How to Get First 50 Followers on Twitch Swiftly (That Stick!)

The only time number of followers will matter for you as a key metric is on your Path to Affiliate.

Think about it…

Your main objectives around streaming may vary. But ultimately you are doing it all for your viewers. Through your viewers, you will actually build your community. They also define your market share on Twitch during that period of time.

So, one of your main metrics as a Twitch Streamer should actually be the average number of concurrent viewers you can garner on your stream.

That being said…

…If you are on The Path to Affiliate, this blog will give you actionable ideas on how to get followers on Twitch fast.

Let’s go.

How to get followers on Twitch Fast. Top 9 ways!

To get followers on Twitch that stick, the formula is to build a solid community, that has fairly similar interests. The thread connecting the community and shared interests would be your (unique and super awesome) content.

The number of streamers on Twitch is increasing day by day. If you don’t focus on your content strategy, make it quality and unique, and stand out with your personality, it’ll be a slow climb up.

At the same time, since your mind is made up about becoming a full-time streamer, might as well give it all from the get-go, right?

So focus on your content first, while you employ the tips and tricks shared in this article to quicken the pace on the Path to Affiliate.

1. Make Social Media your best friend

The internet is moving at the speed of light and more. With ample social chatter all around, it is highly likely that your target audience is already out there interacting and engaging on social channels like Twitter, Reddit, etc. already. Get out there on social media channels, and start talking to them right away, even if you’ve not even started. In other words, Make social media your best friend!

???? Apply the concept of building in public, but for your Twitch stream.

Even if you are a couple of months away from starting your stream, start engaging with your target audience on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc.

Just strategizing? Not a problem, strategise with your target audience on social media for better results.

While you may want to go all out across social media channels, try keeping it focused by opting in for 2-3 active channels only. You would only have limited time to spare for your off Twitch conversations, so keep that in mind while coming up with your social media strategy

2. Choosing a Twitch category/niche (and game) to start carefully

???? To arrive at the best Twitch category that would work for you, you have to consider 2 main factors: your favorite genre, and the related time slot of high viewership and low competition.

If you are a gamer, you can apply this general understanding to arrive at the game of your choice as well.

With more and more streamers coming on board, you have to make the best use of the streaming data available online on sites like TwitchTracker.

Check out the graph below I’ve analyzed in my guide, Best Time to Stream on Twitch. Using this, it is clear that 10 AM till 4 PM UTC can be a good time for new streamers to stream. The best content type would be podcasting or the “Just Chatting” section in Twitch since it’s morning time. This is because during this slot –

• The number of viewers starts increasing, especially from 12 PM UTC onwards
• There might be relatively less popular streamers to compete with as the number of streamers drops between 7 AM to 9 AM
• There is also potential to gain followers from early viewers on Twitch
• This time slot has more viewers per streamer, compared to the other time slots

3. Invest in quality gear and make your stream visually appealing

As the streaming industry has advanced, so has the levels of accepted level of video and audio quality. It becomes important as a result, to invest in a good camera, mic, and lighting right at the start, so as to be able to create a good base to build upon later.

Your content quality may be great otherwise, but if your audience finds the audio quality jarring or video quality illegible, they may switch channels.

???? Having a limited budget and struggling to choose between the better audio or better video? Go for better audio first.

Check out this cool demo by Dale Sood, Raindance Toronto Filmmaker, that shows exactly why audio quality is more important –

4. Offer unique value to your viewers

Your content and personality are the factors that would define your channel the most. Bundle these with choosing a strategic streaming category and time slot, and investing in the right kind of setup, and voila! You’ve got the perfect recipe! With all of these factors in hand, you would definitely be able to offer unique value to your viewers.

???? Think about who is the streamer you follow the most – and why. The answers would make it clear. People follow streamers for their personalities, and their unique take on content.

There’s this interesting research that was done on Why Do People Subscribe to Streamers on Twitch? This was conducted during TwitchCon 2018-19 with 375 active verified Twitch viewers. It highlights 3 important factors on what made the viewers subscribe to their favorite streamers in the first place, which are –

• Quality content: Quality content in simple terms is highly entertaining and engaging content. This research highlighted how viewers define that in terms of the streamer’s sense of humor and/or exceptional gameplay.
• Genuineness of the streamer: This is something that would stem from your personality. The respondents of this research give weightage to a down-to-earth personality, not celebrity-like and very approachable.
• Sense of community: While you work on getting in followers, remember a community is ultimately what you’re building. Viewers who were interviewed in this research, really valued the sense of community they got, in cases of both streamers with a small or a large community.

I will do a detailed article on this whole aspect, as it deserves much more merit in the longer run as a streamer. But just as an example – Ludwig and his 31-day continuous stream, with 280,270 new subscribers, the highest ever in a single streaming session, come to mind while taking all these factors into consideration, as factors checked in the checklist.

5. Engage with your viewers

This is an obvious but often overlooked trick to get people to subscribe. With many things to do while streaming, including focusing on gameplay, managing broadcast software settings, etc., engaging with your viewers may seem to be the last thing left to do on your list of priorities. But don’t let this be the case – in fact, it should be the first on your list of things to do.

???? Engaging with your viewers is an integral part of offering unique value to your viewers. They want to know who you are before they subscribe!

Harris Heller captures this aspect best in his video here on Twitch Creator Camp – streaming is all about real interaction between a content creator and their audience. So streamers, call your viewers out by their name, make the effort to interact, make everyone feel a part of the community! This is how you will truly become a streamer.

While you may not have the budget right away to invest in a second screen, do consider this option to have a separate screen open with your chat. This way, you can keep an eye out for the new people dropping in and can start interacting with them live to make them subscribe.

6. Create a positive experience

While you can have your own unique style and persona, try to create a positive mood and experience for every new viewer stepping into your stream.

???? If you provide a positive experience in your stream, viewers are more likely to subscribe and even come back the next time you’re streaming.

While a YouTube pre-recorded video may be all about high energy and punchy content, streaming is all about relaxed and positive vibes. You want your viewers to stay around a while, and people are more likely to do that if they are having a good time.

7. Celebrate every single follower (with some caution)

This is a neat trick!

Think about it – every new person coming into the community deserves your attention. It’s like someone out there is giving you their stamp of approval even though you may be just starting out.

Do note though, some people may not like to be called out. It might make them feel like being in a meeting where they want to merge in the background but are called out instead. A balancing act may be to thank the new subscribers who are active in chat, but not necessarily say the names out of people who are silent. A quick hey in the latter case may be enough.

???? Remind people to follow!

A new follower alert may be worth investing in though since you want other viewers to know you are gearing up for more new followers. What also can help is a ticker, stating your target sub count and current progress, keeping you in check, and others on their toes looking out for you!

8. Set goals for yourself

???? While it may be attractive to set yourselves flashy heavy goals, try setting yourself up for shorter milestones on the road to the first 50 subscribers.

At 3 subs? Do a count down to The Road to My First 5 Followers EVER!

At 6 subs? Do a costume change on demand for your 7th Follower!

I can keep going on, but you get the drift. It’s all about mini-milestones at this stage. Keep going, and keep documenting your journey on your stream and social media channels.

9. Be active. Constantly.

This brings us back full circle to our first point actually. Make Social Media your best friend.

???? You have to keep engaging with your viewers on stream, and off-stream. Remember, you may meet your future subscribers literally anywhere!

As you’re on your Path to Affiliate, you’re working on not just getting to 50 subscribers fast, but also building a community. And by being active constantly, you are rallying more and more people with you for your cause.

The most popular channels for streamers are Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Apart from social media, you can also consider creating a Discord server to get your community together to chat up in a place away from your stream. You can even use Discord during your stream using its voice chat feature to chat live with them.

Digital channels don’t seem enough? Go crazy with your ideas here – tap people offline as well with flyers, newspaper adverts, etc. Because, why not?

What to avoid if your aim is to get to 50 followers fast?

While tempting, it’s advisable to avoid the traps listed below to get to 50 followers fast. Especially, if you’re in it for the long run.

1. Avoid F4F or Follow for Follow Schemes

Follow 4 Follow (F4F), Lurk 4 Lurk (L4L), and Host 4 Host (H4H) are popular ways for early streamers to artificially boost up their numbers so they can get to Twitch Affiliate fast. 2 key problems with this:

1. Twitch can ban you. They consider it a form of fake engagement and do not permit the same on Twitch services. Read more here
2. It is an artificial boost only, and would in no way lead to the ultimate success of your channel

2. Partake in activities forbidden by Twitch

Twitch is very well known for handing out bans every now and then. So be extra careful. And read the Twitch Community Guidelines at least once before starting streaming

The biggest reason for worry with a Twitch ban is that the reason and duration of the ban seem to vary case by case.

Not even the biggest streamers are spared by Twitch. Like xQc was banned for about five hours after watching highlights of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics on stream because of a DMCA claim.

3. Play banned games

Twitch has a whole article about this. But mainly, they have banned the following types of games:

• If the game’s official ESRB rating is Adults Only
• If the game violates Twitch’s Community Guidelines. It applies this rule pertaining to hate speech, sex, nudity, gratuitous gore, or extreme violence.

You can keep a check on the list of banned games without an Adults only rating here. But do note, this list is not exhaustive and may be updated in the future. So do keep a lookout on the list in the future as well.

Conclusion

The Path to Affiliate will define how you will shape up your streaming career going forward with a solid base. If you are in it for the long run, you would want to look back and see what things worked for you and what didn’t. So be conscious of which ideas you apply to gain followers in your initial stages of becoming a streamer.

If you’re looking for the ultimate answer to how to get followers on Twitch, it would be to focus on your content and drive unique value with that. Everything else we discussed is just different channels for you to promote that uniqueness, get that message across to as many people and potential followers as possible.