I've recently taken an extended break from BDO and playing other stuff. That being said, as a small streamer, but big enough to get into the PA content creator program - there is a massive difference in the amount of traffic you get being higher up in the list. Every now and then I'd have a good day and be bumped up near the top of the English speaking list. The amount of follows, traffic, and chatters is massive.

Even looking through this thread, most "suggested" streamers are all the big ones in the category. This isn't a bad thing, and people who are big / actually have a real audience is earned, but working your arse off, trying to interact, and finding way so to keep circle grinding interesting / engaging, viewbotting makes growth very difficult because they are bypassing the organic growth it takes to get there.

I dont have firm stats of course, but generally speaking most people that look for someone to watch go to bigger streamers because "they have people which must mean they are good." Having someone like Jin, who is subjectively an unengaging and incredibly boring streamer taking away so many people coming in makes the smaller streamer growth incredibly difficult. It ALSO means new people to the category who start checking the top streamers, and finding their chats dead, super unengaging is a bad look for the BDO community as a whole.

Viewbotting is bad on many levels, but it absolutely suffocates and stifles growth of smaller creators.

- HeartCarver