Having good content on your stream is always the most important aspect of growing your stream, but how do you know if the content you are producing is being well received? Stats are a great way of finding out what works and what doesn’t. The problem is that many streamers rarely, if ever, look at their stats. Over the next couple of weeks and blog posts, I will be doing a series on why stats are important and how broadcasters can use them to effectively grow their stream. Today’s post will focus on the basics of why stats are important. Think of this post as your starter guide to understanding the world of stats!
Why Do Stats Matter?
So why care about stats? Why would knowing the stats behind my stream give me any advantage over someone who doesn’t use them? Stats are the tools that tell you what you’re doing right/wrong. Say you’re testing out a new schedule and you want to see how well the stream performed during different parts of the night… stats will give you that answer. Or maybe there’s a certain part of a game that has more active chatters than another… stats will answer those questions too. If you’re not looking at this information, you’re throwing away valuable tools that will help you fix the mistakes.
So why care about stats? Why would knowing the stats behind my stream give me any advantage over someone who doesn’t use them? Stats are the tools that tell you what you’re doing right/wrong. Say you’re testing out a new schedule and you want to see how well the stream performed during different parts of the night… stats will give you that answer. Or maybe there’s a certain part of a game that has more active chatters than another… stats will answer those questions too. If you’re not looking at this information, you’re throwing away valuable tools that will help you fix the mistakes.
Here’s an example from my own personal use of Twitch stats. When I first started streaming on Twitch, my streams were pretty sporadic in terms of when I was streaming, and how often I streamed. It was really hard for me to keep track of my growth. I started using Twitch stats to compare and contrast my numbers during certain periods of the day. I found out that my streams were consistently hitting a higher peak in viewers during night streams compared to day time streams. I did more research into the matter and did more testing to find out if it was just a coincidence or if I was onto something. Through more experimenting, I was able to figure out a schedule that worked for me and I’ve seen really strong growth because of it.
Now if you’re not using stats to find this information out, you’re essentially just guessing. You could be creating great content on your stream, but streaming it at a time that your core audience doesn’t watch. Stats help you make better decisions by giving you vital information regarding your stream.
Now if you’re not using stats to find this information out, you’re essentially just guessing. You could be creating great content on your stream, but streaming it at a time that your core audience doesn’t watch. Stats help you make better decisions by giving you vital information regarding your stream.
Laying Down the Lingo
In order to understand how stats work for your stream, you need to understand what certain terms mean. So let’s briefly go over some of the stats that Twitch tracks for broadcasters. Some of these may seem like common sense, but I wanted to go over all of the stats that Twitch tracks just to have a resource on the terms. In later posts, we’ll pick a few of these stats out and cover them a bit more, but for now I will just include the basic definitions.
*All definitions are taken off of the Twitch Broadcaster Dashboard*
Concurrent Viewers – “Average number of people watching the stream while it’s live during the selected time period.”
Chat Activity – “Number of chat messages sent during the selected time period.”
Commercial Break (Secs) – “Total length in seconds of commercials breaks during selected time period.”
Follows – “Number of people who clicked the follow button during the selected time period.”
Max Concurrents – “Maximum number of people simultaneously watching the stream while it is live during the selected time period.”
Time Broadcast –“Total time (in minutes) broadcast on the channel during the selected time period.”
Hours Watched – “Total time (in hours) viewed by visitors during the selected time period.”
Unfollows – “Number of people who clicked the unfollow button during the selected time period.”
Unique Visitors Video Plays – “Sometimes referred to as a ‘reach’, this counts each person who watches video during the selected time period.”
Video Plays – “Number of times video is loaded over the course of the selected time period.”
The Appetizer
So today’s post is the first step into the world of stats on Twitch. Think of it as the appetizer to a a fancy meal. Not a lot of information, but enough to get your feet wet! In the next post about twitch stats we’ll dive deeper into some of the stats that are the most important. We’ll also look at how to use the stats page from a functionality stand point!
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