
Why I stream/watch my games on YouTube, not Twitch
I love Twitch. In fact I spend a good amount of my viewing on Twitch because some of my favorite streamers stream on that platform as well as the Clips feature is one of the best things to ever come out of that platform. However as a relatively casual streamer as well as a viewer, I am slowly switching over to Youtube over Twitch:
1: Youtube simply works better across a wide variety of connection types, bandwidth, geography. Twitch is very specific in this regard and certain routing issues mean that not everyone can have a stellar viewing and streaming experience on Twitch.
2: I can stream at 1440p/60 at 20mps. Twitch limits at 1080p/60 at 6mbps, that is a dramatic drop in quality. Youtube supports 4K, but I don’t think wasting that much bandwidth is worth it at the moment.
3: DVR on the fly is great. For twitch you have to wait till the stream goes offline.
4: Google’s algorithm is lightyears ahead of Twitch in terms of discoverability. Twitch relies on linear category, tagging system.
5. Twitch is going bonkers with ads as of late. There are some rogue ads which are obnoxiously loud, unskippable and lasts for a good 30 second. It triggers every few minutes while changing streams. On Youtube, there is a very rare 10 second ad for a video and even if you change streams, there is no hidden counter which resets itself.
6. Twitch has peaked. For new streamers, Youtube is the place for growth and google’s algorithms as I said is much more active and effective in this regard.
7. Personal issue but I thought Youtube chat is the worst of humanity, but then I heard Twitch saying “hold my beer…”.
