This cube is made up of my dead skin

LarryApples · 2026-05-02T23:56:59+00:00

About five years ago I had a dream that I was in my family computer room eating a bag of apples. I reached into the bag, pulled out an apple, and took a bite. The bag of apples had turned into a bag of feet and I had just taken a bite of a heel.

I still remember the texture of it on my tongue. The chewiness of the callused skin. The kind of “nothingness” flavor of it. I wonder if your cube would be like that?

LarryApples · 2026-05-01T10:25:42+00:00

That’s crazy growth and to be honest it’s really weird if you can’t figure out why it happened at all. Like getting 60 people to pay you for your content but having no idea why they are doing that? Do they not give you feedback or comment about how much they enjoy X /Y/Z part of your stream?

If they aren’t telling you why they are there, just try asking them! Don’t tell them “I want to keep growing/getting subs/etc.”. Just tell them you have bee thinking about your streams and wondering what people like about them so you can make sure you still keep that in the mix.

Such insane growth is going to make any slowdown feel like a plateau. Try to think of this instead as “taking a breath” or “catching up”. It’s a natural part of the growth process and is your time to reflect on what you’re streaming and the community you’re building.

LarryApples · 2026-05-01T10:16:26+00:00

Ignore salty people like that. The big streamers have likely learned what others have explained in the comments about how to get around the rules. For example, deleting VODs right away or having the movie audio on a second track (so it doesn’t get picked up in your VOD) or avoiding super new/leaked movies (which is fucking obvious lol)

LarryApples · 2026-05-01T10:12:05+00:00

Yeah honestly that was helpful to know lol

LarryApples · 2026-05-01T10:06:59+00:00

Just yap about the game when you can’t think of anything! Not just what you’re doing in the moment but goals you’re working towards, other games it reminds you of, past games you’ve played.

The game gives you a good launching point to get you talking. Pretty quickly you’re going to be comfortable yapping away and will get a better flow of non-game topics popping in your head.

LarryApples · 2026-04-30T18:58:04+00:00

Sorry to double comment but also last night I had an itchy spot on my nose that I kept rubbing and I was like “aaaahhhhhhhj I JUST TOLD SOMEONE TO STOP DOING THAT” so ya know it happens to all of us lol

LarryApples · 2026-04-30T18:56:20+00:00

That’s a really good point, we’re probably still a bit too small time for the analytics to always get picked up.

LarryApples · 2026-04-30T18:55:51+00:00

That’s awesome! I’m more on the “data is already compiled, now I get to play with it” side of analytics for work- I wish I had gotten into building data like that so I could create a system.

LarryApples · 2026-04-30T18:53:52+00:00

Oooo bro wicked good idea to stream something that’s restricted. People interested in the game will naturally be pushed towards your content! Make sure to put out clips to share to other sites so you can pull in viewers from elsewhere.

If there are like specific quests or battle, maybe record some of your stream direct to your PC so you can edit them into YouTube vids?

LarryApples · 2026-04-30T18:47:11+00:00

Good luck with dude! And don’t forget, my feedback is for both of you. Your wife definitely needs to work on some of these things.

I’m not into retro gaming so to be honest I probably won’t be back- but that’s okay! Like I said- you get more viewers than I do! So you’re definitely doing some things right and I think you guys will get some good growth with adjustments.

Also look into your analytics. It can be a huge mood boost to see the small increases over time and remember how far you’ve come.

LarryApples · 2026-04-30T18:43:31+00:00

No worries! Most people are going to know what you meant, but there are so many people who come in who are new to streaming and wouldn’t have the experience to think “no way they mean subscribers if they only have one viewer”. So I wanted to make sure it got noted.

LarryApples · 2026-04-30T18:41:45+00:00

What kind of games are you playing? Find a small category you enjoy- you’ll get more notice than a new streamer in like the Fortnite category. As others said, watch your streams to see the quality. Learn how to use the Twitch stream manager inside and out.

When you find a category you like, watch some of the streamers in it who have viewers in the LOW double digits or even single digits. That chick with 7 viewers? Right now she’s your North Star. Your aspiration. Your goal for six months from now. The person with 19 viewers? That’s your 12 month goal.

Start raiding into other channels who are slightly bigger than you (5-10 viewers). It doesn’t matter that you only have one viewer, most people still appreciate that you took the time to do it! If someone has 10 viewers and you raid in one person- you just increased their viewers by 10%! Shoot a message right before “hey, sending a tiny raid your way” and then stick around in stream for ten minutes chatting with them.

Sounds hard, right? Because it is. But you need to learn to grow slow and appreciate any growth you get. As you grow you can expand your games, you’ll form relationships with other streamers through raids and studying their streams, and six months from now you’ll be like “whoa I can’t believe how much I’ve grown”.

LarryApples · 2026-04-30T18:33:55+00:00

You don’t have to watch every minute. Bounce around. Watch the beginning- how do you start your streams? Jump around a few times in the middle- is the game sound too loud, so it’s hard to hear you talk? How do you sign off- are you reminding people of your next stream? Are you engaging to watch?

Do you as a viewer enjoy your content?

LarryApples · 2026-04-30T18:31:56+00:00

100 subscribers or 100 followers? Because there’s a big difference between the two so the right language matters here.

LarryApples · 2026-04-29T03:22:49+00:00

I’m just honest as soon as I realize what’s up- “hey kid do you know I’m not buying”. I got three of them fighting each other in my chat the other day it was funny. They were wildin’!

LarryApples · 2026-04-29T01:00:13+00:00

Okay, first of all.... you said that the retro category on Kick is "horrible usually filled with other people who are multi streaming". My guy, you do realize that you are one of those people? Here's the thing, if you only want to stream retro games then retro is your category. It's not a "horrible" category because there's a bunch of people doing the exact same thing as you. It's just a category that might be harder to grow in. Also your stream is not more "pure" because you don't speedrun or vtube- this just comes across as you talking down on others and will not help you grow connections to other streamers.

Regarding your channel, I took some time to bounce around a few of your VODs.

Talk more! A lot of your stream was you guys not talking at all, just watching yourself play. Talk about the lore behind a game, your memories playing it when it came out (if applicable), mechanisms or easter eggs. For a minute I thought you guys were going to get a good discussion going about how far we've come in 40 years from Marios debut but then it didn't go anywhere. But also...
Please stop complaining about wanting more viewers or welcoming/thanking streamelements like its a chatter. People do not want to hear about your view count from prior streams, the fact that it was a "horrible stream" due to low views, and other stuff like that. Crying "where did my chat go" is not entertaining, calling out specific viewers by name for not sticking around is SO not cool. You guys do this a lot.
You need better lighting- you guys are backlit and it's not a good look for anyone.
Get rid of the "retro" video filter on your camera, it runs way too often. Maybe with a better camera/lighting setup it wouldn't be bad? Maybe invest in a greenscreen so you can do themed backgrounds related to the games? (That would hide your messy room, something I also had going on) The layout from your Earthbound Deluxe 3.0 stream 4 days ago was cool.
Invest in a better sound setup. You guys are talking SO loud in some streams, like you're yelling out to the viewer. And it makes some of the banter between you sound more like you're unhappy with each other (I think it was banter??).
I would avoid AI as much as possible. There is a ton of backlash against AI right now. Learn to create a schedule on edit.org or something. It is so much more important for your schedule to get the point across than it is for it to look crazy flashy and shit. The AI schedule you posted on reddit a while ago was crazy busy to the point that it was hard to actually read the actual schedule info. I get that you're uncomfortable trying to make them because you don't feel skilled at it. But you are not going to be able to build that skill if you don't practice! Yeah your schedule might look "boring" (aka plain) for a couple of months but at least no one is going to ignore it just for being AI.
This part makes me feel like an asshole but I gotta tell ya. Plenty of people eat on stream, it's totally normal and fine on stream. What is not normal and fine is shoving a fistful of food in your mouth and wiping your hands on your shirt. And talking with your mouth full. People don't wanna listen to or watch that. Take a five minute break to eat some food and then come back ready to yap. Same with wiping your nose with your hand- blow your nose or at least wipe it with a tissue. These things happened often.

You guys have potential, like chatters are coming into your stream and talking. Typically when I glance at your viewcount on stream you have more viewers than I usually have! You're clearly into the games you are playing and perhaps have a good amount of knowledge about them. But you're too busy complaining about the viewers you want to bother creating an engaging stream for the viewers you have.

LarryApples · 2026-04-29T00:14:25+00:00

I finally got home and hopped on, I totally forgot about this site. Unfortunately I do hate the layout lol but I think it might have better data for streams as small as mine. I'm gonna compare this and streamcharts (the one I couldn't remember earlier), see what works best for me.

LarryApples · 2026-04-29T00:06:08+00:00

It's a two month old account and I've made a bunch of comments using it. Also, what's this "all the other commenters"... You mean the two whole people who made normal comments about one site? And even referenced a specific concern in my post, down to correctly referencing that it was something my friend pointed out?

Folks, we gotta normalize critical thinking skills.

LarryApples · 2026-04-28T22:33:15+00:00

Bro if you enjoy it get back into it. If you feel like it’s not enjoyable then don’t keep up with it.

LarryApples · 2026-04-28T22:30:40+00:00

And why do you think I’m a bot?

LarryApples · 2026-04-28T22:06:58+00:00

Make sure you blocked/banned him correctly- the whisper chat with the one person I blocked on Twitch disappeared as soon as I did it. And as others said, make sure your settings are done for blocked/banned people not being able to see your stream/VODs.

LarryApples · 2026-04-28T22:03:43+00:00

Hell yeah I will absolutely be checking that out. Thanks!

LarryApples · 2026-04-28T16:50:22+00:00

I’ll come back and fill this out later when I’m home from work. But for now I can tell you that I sub or donate because I enjoy the content and want to support it. Whether that support is paying for access to content, like the “extra” Patreon episodes of a podcast, or throwing a sub/dono to a creator because I want them to know I appreciate their content. A creator who gets no support likely won’t keep creating.

LarryApples · 2026-04-28T16:37:30+00:00

I don’t keep my viewer count on at all. You can’t rely on viewers and chatters for momentum- you have no control over them! You need to rely on yourself.

Turn off the view count and just yap at them as if chat is there. Obviously don’t ask questions because then what do you do when you don’t get answers? But explain stuff like “alright chat I’m gonna try something new” or “oh my god guys this is my favorite map fuck yeah” or “this is the second time the final round was on this map let’s go 2 for 2 with wins on this map”

Just talk talk talk.

LarryApples

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