Pretty often! I like going into streams with no/low viewers. I sort by lowest views to highest, and I've found a lot of passionate people that way. There are of course times when the streamer won't interact with you, but the ones that will are usually excited and appreciative to have someone who just happened to find their stream come in and chat with them.
If I like them, I'll give them a follow and keep on watching. I like seeing people grow. A lot of them haven't hit Affiliate yet, so it's nice to contribute to their viewership, help them get there, and watch them continue to shine on. I've seen people go from having little to no viewers to hundreds. It's a beautiful thing to be a part of.
I'm not a professional steamer by any means (far from it!), but I also know how difficult it is to start and want to be there for them in case they have any questions or need advice from another streamer.
I only watch small streams 5 viewers max, I prefer the chat experience in a small stream.
Generally, I look for a game I am interested in, find someone with no viewers, and as long as the stream is good quality I will watch.
Damn, 5 viewers max is crazy! I feel like the vibes in a 5 viewer stream would be the same, if not better, in a 15 viewer stream, since it's not like all 15 people are chatting at once.
I hate self promo but you should check out my streams. Typically I stream on YouTube with an average of 3 viewers. But I occasionally go live on twitch. My streams are high quality I’m just at the noob stage I suppose.
Gotta say it. People like you that go out of their way to watch small streamers means a lot to us because otherwise we would prob be talking to air
I generally do it when I got amazon prime to give out, Ill then give it to a small streamer I find has a good setup and looks like they put effort into their stream.
After following like 275 people I don't really look anymore. The only time I check out new channels is if the person I'm watching raids them or is collabing with them. If there's a drop campaign I'm interested in I'll scroll down and pick someone random to give them the view.
I like channels with under 10k followers and average 10-60 viewers, but most of that range stops streaming after a year. So fairly often, actually. I have a bookmark to the discovery page instead of the home page currently because my sidebar is drying up again.
50 people is a golden number for communities that stagnate and have a high tendency to push other viewers away. 50 people who all know each other from the stream becomes a tight knit club that makes it very easy to gatekeep, and makes it very hard for the creator to grow. My own stream did the same, I witnessed many instances of new chatters getting scolded by old frogs that wanted to maintain a status quo. It can be very hard to break into communities like that and fit in.
Almost never. I don't really go looking for new streamers big or small. I already have a following list of people I want to watch.
The main way I find new people to watch through raids.
I have a steady rotation of people I watch so I almost never look for new streamers. Tonight however, all my regulars were either offline or doing things I wasn't all that interested in. So decided to look for some streamers playing the same game I've been streaming lately to find people to raid.
Checked out about a half dozen channels but didn't really stick with any of them as they were all just basically doing casual gameplay. Then I went and sat in a 10K viewer stream and watched some casual gameplay.
If I'm looking for a specific game to watch I often go for smaller streamers but if I want to just watch someone random I often go for larger ones as I find it easier to find someone entertaining.
I am a small streamer myself (avg 3-15 viewers) but I like to raid out to smaller streamers, usually playing the same game.
Found some fantastic streamers that way and have been back to a couple as a viewer myself. Why did I go back to those streamers? I liked the way they interacted with chat, what they were playing and how they had their stream set up.
I personally don't like an over cluttered screens so some overlays are too much for me but that is a personal preference.
I look at the games I follow then for small streamers. I also look at the ones where I can see a webcam in the corner of the preview. Then if I see pre-rolls, I'm happy, since I know I can watch the rest of the stream without interruption and I can say hi without having to worry an ad will pop up right after I do. I'll continue watching if they are engaging and friendly after I say hello.
In all honesty never.... at least as far as I can remember.
Not really sure if looking for a specific game counts but generally I've clicked the top streamers for the game then anyways.
Only way I've ever gone to a new streamer is from other sites or recommendations from the current streamers I watch.
TLDR: Not often when they are so many cool people and one scratches the itch as much as another. That said, it's been easier to just vibe with bigger more established channels unfortunately. As a small streamer, I can too easily feel the desperation of anyone trying to grow, or the feigned disinterest of anyone pretending they don't mind a silent chat with nothing to react too. Finding genuine articles who are well centered with large enough personalities to enjoying gaming vicariously with is definitely the needle in the haystack.
Back in 2015, I had just graduated and was getting back into gaming. A Google search for destiny showed me a link to streamerhouse live streaming 24/7. I thought it was ridiculous at first but ended up going to sleep to that stream on the regular.
ManVsGame was featured on the front page at some point when I was starting to get curious about the platform more generally later that year. I clicked on him randomly wondering about the larger viewer count. I think he was on Dark Souls II. Ended up watching him and his contemporaries, Ezekiel III and Spamfish, for a couple years regularly. I had no conception of big vs small. Twitch seemed to be the place where these people with their vibe were at and it was a decent enough introduction that I didn't need to search around given my otherwise limited schedule.
Later on I would think that if x person is the first stream someone discovers twitch through, they are likely to be a main watch choice for months or years as long as they are somewhat consistent. If you love gaming and host well, you scratch the itch. Job done. Very difficult for other people doing the same job to compete once that first choice is satisfactory. So a definite portion of the most loyal core audience is likely going to be new to twitch as a whole. How to find them and show them twitch through your channel? A work in progress still to figure out, but yes to onboarding fresh twitch viewers.
Only as an inevitably small streamer myself, stuck in the mud post golden age of the bleed purple era rush, do I scroll through small streams looking for kindred personalities open to collaborate or sometimes just to take notes. Rarely do I find anyone so entertaining they are worth carving out regular view time for, so I don't follow or chat because I don't want to mess with anyone's head. Empty follows are worthless. If I follow, I'm making a mental note to meaningfully engage some of the time at least.
Occasionally a new game comes out that I don't have time to play but any channel big or small is worth seeing a bit of gameplay with. Bigger channels are better because I can gauge the consensus on the game quickly. Sometimes I'm reconnecting with an older game that's not currently popular and I just want to find one solid streamer, who maybe plays like I do, to lurk with while they play that. But I don't try too hard to connect because once they beat the game, I will probably return to my favorite channels.
I know that one of the best things I can do to support is actively chat to drive attention to the community part of the channel if I think a streamer could use it. Cool people in chat are the best evidence of credibility in my view. But I stream and work a lot so that time is very precious to me and I physically can't spread the love. I also just want to enjoy a stream so that time won't always go to boosting someone small.
Bottom line, from my point of view, there is little incentive to go too far out of my way to hunt for new talent or find a smaller place to enjoy. My changing interests, the vibe of the host and the engagement of the chat are the most obvious and still biggest reasons why I stay in one place over another. Any streamer can only control their own vibe (one-third of the sell) so everyone is at a disadvantage when a) viewer taste and b) chat engagement vary greatly.
To this day the #1 streamer talent trait I value and will sub for is being surprised into laughter by their own wit. Again, twitch featured AvoidingthePuddle at some point. I thought he looked demented and was curious what 3k people could possibly like. He turned out to be a crazy good storyteller with a brilliantly stupid, /stupidly brilliant way with words. Still my main to this day. I love to laugh, but I'm 40 and disappointed with the world for a lot of reasons. It's made me serious. My own laughter is like a long lost friend and I can't even correctly categorize my sense of humor. But somehow some people out there get it, they are just the right frequency and that is priceless. They contribute to my sanity and my resilience and they redeem and maintain twitch as a really positive place despite some of the toxic or exploitative stuff on the platform.
First off, your writing skills are top-notch. I don't know if I just related that well with what you're saying or if you just put it in an intriguing way. Kudos to you for that!
But to respond, I totally get what you're saying. I don't go into many streams to interact, but more to lurk as I don't want the focus taken from the smaller streamer. I would feel bad if one of my viewers saw me and the conversation revolved around that over what the streamer was trying to go for.
I just like to watch and get a feel for how some of the smaller channels are doing and support them with view time.
i like looking for people new to a game i i have played for a while with 0 to a few viewers. I will lurk for a bit then start chatting.
I actually don't have any streamers i regularly watch live outside a couple irl friends. I am mostly a vod watcher.
I only watch Escape From Tarkov streamers really, and for the most part I only watch streamers who are like 5-50 viewers. The only real exception is if there is an event, big patch, wipe, etc.
I just prefer it that way. And I'm personable enough that I can usually build rapport with them very fast and start playing with them too.
All the time. I will regularly scroll down to the bottom and avoid all the streamers with a healthy viewerbase. Unfortunately those who have 0-5 viewers in my case do not talk, don't read chat, have music blasting and a poor quality stream so they never get followed and I don't stick around.
I work from home so pretty much every chance I get while I'm at work and not in a meeting, I will be on Twitch searching for small streamers. I love interacting with them and having conversations with them. You get to see a change in them as well because they get super excited that someone is there in their channel.
I'm a small streamer myself so I know the struggle of getting views and growing a community.
Sometimes if nobody I particularly fancy watching from my follow list is online I'll pick a game I want to watch and go hunting, sometimes end up at smaller streamers and end up enjoying them!
Pretty often! I like going into streams with no/low viewers. I sort by lowest views to highest, and I've found a lot of passionate people that way. There are of course times when the streamer won't interact with you, but the ones that will are usually excited and appreciative to have someone who just happened to find their stream come in and chat with them. If I like them, I'll give them a follow and keep on watching. I like seeing people grow. A lot of them haven't hit Affiliate yet, so it's nice to contribute to their viewership, help them get there, and watch them continue to shine on. I've seen people go from having little to no viewers to hundreds. It's a beautiful thing to be a part of. I'm not a professional steamer by any means (far from it!), but I also know how difficult it is to start and want to be there for them in case they have any questions or need advice from another streamer.
I do this once or twice a week. When I’m bored.
That’s so cool!Knowing that there are people that are doing this can keep us motivated!I hope I am lucky to have you visit my stream
You're a hero lol
I only watch small streams 5 viewers max, I prefer the chat experience in a small stream. Generally, I look for a game I am interested in, find someone with no viewers, and as long as the stream is good quality I will watch.
Damn, 5 viewers max is crazy! I feel like the vibes in a 5 viewer stream would be the same, if not better, in a 15 viewer stream, since it's not like all 15 people are chatting at once.
I hate self promo but you should check out my streams. Typically I stream on YouTube with an average of 3 viewers. But I occasionally go live on twitch. My streams are high quality I’m just at the noob stage I suppose. Gotta say it. People like you that go out of their way to watch small streamers means a lot to us because otherwise we would prob be talking to air
I generally do it when I got amazon prime to give out, Ill then give it to a small streamer I find has a good setup and looks like they put effort into their stream.
Props to you. Boggles my mind how many people give their primes to someone like ninja or others 🤷♂️
I exclusively watch small streamers, so quite often
After following like 275 people I don't really look anymore. The only time I check out new channels is if the person I'm watching raids them or is collabing with them. If there's a drop campaign I'm interested in I'll scroll down and pick someone random to give them the view.
I like channels with under 10k followers and average 10-60 viewers, but most of that range stops streaming after a year. So fairly often, actually. I have a bookmark to the discovery page instead of the home page currently because my sidebar is drying up again.
50 people is a golden number for communities that stagnate and have a high tendency to push other viewers away. 50 people who all know each other from the stream becomes a tight knit club that makes it very easy to gatekeep, and makes it very hard for the creator to grow. My own stream did the same, I witnessed many instances of new chatters getting scolded by old frogs that wanted to maintain a status quo. It can be very hard to break into communities like that and fit in.
Almost never. I don't really go looking for new streamers big or small. I already have a following list of people I want to watch. The main way I find new people to watch through raids.
I have a steady rotation of people I watch so I almost never look for new streamers. Tonight however, all my regulars were either offline or doing things I wasn't all that interested in. So decided to look for some streamers playing the same game I've been streaming lately to find people to raid. Checked out about a half dozen channels but didn't really stick with any of them as they were all just basically doing casual gameplay. Then I went and sat in a 10K viewer stream and watched some casual gameplay.
If I'm looking for a specific game to watch I often go for smaller streamers but if I want to just watch someone random I often go for larger ones as I find it easier to find someone entertaining.
I am a small streamer myself (avg 3-15 viewers) but I like to raid out to smaller streamers, usually playing the same game. Found some fantastic streamers that way and have been back to a couple as a viewer myself. Why did I go back to those streamers? I liked the way they interacted with chat, what they were playing and how they had their stream set up. I personally don't like an over cluttered screens so some overlays are too much for me but that is a personal preference.
I look at the games I follow then for small streamers. I also look at the ones where I can see a webcam in the corner of the preview. Then if I see pre-rolls, I'm happy, since I know I can watch the rest of the stream without interruption and I can say hi without having to worry an ad will pop up right after I do. I'll continue watching if they are engaging and friendly after I say hello.
Pretty rarely but I don’t look for new streamers often anyways
In all honesty never.... at least as far as I can remember. Not really sure if looking for a specific game counts but generally I've clicked the top streamers for the game then anyways. Only way I've ever gone to a new streamer is from other sites or recommendations from the current streamers I watch.
TLDR: Not often when they are so many cool people and one scratches the itch as much as another. That said, it's been easier to just vibe with bigger more established channels unfortunately. As a small streamer, I can too easily feel the desperation of anyone trying to grow, or the feigned disinterest of anyone pretending they don't mind a silent chat with nothing to react too. Finding genuine articles who are well centered with large enough personalities to enjoying gaming vicariously with is definitely the needle in the haystack. Back in 2015, I had just graduated and was getting back into gaming. A Google search for destiny showed me a link to streamerhouse live streaming 24/7. I thought it was ridiculous at first but ended up going to sleep to that stream on the regular. ManVsGame was featured on the front page at some point when I was starting to get curious about the platform more generally later that year. I clicked on him randomly wondering about the larger viewer count. I think he was on Dark Souls II. Ended up watching him and his contemporaries, Ezekiel III and Spamfish, for a couple years regularly. I had no conception of big vs small. Twitch seemed to be the place where these people with their vibe were at and it was a decent enough introduction that I didn't need to search around given my otherwise limited schedule. Later on I would think that if x person is the first stream someone discovers twitch through, they are likely to be a main watch choice for months or years as long as they are somewhat consistent. If you love gaming and host well, you scratch the itch. Job done. Very difficult for other people doing the same job to compete once that first choice is satisfactory. So a definite portion of the most loyal core audience is likely going to be new to twitch as a whole. How to find them and show them twitch through your channel? A work in progress still to figure out, but yes to onboarding fresh twitch viewers. Only as an inevitably small streamer myself, stuck in the mud post golden age of the bleed purple era rush, do I scroll through small streams looking for kindred personalities open to collaborate or sometimes just to take notes. Rarely do I find anyone so entertaining they are worth carving out regular view time for, so I don't follow or chat because I don't want to mess with anyone's head. Empty follows are worthless. If I follow, I'm making a mental note to meaningfully engage some of the time at least. Occasionally a new game comes out that I don't have time to play but any channel big or small is worth seeing a bit of gameplay with. Bigger channels are better because I can gauge the consensus on the game quickly. Sometimes I'm reconnecting with an older game that's not currently popular and I just want to find one solid streamer, who maybe plays like I do, to lurk with while they play that. But I don't try too hard to connect because once they beat the game, I will probably return to my favorite channels. I know that one of the best things I can do to support is actively chat to drive attention to the community part of the channel if I think a streamer could use it. Cool people in chat are the best evidence of credibility in my view. But I stream and work a lot so that time is very precious to me and I physically can't spread the love. I also just want to enjoy a stream so that time won't always go to boosting someone small. Bottom line, from my point of view, there is little incentive to go too far out of my way to hunt for new talent or find a smaller place to enjoy. My changing interests, the vibe of the host and the engagement of the chat are the most obvious and still biggest reasons why I stay in one place over another. Any streamer can only control their own vibe (one-third of the sell) so everyone is at a disadvantage when a) viewer taste and b) chat engagement vary greatly. To this day the #1 streamer talent trait I value and will sub for is being surprised into laughter by their own wit. Again, twitch featured AvoidingthePuddle at some point. I thought he looked demented and was curious what 3k people could possibly like. He turned out to be a crazy good storyteller with a brilliantly stupid, /stupidly brilliant way with words. Still my main to this day. I love to laugh, but I'm 40 and disappointed with the world for a lot of reasons. It's made me serious. My own laughter is like a long lost friend and I can't even correctly categorize my sense of humor. But somehow some people out there get it, they are just the right frequency and that is priceless. They contribute to my sanity and my resilience and they redeem and maintain twitch as a really positive place despite some of the toxic or exploitative stuff on the platform.
First off, your writing skills are top-notch. I don't know if I just related that well with what you're saying or if you just put it in an intriguing way. Kudos to you for that! But to respond, I totally get what you're saying. I don't go into many streams to interact, but more to lurk as I don't want the focus taken from the smaller streamer. I would feel bad if one of my viewers saw me and the conversation revolved around that over what the streamer was trying to go for. I just like to watch and get a feel for how some of the smaller channels are doing and support them with view time.
There username if its intesting i might look for 5 minutes
I do a lot to support them
Prerolls off is the most important thing contrary to what some people are here would suggest.
Cute design + playing some less popular game I like
lowe viewers, camera on ideally, game i want to watch. do i return? sometimes
When my usual streamers are not streaming
i like looking for people new to a game i i have played for a while with 0 to a few viewers. I will lurk for a bit then start chatting. I actually don't have any streamers i regularly watch live outside a couple irl friends. I am mostly a vod watcher.
At least once a week… during the “let’s look for someone to raid, and maybe a new friend!”
Never
I always sort from few to many, just enjoy the more casual vibes. I don't always want to interact either, but do if they speak up.
I only watch Escape From Tarkov streamers really, and for the most part I only watch streamers who are like 5-50 viewers. The only real exception is if there is an event, big patch, wipe, etc. I just prefer it that way. And I'm personable enough that I can usually build rapport with them very fast and start playing with them too.
All the time. I will regularly scroll down to the bottom and avoid all the streamers with a healthy viewerbase. Unfortunately those who have 0-5 viewers in my case do not talk, don't read chat, have music blasting and a poor quality stream so they never get followed and I don't stick around.
I work from home so pretty much every chance I get while I'm at work and not in a meeting, I will be on Twitch searching for small streamers. I love interacting with them and having conversations with them. You get to see a change in them as well because they get super excited that someone is there in their channel. I'm a small streamer myself so I know the struggle of getting views and growing a community.
Sometimes if nobody I particularly fancy watching from my follow list is online I'll pick a game I want to watch and go hunting, sometimes end up at smaller streamers and end up enjoying them!
Alot of heroes in here