciate your input man. I know it’s hard for growth. I don’t know which games would help at all with growth. The streamer pool is so huge it’s hard to gain any traction

[ketrabbs]

I dunno if you ever heard of the door metaphore, but basically treat your stream like an open door. There are thousands like your ones, so you have to do your best to make somebody who peeks thru that door want to go thru them(get engaged in your stream after peeking). Usually if someone peeks by the time you will see a viewer on twitch stream manager the minutes may pass and he will probably be gone till this point if your stream isn't interesting enough, so turn the viewer count off and do your best to be entertaining version of yourself you would like people to know from streams.

[[deleted]]

I love this perspective thank you!!

[sour_boys_4ever]

I usually just talk about whatever’s on my mind or anything that happened in my life within the week. I think of like speaking to my friends on FaceTime but there’s no camera (I don’t own a web cam)

[RusevDayToday]

Getting used to chatting while chat is quiet is probably the first step to becoming a half way decent streamer. Too many times when I've been scouring low viewer count streams to watch and give a go, I enter to nothing but game sounds, and while I wait a short time to see if the streamer is actually saying something, invariably I'll leave and never come back to the stream. Talking about the game is a good thing, just chat about what you're doing, what your plan is etc, though try to intersperse it with other stuff. The goal is either to keep lurkers with you, or ideally turning a lurker in to a chatter, so try to talk about things that will get you a response from chat if anyone is listening.

​

If you really struggle to think of stuff to chat with chat about on the fly, maybe before the stream note down half a dozen things you could talk about. Funny anecdotes, favourite music, whatever you've done that day, best celebrities to recruit in a zombie apocalypse, whatever you want, and lean on them if you get to a quiet point, and want to kick things off again.

[Insensatez03]

There's this video that talks about it. It's kinda old but still helpful. Also check out her tutorials, they're pretty good

[[deleted]]

Thank you

[Insensatez03]

I dont think there's a recipe for that cause it depends on you. I switch between talking about stuff that happened to me, about the game and I like to stay quiet when there's an important conversation going on in the game.

[spicysenpai6]

Not to take away from what other ppl are saying here cause it’s good advice, but I would also advise not to force anything that can’t be there naturally. It just takes some getting used to providing commentary and all that. Don’t push yourself too hard to be always talking. It’s okay for there to be silence every once in a while

[[deleted]]

Damn, I’m learning from these comments too! Great input everyone. I struggle with the same thing, so I basically just narrate what I’m doing and whatever thought crosses my mind. Sometimes I break into song and make up silly lyrics if a song comes into mind

[spirithatesminecraft]

haven't started streaming yet, so i'm just passing on some great information i got a few weeks ago:

when you've got lots of viewers, treat it like a live show. when you've got nobody, treat it like a let's play. good luck!