The Qualities of a Successful Streamer

It’s the age-old question.

“What does it take to succeed on Twitch?”

With the rapid growth of Twitch, many streamers and individual viewers alike are pondering this question more and more, simply because everyone wants a piece of the pie.

Some claim to have the keys to success on Twitch, while other’s call it plain luck.

However, what we do know is that there are certain qualities that every successful streamer has that we can all learn from.

Some of you probably already subscribe to these practices, but some of you might not be aware of certain things that are essential to success on Twitch, and on other content creation platforms.

So in this post, we’re going to detail some of what we think it takes to be a successful streamer on Twitch. Keep in mind: some of these things won’t apply to everyone.

(Disclaimer: This post is not a comprehensive guide. It’s simply our take on some of the qualities we’ve observed from the most successful streamers out there.)

Let’s just jump right in.

Be entertaining.

When we ask ourselves the question, “Why do I watch Twitch?”, the main reason that comes up is because it’s entertaining.

That’s why the most important quality you can have when livestreaming to Twitch is to be entertaining.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

“I’m just not that entertaining of a person. What can I do?”

The thing that you don’t realize when you watch your favorite streamer is that they aren’t natively entertaining.

It’s so easy to look at a top streamer and think, “Wow, that person is so funny and entertaining.” But the reality is that they are manufacturing that entertainment.

Successful streamers are constantly looking to great opportunities to make jokes, say something interesting, etc. If you’re sitting still and being silent, just waiting for the funny moments to come, they aren’t going to show up.

You need to be on the lookout constantly for entertaining things to capitalize on. Nothing entertaining happening? Create the entertainment. My favorite example of a streamer who creates entertainment is Jerma985.

Jerma is well known for playing old and boring games for classic systems, as well as mobile games. To the larger majority, these games are boring.

But when you watch Jerma play them, they are hilarious and entertaining. That’s because he creates those entertaining opportunities to make his viewers laugh.

I know, it’s tough work. Once you start doing this, there’s a good chance that you’re going to be exhausted at the end of your stream.

But after a while, you get better and better at entertaining and it becomes second nature.

Be consistent.

Let’s face it: how many times have we seen a stream die because they just didn’t show up when they were supposed to?

Out of all the things you can do wrong on Twitch, being consistent seems to be the number 1 issue.

Think of it this way:

When one of your viewers signs on to Twitch during the day when you usually stream, they’re probably going to head over to their “Following” page.

They’re looking at whose streaming, and they don’t see you on the list. So what do they do?

They go to another stream. And that’s one less viewer that you have for the day.

If you’re not consistently streaming to Twitch, the viewers that you could’ve had are going to go somewhere else.

And when you aren’t showing up in their face day to day, they’re going to forget you.

You don’t want to be forgotten, do you?

Furthermore, having a streaming schedule lets your viewers know exactly when you’re on so they can tune in.

If they open Twitch on a Wednesday and see all the big streamers streaming, but then they remember, “Oh hey, *name* is streaming today! I’ll go check him out”, they’re probably going to watch your stream over someone else’s.

Another thing that some streamers (big and small alike) tend to mess up with is not streaming when they’re gaining momentum.

If you had a record-breaking day for viewers yesterday, it’s not the time to take a break the next day. Even if it’s your day off!

Instead, it’s time to hop on the computer and fire up the stream.

Yes, this takes willpower. And it takes a lot of it. This is where most streamers fail.

If you can be ahead of the game and be on your stream every day in your schedule, even if you must force yourself to do it, you’re going to be ahead of thousands of others already.

Be self-aware.

Self-awareness is perhaps the most important quality for success in any field or industry.

We as humans like to give excuses to ourselves and rationalize things that went wrong for us. It’s just our nature.

But sometimes, when we continuously tell ourselves certain things, they start to become believable after a while.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’ve been streaming for a while on Twitch. You have a decent and steady number of viewers that come to your channel every day, but your growth has halted.

You decide that you’re going to take some time to figure out why your channel has stopped growing. After 30 minutes of pondering, you conclude that it’s just so hard to grow when all the top streamers are taking up the viewers.

This is a classic example of a lie that we are extremely susceptible to telling ourselves (I’ve even done it more than once).

In reality, the reason that your channel has stopped growing is not because of someone else or some hidden power giving you bad luck. It’s because of you.

Whether it be that you’re not talking enough, not streaming long enough, etc.

If you are going to take streaming seriously, you must exercise the power of recognizing when you’re giving yourself dumb excuses. Furthermore, when you come across a problem that you need to fix, you need to dedicate your all into finding the solution and implementing it.

The reason that so many of us fail to solve our problems is because the path to fixing them is always unclear. And let me tell you, 99% of the real deep problems you’ll face on the pathway to success are not going to have a clear road path.

When you come across this scenario, the only thing you can do is lock down and start looking for answers.

Be flexible.

As any dedicated Twitch streamer will tell you, streaming to Twitch is not always fun and games.

Sometimes, things go bad. And sometimes, things go REALLY bad.

Let me ask you this: Have you ever watched a streamer that gets mad at simple things? The chances are that you have.

Sometimes, viewers like to see someone get mad at a game or mess around with their friends. But sometimes, when the anger is genuine, it’s a whole other story.

I’ll be the first to tell you: genuine anger or frustration is a drive away for most viewers on Twitch.

That why when something goes wrong on your stream, it’s important to be flexible and have a backup plan for every situation.

It’s like the streamer @Shado_Temple says,

“…Things will go wrong in a stream, whether it be technical issues, broken games, unruly chats, bad timing on anything, etc. A good streamer can roll with the punches, and make quality entertainment despite it all.”

Here are some examples:

New game you just bought on steam won’t open? Go to another game the viewers want to see and fix it later. A troll in the chat giving you problems? Perma ban that sucker and move on.

Having a plan for these situations instead of getting hung up on stupid things will massively improve the quality of your stream and your viewer’s experiences.

Be a great player.

I’m sure we’re all aware that being great at a game means that you’ll usually have an easier time gaining viewers.

As much as we don’t want to admit it, it’s just true.

This is especially true for people who play games that have a strong eSports base around them. If you’re not competing with other’s in the space on skill level, it’s going to be hard to compete for viewer ship.

That’s why it’s important that you lock down on becoming great at the main games you play. Not only will this help you enjoy your games more, but it will also give your viewers a better experience while watching.

However.

I might have been a bit misleading on the last few paragraphs.

Being great at a game is not the key to success on Twitch.

So many times before, I have seen streamers who are amazing at the games they play, but over time, viewers get tired of them because they lack some of the qualities that I’ve mentioned before in this blog post.

Furthermore, you might be in the position where you don’t have a main game that you play (a.k.a a variety streamer).

But that’s ok. This is where it’s important that you’re being entertaining and you have a good personality. If you are entertaining your viewers, it won’t matter what game you’re playing or how good you are at the game. Your viewers will stick with you.

Have a good business sense.

Over time, as your stream grows, you’re going to have to treat it more and more like a business.

As you start to pick up more viewers and your stream gains a bit of traction, it’s inevitable that you’re going to be approached with offers from companies looking to work together.

When these opportunities do arise, you’re going to have to decide whether it’s a good idea to take them. If you do decide to take them, you’re going to have to negotiate the specifics of your contracts.

This is where having a good understanding of business comes in.

If you don’t know how to price yourself or what you think your stream is worth, you’re going to get a bad deal in any sponsorship offer you come across or any business opportunities you take.

However, having the ability to maneuver yourself while conducting business related activities related to streaming will result in you having a great time.

(p.s. If you’re having trouble finding sponsors on Twitch, PowerSpike can help.)

Be different.

And finally, to end this very long blog post, we have the most important factor of all when finding success as a streamer:

Being different.

Nowadays when you go on Twitch, the game sections are flooded with tons of people who are doing the same thing.

People who have the same setups, people who have the same stream graphics, people who have the copied other’s personalities, and more.

In the end, the people who copy are the people who are going to fail.

In order to find success on Twitch, you’re going to have to find what makes you different and likable and stick with it. Otherwise, you’ll just be a part of the noise.

Now the main question is,

“How do I find what makes me different?”

And that brings me perfectly to my last point:

To End — There is no road path.

As much as everyone doesn’t want to hear this, there is no set path to success on Twitch. The same goes for finding what makes you different.

It’s human nature to want to have an exact method for finding success. It’s likely that when you think of all the unknown ahead of you, you get a bit freaked out.

But everyone who has ever succeeded in anything has felt the same way.

The most important think you can do is keep pushing forward through the turbulent times of failure and unknown variables, and keep experimenting with different ways to grow.

Get obsessed with learning more and improving yourself. Stay self-aware and fix problems in yourself and in your stream that arise. Get feedback from others about what you can do better. Find friends in the space that can help you progress.

And most importantly: once you give up, it’s over. So I suggest you keep going.

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