So now that we’ve established those goals let’s dig in. 

Pre-rolls are Awful

Everything in this entire article is going to come back to pre-roll ads on Twitch. 

A pre-roll is an ad that plays the moment you join a stream. Typically it’s 30 seconds, but sometimes it can be a lot worse. It’s literally one of the biggest factors that is hurting your ability to bring in new viewers. But before we can tackle why this matters, we must first establish an extremely important point: Twitch is vastly improving its discovery on the website; the idea that you can’t grow on the website simply is not true. I’m not here to state that the discovery on the website is where it should be, but the gears are working and just like anything with an algorithm, you’re going to need to put some work in. To prove this point, I’ll use my stream as an example.

From April through October, I spent the vast majority of my time streaming Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green. This is not a new release game, this is a game that came out in 2004. During this stretch of time I saw my viewership average balloon from 2800 when I first started, to 4600 in a matter of a few months. I even reached a point of hitting close to 11,000 viewers. From a discovery standpoint, a game made almost 20 years ago should not be able to create that amount of growth. So what happened? And where were these viewers coming from? 

This is where Twitch Recommendations come into play.

I’m going to break down some of this data in chunks so you can see how incredibly the algorithm works when you play by its rules.

I began doing runs of a challenge that I created called Kaizo IronMON on April 11. It was a continuation of a challenge I had attempted in 2021. But this round of attempts was DIFFERENT. For the purpose of what I’m trying to discuss today I’m going to focus on 3 Key Stats:

1. Home Recommendations - Streams recommended to viewers when they land on Twitch.tv’s Home Page.
2. Twitch Recommendations - Streams recommended to viewers using the left side panel. 
3. Browse Page - When a streamer finds your stream by using the “Browse” function on Twitch.

You can find all of these stat numbers in your Channel Analytics under “Where did My Views Come From?” Just click the “View Details Button.”

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*To note, the browse page also has a way to sort by recommendations that I BELIEVE factors into this, but I’m not 100% sure. Twitch is sometimes not so clear on how these stats work.

We will compare the three months where my content was focused with the month of. March, where my content was all over the place. In March I streamed 13 different games for various amounts of time. I was effectively a variety streamer that month. In April, I streamed MOSTLY IronMON, and in May and June, ONLY ironMON.     

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So what were my findings? By streaming almost the exact same thing for the entirety of April through June, Twitch began to slowly recommend my channel more and more. You’ll notice the % of viewership from Browse really didn’t change as the months went on, going From 1% in March to consistently being 2% in April - June. The viewers who found my stream through Home Recommends and Twitch Recommends grew from 4% and 3% respectively to peaks of 8% and 7%. That's extremely incredible growth!

By sticking to one form of content, Twitch began to recommend me MORE.

So what does all of this have to do with ads? It all comes back to pre-rolls. 

We’ve established above that Twitch was recommending my stream to a lot of people, and we’ve also established I saw phenomenal growth during this period, all the while pre-rolls were enabled, so what’s the issue? Well that’s the problem: while my growth was amazing on the surface, let’s take a closer look at how many of these views I actually had a chance to make an impression on.

Recommends and Browse Combined Stats

April saw 47,000 views + 2800 New Follows.
May saw 90,000 views + 4100 New Follows
June saw 72,000 Views + 3300 New Follows

These numbers look great if you assume all of those views actually got to my content, but that’s the problem –  many viewers simply never even got that far. THIS VIDEO from a couple of years ago suggests that pre-rolls can cause up to 30% of new viewers to leave your stream before they even get through the ad itself.

To put that in perspective, just in these 3 months alone, I lost out on 62,000 new people seeing my content. That’s 62,000 NEW impressions I could have made. 

So now that we’ve established that pre-rolls are awful for growth and are hurting you in that department, how do you turn them off? Surely Twitch knows the same stats about how damaging pre-rolls can be to making new impressions! And they do! The issue is, though, that streamers by and large don’t run ads. If pre-rolls were turned off with no promise from the streamer to run ads, Twitch would take HUGE LOSSES. Thankfully, they did give streamers a way to turn them off, by running mid-rolls. Mid-rolls are just ads that play in the middle of the stream. 

By running a certain 3 mins of ads per hour, you can completely disable pre-roll ads, and you should do everything you can to make this happen. 

Most streamers can only turn pre-rolls off in 30 min chunks. This means that every 30 mins, if you can run 90 seconds of ads, pre-rolls will be turned off for 30 mins. So effectively, you’d need to run two sets of 90 second mid-roll ads per hour to make sure pre-rolls are turned off for any new viewer.

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Income You are Leaving on the Table

Knowing how to disable pre-rolls and enable mid-rolls is all well and good, but let’s get to the most important part: let’s talk about how pre-rolls are hurting you financially. 

As I have stated previously, I had not really run mid-roll ads on my stream in the last 10 years. There were stretches where I tried it, but quickly stopped because it just felt like something that was anti-growth, not because I had data to help me make my decision. While I wasn’t running mid-roll ads, I was still generating revenue from pre-roll ads and making some decent income. But I wasn’t aware that I was still leaving HUGE amounts of income on the table. 

I will again use myself as an example. While I won’t state specific $$$ amounts due to privacy, I’ll compare Ad Revenue during three time periods. I’ve only recently started running ads in October, so keep in mind this IS a small sample size, but it should be able to paint a good picture.

I compared my first 10 days of October with my best stretch in May during IronMON, which was probably my best month streaming EVER, as well as a stretch in December 2021 with similar stats.

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But What About the Viewer Experience?

At the end of the day, a lot of the benefits we’ve gone over today are great for the streamer. But all of these things feel like they come at the expense of the viewer. And on first glance I’d agree with you. If you compare the viewer experience of “No ads vs ads,” it’s pretty clear that almost all of us would rather watch our favorite content creators without being interrupted. And while I hope that someday there will be a better model for streamers that includes no ads, in the year 2022, that isn’t the case.

As I stated earlier, one of the byproducts of the Ad Incentive program was streamers running more ads but not really having a plan on WHEN to run them. We need to find out how we can get our max amount from ads while also making sure the viewer doesn’t get burnt out.

So what do people actually prefer? I can’t speak for every person on this platform, but the viewers within my circle clearly had a preference. 

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Responders preferred Planned Mid-rolls to Pre-rolls by a 3-1 ratio. When it came down to how that mid-roll was distributed over the course of an hour, viewers preferred one large chunk of ads vs 2-3 sets of smaller runs of ads in a similar fashion.

A big part of why the viewer experience is so awful when it comes to ads is because viewers do not want to miss the action on Twitch. No one wants a hype moment that happens on a stream to be missed because they had to watch the same ad for the 100th time. I’m a firm believer that if streamers are taking more ownership of WHEN the ads play, the viewers themselves will be happier and more willing to stay around. If every streamer ran ads only during stretch breaks, or slow portions of content, I think a lot of the anger around running mid-rolls would be solved.  We as streamers can’t currently get rid of ads completely, so we have to work a little bit harder to make the experience as smooth as possible.

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​The Effect of Ads on Viewers Staying/Leaving

Okay Pie, but what about the numbers? It's great that you have a belief that ads aren’t going to harm my channel, but can you show me some data? 

I wanted to know the answer to this question as well, because two months ago, I was quite convinced that ads were the enemy of my stream. But is this actually true? Do streamers who run mid-roll ads lose viewers over time?

To find the answer I started with some of the biggest content creators on Twitch and the findings basically all said the same thing: viewers are not leaving streams who run mid-rolls, and in most cases these channels are growing despite mid-roll ads.

I focused on two streamers: Hasanabi and XqC.  Both of these creators took Twitch Contracts that required them to run some amount of ads per hour while also streaming X amount of hours.  

Let’s first take this clip from Hasan where he states, very transparently, that he’s on a contract, which requires him to run X amount of mid-roll ads.
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This was TWO years ago in September 2020. You can also see his sub count in the top right corner. So what were his viewership numbers then, and what are they now? 

(All Stats in this section are pulled from Twitchtracker, an extremely helpful site that I would VERY MUCH recommend to all streamers looking to better understand their own numbers)

The main takeaway is pretty clear. Hasan has still grown his channel while running more ads, compared to not running ads at all before. The viewers did not leave him – in fact, he saw a huge increase in his metrics. 

Now I am not saying that by running ads, you can magically grow your channel. Your content still needs to be good, you still need to network and get yourself out there. There’s a lot of factors at play here. What I am saying is that running mid-roll ads definitely did not slow him down. Just keep in mind what I mentioned earlier with regards to viewer bounce rates on pre-rolls. As Hasan networked and grew over 2021 and 2022, there were higher numbers of new viewers coming in and engaging in his content from recommendations that weren’t getting bounced by pre-roll ads. 

 Here’s another fun tidbit. You can see in the clip that in September of 2020, Hasan was close to 18K Subs. How did those ads impact his sub count? 

Well as of September 2022, he’s up to somewhere in the ballpark of 50K subs on Twitch. (Twitchtracker gets it pretty close but isn’t 100% accurate)

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Let’s now take a look at XqC, one of the biggest streamers on Twitch. He’s believed to have signed a contract right around March of 2020. I was aware that XqC ran more ads per hour than Hasan, so I wanted to see what kind of effect it had on his viewership to see if more mid-roll ads would have a proportionately negative  effect on his viewership and income. The results were more of the same.

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Each year on this platform, he has grown bigger and bigger, and he runs MORE ADS than  Hasan. And here’s a great look at his sub count, showing almost the same trend we saw with Hasan.

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These are BIG streamers on Twitch, but what about a stream that’s much smaller? We need to establish that ads are helping streamers of all sizes.

So let’s take a look at Majinphil, a close friend of mine who has been running ads on his channel since 2020 as well.

In May of 2020, MajinPhil began to run 2 mins of ads per hour on his channel. His average viewership in May for his main game at the time, Majora’s Mask, was just under 700 viewers. Fast forward to September of 2022, his games have changed, but his ad strategy has not. He now typically averages between 1300 to1400 viewers. Again, this growth isn’t just because Phil was running ads, but he was not being hindered by them.  

And in my own experiment, I started doing more ironMON in October while committing to running ads.

These are my numbers SINCE RUNNING ADS.

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As the launch of WoW Classic got closer and closer, I found myself wanting to give the game a chance and experience what so many of my friends experienced 15 years ago. Late August, into most of September had a pretty big opening with games I normally streamed, so there was an opportunity to check it out. So I bit the bullet, got a membership, and will now stream it at launch. While I started prepping for the launch, I got to thinking of a fun project that I could tie in with Streambig! 

I want to chronicle my journey of streaming a massively huge game on Twitch at launch, and the prep and thought process that goes into making that jump. Each week, I’ll write about how the streams went from a content and growth standpoint, and what trends I’m seeing along the way.  I’ll discuss the little strategies that I’ve tried and have an honest look at what worked, and what failed. This seems like a great opportunity for me to learn a ton, while hopefully helping others learn from my failures and victories. So If you’ve been thinking about making a big game jump and want to see inside the mind of someone who is making that jump themselves, tune in! I’ll be posting once a week, for at least the month of September! Fail or succeed, I’m looking forward to trying this out and learning a ton along the way. So let’s immediately jump in with Part One - The Prep.

Making the Jump - Part One - The Prep

If you’re thinking about jumping into a completely new stream game for your channel, you absolutely need to spend a huge amount of time prepping. With a huge new release, you’re going to be competing against a huge sea of streamers. Whether you’re averaging 10 viewers, 100 viewers, or even 1,000 viewers, if you don’t take the time to come up with a plan, you’re likely to fail. 

For myself, when I realized that I wanted to stream WoW Classic, one of the first things I did was to follow and watch a ton of WoW streamers to get an idea of what worked.  I lurked streams of varying size and personality to get an idea of the type of streams that did well with WoW. I also specifically looked at my time slot for when I would be streaming WoW to get an idea of who I’d be up against. This is something that I think streamers really need to think about when choosing a time to stream. Growth on Twitch is all about filling a void, finding a niche. What unique experience can you provide that no one else is providing. Choosing a timeslot is a huge part of filling that void. You want to make sure that you have an opportunity in attracting new viewers to your stream. 

I noticed pretty early on that past 12 AM Central time, the number of BIG streams was pretty small, which meant that I had some opportunities to be higher up on the directory. So I specifically started gameplanning on starting the WoW portion of my stream right around there. A lot of streamers are going offline around that time, so with a fresh new game, viewers would be looking to find new experiences with new streamers! I started checking out some of the streamers that were live consistently around that time, and tried to get an idea of why people tuned into watch. I knew going in that if I wanted to have a chance at good growth, I needed to provide something different from the main group of streamers.

As I watched more of these streams, it became very evident that a good portion of those streaming WoW Classic at launch were people that had been playing the game for years and were super excited to go back and experience that feeling of starting fresh again. It made me realize that there was a huge hole to be filled when it came to content with WoW Classic. All of the big streamers were veterans of the game. The way they would approach it would be methodical and fast, with a lot of them trying to essentially speedrun to level 60 and endgame content. This made me realize that I could leverage the fact that I’ve never played the game to my advantage. A ton of viewers are going to watch WoW Classic on Twitch to experience that first time feeling of playing the game. If I could capture that feeling with my own playthrough, I could really differentiate myself from the rest of the big streamers and stick out. I wouldn’t use a guide, or add-ons, and I’d take my time and just enjoy the ride. By providing a casual experience compared to the hardcore experience many big streamers would be providing, I could at least get new viewers in the door. It would be up to me to bring them back.

So once I decided on a time slot to stream at, and the type of content/audience I was shooting for, it was important to get my own audience excited about the launch. Since I was relatively blind when it came to the game, I really had no allegiance to either the Alliance or the Horde. While I had no preference, I knew that my viewers who had grown up playing the game and definitely had a preference. So I set up a bid war a week or so before the launch, and let them decide with subs/cheer/donations. This helped two ways.

1. Helped set me up financially so even if WoW Classic was a failure from a growth standpoint, it would at least help offset the risk of trying a new game for an extended amount of time, and the potential loss of revenue.
2. Allowed me to consistently promote the new stream game, and alert my audience to the fact that I was trying this new game out.

I spent the last week constantly talking about how excited I was for the new game, and most of my viewers are aware that I’m checking the game out. Whether they tune in or not, the fact that they are aware of what I’m doing is huge. It’s important when starting a new game on Twitch, that you have the backing of your community as a starting foundation. Get them excited for your content, and new viewers will want to be a part of it as well!

The final step in the process was prepping out the first few days of launch. I know that I’ll be streaming one of my main games for the first 3-4 hours of my stream to bring in a good viewership, and then swap to WoW after a few hours to leverage placement on the directory.  But I’m still debating on what day I’ll actually start. I know everyone will be trying to stream it at launch, so the directory will be packed. Should I wait one day to let all the big streamers have their huge night one, and then sneak in? Or should I jump in with everyone else and just see how it goes. In the breakdown of the first week of streaming, I’ll let you know what I decided on, but I think there are pros and cons to both! 

So here is the general gameplan and expectations that I have with streaming WoW Classic.

• Stream - Twitch.tv/iateyourpie 
• Hours a week: At least 20 hours
• Starting Time: 12 AM Central, maybe earlier/later depending on the night
• Starting Follower Count at beginning of Challenge - 116,400
• Starting Sub Point Count - 2950
• Expectations: Slow growth in the first week, but possibly bigger growth in weeks 2, 3 and 4. I Expect sub count to initially drop by a couple of hundred, as it takes time for new viewers to watch enough of your content to sub. If there is an increase, I expect it to hit around week 3 or 4.

I’m super excited to take this journey with you all, and I’m curious to see the results. There’s a chance that this experiment is a huge failure, and I don’t even make it the full month! There’s a chance that my channel has a huge explosion of growth and swapping to a new game was perfect. My prediction is that I’ll see reasonable growth, but nothing crazy. Either way, I’m excited to post my thought process for the entire challenge each week, and I hope you all can learn from my experience! 

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The Five Steps of Using a New Feature
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I want to break down a process on how you should digest, think about, and employ a new features release. By following these steps, there’s a good chance you’ll start to see some positive results.

1. Do Your Research

I’m assuming most streamers follow Twitch on Twitter, but if you somehow have not done yet, do that RIGHT NOW. Staying up to date on when new features are released is incredibly important, and Twitter is usually one of the first places that features are announced. Once announced, do some research on what exactly the feature entails. The more information you have on the exact product, the more readily you’ll be able to take advantage of the product.

2. Inform Your Audience

You won’t believe how many streamers know about the new products Twitch is pushing, but never talk to their own streams about them. A big part of the reason smaller streamers never take full advantage of a feature is due to the fact they never tell their chat about the feature. When viewers see you’re excited about a feature, they will want to find out why. The more informed your viewers are, the more inclined they are to check it out.

3. Watch Other Streamers

If you really want to understand what works/doesn’t work for a new feature, check out someone who is successful with it. Twitch is full of streamers that are willing to share their secrets and techniques, and all you have to do in order to learn is tune in. Maybe you’ll find something that you can use on your stream, or even make improvements to the method. Don’t just copy and paste what they do, though. Try to find your own twist.

4. Try New Things/Take Some Risks

Whether you stream on Twitch full-time, or it’s just a side hobby for you, trying new things and taking risks are healthy for the growth of your stream. Not every feature that Twitch releases is going to be right for you and your stream, but a lot of times you’ll never know until you try.  I see so many streamers think that it’s a waste of time to give something a shot, then complain when their stream remains so stagnant. What is the harm in giving a feature a shot? Even if it fails on your stream, you’ll learn a ton about why it failed, which will lead to more success down the road. I can’t tell you how many times an idea for a game to play, an event to run, or the use of a feature on Twitch led to later success, even though it initially failed for me.

5. Stick with It

This step goes along with step four as well. I’ve seen a common problem on Twitch where streamers are onto some great ideas that in the long run will greatly benefit their stream, but they give up on it too early. There is always a point where if something isn’t working, you have to move on, but many times streamers never really give something enough time to grow. Sticking it out for just a little longer sometimes is the key to the breakthrough, so don’t give up if it doesn’t meet your expectations right away!


​New features can be daunting, but understanding and taking advantage of them as they come out will help your stream in the long run!

​Follow us on Twitter so you get all the latest updates!  @StreamBigNET

Be sure to also check out our Twitch Streaming Team 

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Featured Follow Button

What is it?

​The Featured Follow Button is an extension that allows for you to display the follow button of a stream of your choice on your stream overlay. You can have your stream, your friend’s stream, even someone who ended up raiding you that night that you want to shout out, pop up whenever you want. It’s very noticeable, and anyone that is paying attention to the stream will be able to instantly see it. (Disclaimer – This is only visible on Desktop, it will not appear on mobile or the PS4/Xbox/Chromecast apps)

​How Does It Work
Your first step is installing the extension. You can access the extension by clicking HERE. Once you get to the extension page, you’ll see a button that says install, click that! Once you’ve installed it, you now have to activate it by going to the extensions tab in your dashboard. 

 
Once you’ve reached the extensions tab, you’ll see a button under the extension that says activate. Press the activate button, and you’ll now be able to run the extension through your actual livestream dashboard on Twitch. So go to your dashboard and under the extensions widget, choose “Featured Follow Button.” From there you’ll be able to put whatever stream you want in the Channel Name box, and even set up a queue of different channels. To get it to appear on stream, just press the activate button, and to remove it press the clear current button.

Why You Should Use It
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First off, this is an incredibly awesome way to get people to follow your channel. If you’re noticing a lot of newer viewers in your channel and you have a small break where you have some time to talk, this is a great tool to point to your follow button! It’s a very obvious reminder to new viewers to follow your channel, as it appears right on the main screen and is super easy to find. This may come as a surprise to you, but many viewers simply forget to follow when they go to a stream. Pointing them in the right direction with the right kind of nudge can greatly help! Let’s say you’re about to cut your stream and want to remind people one last time to follow your stream. By simply activating this extension, viewers will be more likely to follow as they are leaving and saying goodbye!

Secondly, this is a great way of promoting other streamers that you know! Let’s say you’re dual casting with another streamer and you want to help point your viewers to their stream. Just drop their channel name in the extension, and now your viewers don’t even have to leave your channel to go follow your friend’s stream! Or let’s say someone raids your channel and you want to give them the counter shout out to thank them for the raid! Pop their channel name into the extension, and now you’ve created a great opportunity of introducing your viewers to the incoming raid stream.
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Finally, this extension is going to be a huge addition to channels that host events on their stream where multiple streamers participate. A stream like GamesDoneQuick could easily showcase every runner’s channel during their run, greatly increasing traffic to these channels. An E-sports channel can now shout out a streamers channel after the player makes a big play during a match, giving viewers who see the big play a chance to easily find the stream. This extension will greatly help promote those participating in events all across Twitch. 

​Extensions In General
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In my opinion, this is the best extension on Twitch just for how easy it is to help streamers gain legitimate followers. There are so many great extensions out there that will help improve your stream experience, so be sure to check out the full list here! The main suggestion that I would make when trying out extensions is always experiment and get feedback from your viewers. Some extensions seem really fun, but can oftentimes distract from the actual stream and keep viewers away. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback! Thanks for reading and have fun with extensions!

​Be sure to also check out our Twitch Streaming Team 
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Follow us on Twitter so you get all the latest updates!  @StreamBigNET

1.  Consistency is KEY

​If you are serious about rebuilding your stream, you’re going to need to have a solid schedule of consistency. It’s crazy to think about, but many viewers actually plan their schedules around certain streams. If they hear one of their favorite streamers is coming back, there’s going to be a lot of excitement, but that excitement will quickly dissipate if the streamer isn’t consistent. If you say you’re going to stream that Tuesday, unless an emergency happens, you better follow through. When your viewers see you’re serious about streaming consistently, they will be serious about showing up to the stream consistently.

2. Have a Main Game to Focus on

For a lot of streamers, there was a specific game that shot them up to popularity on Twitch. It could be a speedrunning game, a multiplayer game you played competitively, a challenge run you did, or even a casual game that took your channel to the next level. Going back to what got you started is a really easy way to reboot the stream. A lot of your old viewers will have a lot of fond memories of those streams, and if you can recapture the magic of those streams, it’s a great way to rejuvenate your stream.
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But let’s say playing those old games was one of the main reasons you stopped in the first place? Let’s face it, burning out on streaming is a real thing, and a lot of times the game that you stream can be the main instigator. If that’s the case, you’re going to want to do some research on what your new focus is going to be. I always suggest trying to find something similar to what you use to stream, but different enough to avoid burn out. So maybe your stream was mainly focused on speed running Super Mario Sunshine, but you got burnt out. Giving another 3D Mario speedrun a try would be a great alternative to keep something fresh, without losing what made your stream special. 

3. Talk to your Friends/Mods/Viewers

This is a step that I think all streamers should be doing, but it’s especially important for those who are looking to get back on the grind. A great way of finding out what worked and/or what didn’t work for your stream is to reach out to those who use to watch you all the time for feedback. I’m not just talking about random people that occasionally checked into the stream. I’m talking about the trusted people within your stream circle that won’t be afraid to give you constructive criticism. Not only will taking to them give you further insight for improving your stream, but it will also give you a chance to let them know that you’re serious about streaming again, as well as a great way to get people excited for your return.
 
4. Make things look and sound nice!

​I’ve always been a big believer in the idea that the content of your stream is way more important than how your stream looks when you first get into streaming. But if you’re making a comeback, you’re essentially getting a 2nd chance at a good first impression. You’re definitely going to want to have good content lined up, but making sure your stream looks and sounds good is going to be super important. If your stream looks or sounds worse when you return, it’s going to leave a bad impression on a lot of people. Ensuring high quality in the appearance of your stream also shows those viewers who are on the fence about your consistency that you are serious about your return to streaming. 

5. PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE

If you’re making a big comeback to Twitch, you want as many people to know that it’s happening. That means taking advantage of social media as much as possible and plenty of talking about the return. Setting a date that you’re making your return and organizing a big event are great ways to get people excited for the return. If you have the right kind of relationship with certain streamers where it won’t come across as shameless self-promotion, talk to a few streamer friends to let them know that you’re serious and that you hope they stop by and check out the return. The more of your old viewers that are aware of your return, the more success you’ll have! Networking is important!

Promoting isn’t just for the first stream back though; it’s also for your vision and future that you have with your stream. If you’re making a comeback, and you have a solid plan, be sure to share with your stream viewers about all the cool ideas and plans that you have. Seeing the excitement that you have for your stream and its future will get your viewers excited as well.

6. Have Fun

I know this sounds obvious, but for many streamers who stopped streaming, not having fun was one of the main reasons they stopped. Even if your “growth” will take a hit, focusing on fun before growth will be incredibly important for the long term. Don’t be afraid to stream games that aren’t your main genre, or that will bring in less viewers, because in the long run you’ll be much happier and way more consistent. 



Be sure to also check out our Twitch Streaming Team 
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​The streaming content is really important to consider.  MMOs, FPSs, and MOBAs probably come to mind when you think of a game that you can stream with a friend, but they are not the ONLY choice. Single player games actually offer a lot of value as a dual stream game as well. Single player games offer the chance at fun first play through races and challenge runs with friends.  Viewers love seeing how streamers tackle and explore games differently, which is a perfect set up for a race. Races also create a slight competitive atmosphere without getting too serious.  Friendly banter between two streamers, especially with regards to a friendly competition, is a great way to fill the void that is too much quiet time on stream.

When you’re choosing someone to dual cast with, I’d recommend casting with someone you’re comfortable with. Building chemistry on a livestream definitely takes some time, so being able to jump in with someone you already know really well is always a great start.  Don’t get frustrated when the stream doesn’t click right away. When I started doing streams with good friends, even though we had known each other for a while, it wasn’t an instant success. On-stream chemistry is going to be very different than off-stream chemistry and usually will not happen overnight.

Good For Small Streams

The goal of a duo cast is to help both broadcasters grow by showcasing both communities.  Keeping a chat entertained with conversation and commentary is one of the biggest challenges smaller streams face. There is nothing more awkward for a new viewer than to come into a streamer that has a webcam + mic set up, but isn’t talking. Let’s face it, staying motivated to always be providing commentary for long streams can be very exhausting.  When you add a friend into the mix, that issue of dead air fixes itself.  Having someone you can banter with while playing games allows you to have constant conversation and commentary. It also takes away a lot of the stress of feeling like you need to entertain viewers.
Pairing up with another small streamer is also a great networking opportunity. When you’re barely getting a few viewers, having that extra person that works with you to help grow your stream can be a huge difference maker.

Good For Big Streams

Big streams can greatly benefit from duo casts as well! Big streams tend to have really strong communities of viewers.  Partnering with another caster that shares similar interests opens up the opportunity to bridge the gap between the two communities. 
I recently did a stream event called the Month of Mushrooms and Masterswords with a fellow speedrunner named Spikevegeta. During the month we raced through different Zelda and Mario games to see who could win the most races. Playing through these games by myself definitely would have been fun for my stream, but adding in a second consistent person to the stream made the streams far more entertaining for viewers and allowed our communities to mesh together!  Throughout the month, we both saw huge growth in followers, subs, donations and concurrent viewers. Months later, both of our streams are still benefiting from the experience, and viewers are already looking forward to next year’s MOMAM.

Balance is Key

​One of the easiest mistakes streamers can make with a duo cast is focusing so much on the interaction with their duo cast partner that they forget about their actual chat. One of my biggest recommendations when starting out these types of streams is get into the habit of checking chat and getting them involved in the conversation. It’s a tricky line to walk, as the other streamer is trying to do the same thing, but the sooner you get a comfort level down with the other caster, the more enjoyable these streams will become. If you neglect the chat for most of the stream, conversations will die out, and the goal of creating an environment of a healthy chat will not be met. Be very mindful of this!

I also want to briefly discuss the rule of three.  There will be times when you might have more than one other person on stream with you. While there are always exceptions to the rule, generally speaking, more than 3 people in a voice call is a little too crowded. The more people you have in the voice call, the more distractions you’ll have, especially if there are people that are in the call who aren’t even playing the game you are playing. Remember: your stream should primarily be about your personality and brand. All it takes for one friend who can be a bit agitating or have really bad microphone settings to push new viewers away!

​Overall, the important thing is to have fun! Don’t try to overthink a dual cast with a friend: your main concern should be having an enjoyable time with your friend. The more casts you do together, the more comfortable you’ll get! Have fun out there and don’t forget to streamBIG!

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