Thursday, August 30, 2018

What is launch padding for streamers?

What is launch padding and how are streamers doing it?

Launch padding is basically using specific games with high 3rd party embedding traffic to gain higher directory placement in new or more popular games.

launch paddingWhat are some games that are good for launch padding?

As of 8/30/2018 the day of this post, the following games in my opinion have the best launch padding potential.
  • Terraria
  • Ark
  • Minecraft
Some of the ways I have seen streamers exploit launch padding is by streaming game #2 and then when they finish broadcasting for the day, they then do reruns streams of game #1 (usually one of the games listed). Because viewership levels tend to drop during certain time zones and the amount of streamers also goes down, they are able to grab the top slot in game #1 directory and once that occurs the traffic from the embedding 3rd party boosts them. This is not always perfect but in general its works pretty well for some.

Or they stream game #1 until they grab the embedding traffic spike, then switch to game #2. A good example would be some people streaming Terraria, grabbing the embedding traffic and then switching to other games that have 'Twitch Drop' enabled like Warframe which further boosts numbers depending on directory placement.

If you have a big enough community, you can leverage this to possibly help with getting more exposure on the platform. But always keep in mind, 3rd party traffic is not something you control, it can end at any given moment.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Viewers in common analytics

Which channels have viewers in common with mine?

One of the newest pieces of analytics Twitch is offering to broadcasters is a top 5 viewers in common statistic. You can find this panel by opening up your dashboard, then going to the channel section under analytics on the left sidebar. There you should see a panel similar to this screenshot below, note I have censored the channels on this picture for a reason.

viewers in common



This section is extremely handy for determining possible co-streaming opportunities with other streamers on the platform. Try to reach out to channels in the list and see if you can work together in some fashion. Maybe even add these channels to auto host since the audience is similar.

Another interesting tidbit this panel is useful for is to determine streamers who are sending negativity your way via their viewer base. <--- Remember this line. If you find yourself wondering why so many chatters seem to have some agenda with what they are typing away, investigate this panel and see if these channels are talking about your channel.  In my situation, it easily pointed to a competitive mindset streamer who was indeed targeting my channel with negativity.
Thursday, August 16, 2018

Huge amount of follower bots are copying your stream channel name

Huge numbers of fake follower accounts have been created using channel names.

So overnight some entity has created thousands of Twitch accounts using streamers channel's name. Here is a screenshot of what it looks for one of my channels on Twitch.

fake channels on twitch


The format for the accounts appears to follow a pattern, its basically a streamers channel plus a random combination of one to three digits or letters. Some are also using pictures, avatars from established streamers in the profile.


Please be aware its not the channel owners doing it, if you get messages, alerts, /raids or whatever from channels that are following this format dont take it against the streamer.

Who exactly knows what the entity is planning on doing with all the fake accounts. Hopefully Twitch will investigate and remove these accounts from the system.

How to check if your channel was effected is by using the search function on the Twitch website.

Put in your stream name in the search bar and then click more on the channel section. Here is a screenshot to help you see where to click on to show more.

Again, be careful when clicking on things inside chat rooms, this entity maybe will try to post links with similar channel name to get viewers to click on them. It maybe a smart move to banned all accounts you find during search to prevent something like that from happening inside your chats.

Update - 8/19/2018

Checked to see if any of the new accounts have been removed for 'gamingwithdaopa' search and I still see a total of 30 or so fake accounts.  We are speculating the entity that is doing this account generation is trying to obtain 'free subs' from Twitch's new gifting option. I believe if they get a free sub, it may whitelist them inside that channel which will then allow them to post fishing links or other problematic links inside chat rooms.

It maybe time to prevent all URLs from being displayed in your chat unless its been reviewed by a moderator or channel owner. When reviewing links, pay attention to misspellings for domain names, and get a handle on URL shortener that will cloak links.
Monday, August 13, 2018

600,000+ Tune in for the start of Battle for Azeroth

At 6 PM Est time, the start of "World of Warcraft's - Battle for Azeroth" newest expansion launched and here are some screenshots of the numbers and top streamers on twitch!


Let start with overall viewers, it topped around 610,000 here is a screenshot from the Twitch directory.

world of warcraft bfa launch twitch
Click to enlarge picture.
With any large AAA Title, tons of streamers who usually do not play or stream world of warcraft all jumped in for the expansion launch. Here is a look at the top most streamers:

bfa top streamers list from twitch
Click to enlarge screenshot

Top  streamers for launch include the following:
  • sodapoppin - 84,750 viewers
  • Asmongold - 60,350 viewers
  • LIRIK - 31,170 viewers
  • ZeratoR - 29,728 viewers
  • TimTheTatman - 26,652 viewers
  • Reckful - 23,506 viewers
  • shroud - 21,415 viewers
  • AtheneLIVE - 16,513 viewers
  • Towelliee - 14,535 viewers
  • ungespielt - 7,612 vierwers

It is always amazing to see the viewership numbers for game launches like this Twitch. You can also view how much of a viewership hit some of these non wow streamers take by switching over to it for the launch window. As of 7:30 PM, overall viewership numbers have gone down to around 495,991 Viewers. I guess the core viewers are now busy playing the game and stopped watching streams.