Twitch is one of the world’s largest platforms, with people from around the globe finding new ways to broadcast themselves and reach fans. It allows for streaming of everything from gaming to podcasts to animal-filled farms. While it’s a great way to showcase yourself, it unfortunately isn’t strong on discovery. Some manage to find an audience by pure luck, but for many, it takes a lot of work and isn’t something that happens overnight. Yet, despite the platform’s limited discovery features, people are still finding success on Twitch daily, reaching millions of viewers. For many joining the platform, the biggest question is: how do you start and build an audience?
TwitchCon is a unique event, bringing together the company’s top executives, the biggest streamers, and countless fans eager to meet their favourite creators and learn more about the platform. At times, it’s surreal to see so many people waiting to talk to someone they watch daily, live streams taking place, and people simply excited to be there. Amid this excitement, some of the platform’s biggest names made themselves available to CGMagazine, and we wanted to gain insights into the persistent challenge of starting out on Twitch.
CGMagazine had the chance to speak with a range of people to get a better sense of what it takes to succeed on the platform, build a channel, and grow an audience. I’ll make it clear now: no matter who we talked to, it was evident that there was no silver bullet. Regardless of how you work to expand your reach, it takes effort. Thankfully, guidance can help take some of the guesswork out of the process and provide a clearer sense of how to approach this and come out on top. One of these streamers is GrandPooBear (real name David Hunt), known for speedrunning, who has amassed a solid following of over 320,000 on Twitch.
When asked about starting out with streaming, GrandPooBear was blunt: “When it comes to the setup, you don’t need an $800 mic, but you do need a good mic,” he explained. “Mic sound is the most important thing, and it’s also the one thing that, no matter how many years you do this, you’ll never fully figure out. It’ll never be easy; it’ll always be a challenge. But as long as your voice sounds good—listen, there are VTubers and streamers with no cam who make it work; there are maybe one or two without mics who succeed. People want to talk to you; they want to hear your voice.”
He further explained: “I think beyond that, the number one thing is to ingrain yourself into a game’s community if you’re a gamer. Really immerse yourself—go the extra mile. Be in the forums, be in the Discords, help people out. That really helps, just like, you know, ‘I know that person. Oh, I’m looking at this list, I know that person, I’ll click on their stream.
Things like that, I think, are the most important part of getting started. A nice mic and immersing yourself in what you’re doing. So if you want to play Hearthstone, League, Mario, or Splatoon—whatever it is—get involved outside of Twitch and really dive into the details of those things, because people appreciate that. People like the detail that goes into it.”
Stella Chuu, a cosplay streamer with over 35,000 followers on Twitch and 243,000 on YouTube, had a concise but clear answer to the question, stating, “I feel like these days collaboration is really the big thing. Working with other content creators, especially your friends, is key because people want to watch you having fun. If you’re having fun with your friends, they’re going to want to watch that entertainment. So start by finding a friend who wants to grow with you and work your way from there. That’s probably the easiest way, in my opinion.”
Eric Morino, better known as PointCrow, is a Twitch streamer and YouTuber with more than 690,000 followers on Twitch alone and 2.43 million on YouTube. PointCrow has built a fanbase by doing what he loves, creating content that often defies explanation. Given his eclectic streams and a following that appreciates his unique style, it made sense to ask him about getting started on the platform. Despite his popularity, he was more than happy to offer advice to new and upcoming streamers.
“It’s really funny because you can stream with anything,” PointCrow explained. “I mean, two days ago, literally two days ago, I streamed off my friend’s phone, pointed at my laptop. I had an iPad with the front-facing camera turned on as a webcam towards me. My phone was the chat, and then my other friend’s phone played background music. I’m doing this challenge where I have to stream every day, and my hotel Wi-Fi wasn’t working. So I thought, okay, I need to stream. You can really stream off anything. It was an entertaining stream—I had about 1,500 viewers just doing that. So really, anything.”
He continued, explaining his first setup: “My first setup, I actually asked for as an early birthday gift. It was January 13, and my birthday is the 21st, so I called my parents and asked if I could have it a little early. They got me a Logitech C920 and an Audio-Technica 2100 USB microphone. And I think that was it. There might be one more thing I’m forgetting.
That was just what I started with. Honestly, they cost a little bit—around $120 total. But if you don’t have that kind of money, you have a phone. Phones are your webcam; they’re your microphone. They’re very underrated. So you can stream with quite literally anything you want. There are a bunch of different streaming apps, so you can just start now. That’s the thing—just do it.”
PointCrow also offered advice on using other platforms to build an audience, explaining, “It’s very rare for you to just start streaming on Twitch and then get an audience because of how Twitch’s category ranking system works. If you have a lot of viewers, you’ll be at the top of a category, and people will check you out. I did a test once on stream. I was like, all right, you’re going to stream Fortnite to maybe one viewer, who might be yourself on your own phone.
That’s how I got my first three viewers—I think it was me, my mom, and my sister or something. I went to the Fortnite category, scrolled for five minutes, and didn’t even find a stream with one viewer. So, you need to bring in people from another platform. It’s incredibly important, and you can do that pretty easily with YouTube Shorts, TikToks, and Instagram Reels. The barrier to entry is super low, and I highly recommend doing that. If you’re using all your time streaming, you’re not going to grow an audience.”
Switching gears, we chatted with Pontus Eskilsson, Twitch’s VP of Global Partnerships, about starting on the platform. For him, Creator Camps are designed to help new creators get their foot in the door. “Yeah, I think Creator Camp is definitely the main piece of feedback I would give people because all other recommendations are so individual based on the content they want to produce,” Pontus explained. “An IRL streamer would have a very different experience from a gaming streamer, and even among gaming streamers, it depends on which game you stream. What could be most effective varies.
But I would recommend people go out and look at the communities they want to engage with and participate in those communities. Collaboration and finding others interested in the same thing is the most powerful part—it’ll keep you motivated. Streaming can be lonely, but it doesn’t need to be. When you start interacting in the communities you want to participate in, that’ll lift you up. The people you interact with have the same ambitions as you, so they’ll lift each other up. That’s what I love about being here—seeing everyone be so positive, sharing tips and tricks. But advice is usually very individual, depending on what you want to do.”
Senior Director of Community Marketing and Production at Twitch, Mary Kish, shared a similar sentiment to Pontus, explaining, “If you’ve never gone live before, I recommend taking a look at Twitch’s official educational resource, Creator Camp. If you go into your Twitch dashboard, which is where you can find the option to go live for the first time, you should see a link to Creator Camp.
It offers lots of tips and tricks for your first stream. It even provides hardware and software recommendations to help you do your best. Many people find these resources through other streamers or on YouTube. There are so many ways to learn, but I really suggest doing your research because it isn’t easy, and you should be prepared for your first stream.”
Kish continued, “My other important piece of advice is that your first stream won’t be perfect—get used to that. You won’t start the way you’ll finish. You have to go live for the first time, even if you’re not fully ready. Just go live. Go live with your camera, without a camera, with that mic your parents gifted you, even if it’s not a great one. Go live, enjoy it, and see what makes you tick.
See if you really like Siege or if you’re actually more of a Fortnite player. See if you enjoy competitive gaming or if you’re a cozy gamer. Maybe you don’t like gaming at all and just want to chat with the audience while you eat a burrito. You’re allowed to do that. We want to free creators to be creative. You don’t have to play the popular game—you can do whatever brings you joy. If you do that, you’re on your way. Learning, evolving your stream, and building your setup over time are key. Don’t wait for the perfect camera and mic to go live. You can go live right now, and you’ll be fine.”
To wrap things up, we connected with Streamlabs to learn how one of the most popular streaming apps supports new streamers. Speaking with Ashray Urs, head of Streamlabs at Logitech, I asked how Streamlabs helps new creators. He provided a clear list of tips, starting with the need for streamers to be authentic.
“Audiences are drawn to streamers and other digital creators because they’re just regular people like them. Yes, there’s an element of performance involved in streaming, but the live nature lends itself well to creators leaning into their authentic selves. Engage your audience and find your rhythm. Those unscripted reactions and conversations with the chat make viewers feel like they’re a part of the action, and that’s what will keep them coming back to your streams.”
The advice didn’t stop there. He also highlighted the value of streaming beyond just Twitch. “Streamlabs data shows that streamers are gaining viewership and growing their communities through multistreaming, which is when they go live on multiple platforms simultaneously. On the surface, it’s fairly simple: the more platforms where you’re active, the higher your probability of reaching more people and attracting a community.
However, multistreaming takes things a step further because it allows you to stream to multiple sites simultaneously, rather than dedicating separate streams to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Gaming, etc. Streamlabs has been innovating in this space for a while now, but Twitch recently opened the gates to multistreaming last year, and other platforms are building more capabilities as interest in streaming grows.
“The great thing about live streaming is that there’s an audience for every niche. Embracing niche communities and integrating yourself into that subculture is critical to attracting new viewers. From there, you can network with creators within the community and collaborate with others, which can help grow your audience.”
Finally, he emphasized the importance of understanding trends and algorithms to build an audience with content that suits the platform. “If you stream to a platform, you must know how it works to get your content in front of viewers because it differs for each one. Streamers should consider the algorithms and how they bring content to users’ feeds. This also dictates what content they should create outside their regular streams. For example, short-form content like TikToks and Reels can help you rack up views and draw new audience members to your streams.”
Even with so many different people giving their take, one major aspect rings true: just start. You can dream about being the biggest streamer and buy all the best gear, but if you never dip your toes in the water and try, you won’t get the ball rolling. No matter how much you want to be discovered, if you don’t have a presence, it will never happen.
If you have some gear—even just a phone—start a stream, and even if you have only a single viewer, it’s still a start. Beyond that, take some of the advice and create a channel that’s true to you, something you’re passionate about, and the audience will eventually find you. Happy streaming, and we at CGM are eager to hear about the new channels you start up.
