If you’re just getting into streaming, you’ll need a few things to be successful. It’s not just about letting people watch you play games, but also engaging your audience and showing that you care about your community.
These are the things today’s top streamers all have in common, so if you want to build a career as an elite gamer on YouTube or Twitch, that’s a great place to start.
Find Your Niche
The first thing you’ll need to do is to choose a game to specialize in. It’s fine being a “variety” streamer who streams different games; however, if you want to build a loyal audience, it’s best to specialize in only one game. When you decide to switch titles, viewers are more apt to switch who they’re watching.
By building a dedicated audience first, you’ll be more apt to keep those followers so you can switch it up later without sacrificing followers. People who watch you every day will become familiar with you and will be much more likely to stick around.
Have a Backup Plan
Now, when we say “pick a game,” it doesn’t mean you should only be getting great at the one game. There have been many streamers whose popularity sank once the game they specialized in died. It’s bound to happen, so be sure to have other games in your back pocket that you stream on occasion–and get really good at in the event your main game becomes irrelevant to your viewers.
Start with streaming your backup game just one day a week. Ease your viewers into the idea that you are great at other games too. Once you have loyal followers, you can ramp up to streaming different games a few days a week.
Be Dedicated and Promote Yourself
Challenge yourself to be better. Focus each week on improving something in your stream. Whether it be your graphics, personality, lighting, or something else. Watch other streamers and look at their feedback. Find the things that annoy people from other streamers–and your own followers–and make a point to do better.
When you first get started, you’ll have 0 followers. Grab as many friends as you can and ask them to come into your channel and hang out for a while. On Twitch, once you have 5-10 viewers, you’ll get put on the Twitch category depending on the game you are streaming. You’ll also want to post everywhere else you can, including YouTube, and Reddit.
Stream your game(s) as many places as you can and promote your channel through any means necessary. Online and offline, build an audience. Another great way to gain more viewers is to create a Discord account. You can announce when you go live in their forums, and they can join your stream right away. Don’t forget to use all of your social media accounts to help build an audience.
