If you’re a streamer, you’re probably looking at your Twitch stats quite regularly. Lots of people probably look at them a little bit too much! But, if you’re looking at the right ones, in the right way, you can adjust your content and improve your growth. Let’s talk Twitch stats.
Average viewers
This metric gives you an idea of your channel's consistent performance over time, as it calculates the average number of viewers during your streaming sessions. The most common way is to look at the trends over time. When you do, set your feelings aside and try to figure out what the reason might be that your numbers dropped or increased. Did you make massive changes in your content or maybe the time you were streaming? Was it a national holiday or some other external reason people might have dropped in (or dropped out)? When you can figure that out, you can learn from it and adjust your strategy accordingly.
You can also look at your average viewership on a stream-by-stream basis. If you click on the stream, you can see how the numbers progressed during your stream. If you then compare it to your VOD, it might tell you even more specifically the reasons that cause people to join or leave. Just make sure to check it after and not get too distracted about viewing numbers while you are in the middle of streaming, as it might affect your self-confidence if it’s too low or too high. Best to turn those numbers off altogether.
Unique chatters
The unique chatters metric on Twitch counts the number of individual users who actively chat during a stream. It's useful because it shows community engagement, loyalty and content relevance. It provides insights into your audience. You can influence this by trying to get people to join in on the conversation and making them feel involved, by interacting with them and giving personal shoutouts, for example.
Followers per stream
As a whole, it’s not super important how many followers you have. But, it can still be a useful tool to find out which types of content appeal to your audience and as an indicator of your channel's popularity and potential reach. If you break down your stream into sections – let’s say you play one or two different games and you do some chatting – then you can see in the stats for one individual stream if there are any differences per section, and you can actually accurately determine what kind of content leads to more followers and what may be more entertaining to your audience, so you can do more of that.
Total chat messages
Total chat messages is the overall number of messages in your Twitch chat during a stream, reflecting chat activity. It indicates engagement and community interaction, but quality of conversations matters too. If you’re looking for overall retention rate and how engaged people are with your chat, the total chat messages metric and the individual chat messages graph can be useful. Consider these alongside other metrics for a complete view of your channel's health and growth.
Do remember – while it's valuable to keep an eye on Twitch stats to understand trends and make informed decisions, it's equally important to find a healthy balance between data analysis and your passion for creating content. Streaming is meant to be fun, and if you’re not enjoying it, that will shine through. Focus on delivering engaging streams, building a positive community and staying true to your unique style to foster long-term growth and satisfaction on the platform.
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