How To Get 3 Average Viewers on Twitch (Path To Twitch Affiliate)

Last Updated on 11/09/2022 by Dean

So you want to become a Twitch Affiliate but first, need to achieve 3 average viewers on your stream? You came to the right place!

In this article, I will tell you some quick tips to get 3 average viewers on Twitch.

Before we start, here’s a quick reminder of the requirements for Twitch Affiliates:

Over a 30-day period, you need…

  • To reach 50 followers
  • Stream for 8 hours in total
  • Stream on 7 different days
  • Have an average of 3 viewers

Once you reach those requirements, you’ll be eligible for Twitch Affiliate and you’ll be able to monetize your Twitch!

Just a couple more things I want to address first…

[SKIP FORWARD]

๐Ÿš€ This article is part of our Grow on Twitch series.

Does Twitch Count Yourself as a Viewer?

Yes, Twitch will count yourself as a viewer. This is exactly why your viewer count will start at 1 every time and never drop to 0.

This is good for you because that means you only need to average 2 real viewers on every stream in order to qualify for Twitch affiliates!

How Does Twitch Count Average Viewers?

Now the way Twitch counts your average viewers is not as straightforward as you may think.

Some streamers believe if they achieve 3 total viewers on every stream, they will automatically reach the average of 3 viewers per stream but this is untrue.

Here’s what Twitch has to say:

To calculate this number, we check how many viewers there are at each point in time when you are live. The stat in the top bar is an average of this number across all the time streamed in the selected date range.

How Twitch counts average viewer – Twitch Analytics

A user on Reddit noted that Twitch seems to break up your live stream in 5-minute intervals and calculates your average viewers based on that data.

Here’s what he has to say:

Twitch records how many viewers you have in each of those intervals, adds them all up, and divides them by how many 5-minute intervals there were (an average). However, Twitch rounds this number down to the nearest whole number. Ex. You have 2 viewers the first five minutes and then 3 for an hour straight, your average viewers for that stream will be 2 once rounded down.

u/TheDunkleman on Reddit

This information explains why so many streamers seem to think Twitch is not counting their live views.

In reality, Twitch IS counting your live views but they are rounding them down when calculating your average.

Now that we got those things out of the way, let’s crack open a Red Bull and get to the part of the article you actually came for!


Quick Hack to get 3 average viewers on Twitch: INVITE FRIENDS AND FAMILY ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ‘งโ€๐Ÿ‘ฆ๐Ÿฟ

All you need to reach Affiliate Status on Twitch is 3 concurrent viewers over a 30-day period. What if I told you these 3 concurrent viewers could be made up of friends and family members?

Why not invite your best friend and a cousin or parent to sit and lurk on your stream for the next month? Having your stream open in a different window doesn’t cost them anything but will gain you affiliate status!

This might not be the most rewarding way to reach the 3 viewers you need for Affiliate status but it is a quick solution if you are feeling desperate.


10 Tips to Achieve 3 Average Viewers on Twitch

๐Ÿ‘‰ Invite friends and family

Okay, I’m repeating myself here but I strongly urge you to consider inviting a friend or family member to watch your stream. Not only will they help you reach 3 average viewers but they will also boost you in the Twitch directory.

No longer will you be a 1-streamer-Andy who is buried on page 345 of Twitch. By having friends lurk on you, you can boost yourself that little bit that might just get you discovered by one or two extra viewers!

๐Ÿ‘‰ Play games with friends

You might not be friends with other Twitch streamers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stream and play video games with your friend group simultaneously.

In fact, we recommend playing games on stream with friends as much as possible.

Not only are friend interactions entertaining, but they also prevent you from being silent on stream. Nobody wants to watch a streamer who doesn’t talk to their chat, so inviting a friend or multiple friends is a great way to get around that.

Just make sure you don’t forget you are streaming either. Don’t focus solely on your friends. You should still attempt to engage with your viewers, even if it seems no one is chatting.

Quick Tip: While you are streaming with friends, ask them to open your Twitch stream on mute to boost your viewer count.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Network with other streamers

Collaboration is massive on Twitch. We’ve all seen how Twitch streamers blew up under the Among Us craze, right? This was because they collaborated with other streamers!

top streamers such as Disguisedtoast, Sykkuno and Valkyrae collaborating on Twitch
example of top streamers such as Disguisedtoast, Sykkuno, and Valkyrae collaborating on Twitch

This is something you can recreate even as a small streamer.

While you might not get a message back from Pokimane, it doesn’t hurt to reach out to other small streamers and play a game together. Who knows, you might even be able to set up a streamer lobby with multiple streamers in your viewer range!

Let’s say you have 2 viewers and you invite another streamer with 2 viewers to play a game together, you can only win in this scenario! That one viewer might be enticed to open up your stream simultaneously and become one of your viewers! Or they might follow you and watch your stream in the future.

Rinse and repeat with other streamers and before you know it you might have way more than 3 average viewers on Twitch.

For more info ๐Ÿ“š Learn how to collaborate with other streamers

๐Ÿ‘‰ Join Twitch Communities

If you want to collaborate with other streamers, you will have to find streamers with similar interests and viewer counts first.

The best place to find other streamers is through Twitch communities.

Twitch communities exist on Reddit, Discord, Facebook, and so on. They are free to join and a great way to meet other streamers, exchange tips, share experiences, network, and much more!

๐Ÿ“š Here is a list of the top Communities for Twitch.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Create a stream schedule

The key to getting achieving Affiliate Status is being consistent and one of the best ways to maintain consistency is to create a stream schedule for yourself and your viewers.

Remember: Affiliate Status requires you to stream at least 7 days over a 30 day period.

you should have a stream schedule to achieve 3 average viewers on twitch

This means you will have to stream at least 2 days per week to qualify. Instead of just eyeballing it and going live when you ‘feel like it’ make sure to plan these days ahead.

Let’s say you have some time free on Monday and Friday, schedule those days ahead of time. And make this schedule public so any viewers who might discover you will also know exactly when you will be streaming next.

You might feel like this is redundant because you have little or no viewers, but if you don’t act like someone who has viewers, you will never achieve those viewers.

Having a good mindset is very important in achieving your goals. Think like a top streamer, even if you aren’t anywhere close!

Aside from keeping your viewers in the know, and forcing yourself to stream on those respective days, having a stream schedule will also help you prepare your stream ahead of time.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Plan out your stream

This ties in with our previous tip to help you achieve 3 avg viewers.

Besides keeping a stream schedule, you should have a plan before you go live on Twitch.

The most successful Twitch streamers have an outline that contains exactly what they will do on stream. If you want to be successful, you should copy this tactic.

It’s very easy to go live, play some Valorant and then go offline.

This is how 99.9% of Twitch streamers behave and it is exactly why the success rate on Twitch is so low. If you want to succeed, you have to act like the 0.01% and not copy the failing majority.

you should have a stream plan to get 3 average viewers on twitch

Here’s that same Valorant stream, slightly improved:

  • first 20 minutes: just chatting, live updates, show some Valorant related memes, TikToks, or youtube shorts you found beforehand.
  • next: 1 competitive match with a friend(s)
  • after that: 3 v 3 with friends and/or other streamers
  • finally: host a challenge with friends (e.g. play unrated with shotgun only)

Do you see how we just turned a boring solo queue Valorant stream into a fun Twitch stream?

This is how Twitch streamers think. They are constantly trying to entertain their viewers. Doing one thing on end (e.g. Valorant competitive solo queue) gets very boring especially if you aren’t a natural entertainer or exceptionally skilled at the game.

But by inviting friends, other streamers, doing fun challenges and mixing things up, you are making the stream entertaining.

This is only possible if you plan your stream ahead of time. That’s how you can align your schedule with other streamers and friends.

๐Ÿ“š Learn to plan your stream

๐Ÿ‘‰ Play a niche game

I understand, you may be more eager to play games such as Fortnite, League of Legends, and so on but that is honestly one of the main reasons you aren’t getting any viewers on Twitch.

Actually, scratch that, it’s THE main reason you aren’t getting viewers on Twitch.

Most Twitch streamers expect viewers to come in ‘organically’ and somehow stumble upon their stream (I will address this later...) but how could anyone find your stream, if you’re playing a game as popular as Fortnite?

When you’re playing such a game, you are competing with EVERYONE currently streaming this game on Twitch.

Go to Twitch.tv for a second and navigate to the category for Fortnite (or any other popular game) what do you see?

Let me spoil it for you: hundreds and thousands of streamers are broadcasting these games.

If you want viewers to come in organically, through Twitch, you can NOT play these types of games.

The odds of someone finding your stream through the Twitch library when you’re streaming a popular game are close to null.

Next time you plan on streaming, try out an indie game and you’ll instantly see more interest and organic viewers.

Read also: how to find a niche on Twitch

๐Ÿ‘‰ Be entertaining (or at least put in an effort)

Can you imagine going into a Ninja, Pokimane, or Kai Cenat stream only to see them sitting in a dark room, radio silent, playing a video game?

Hell no! That would be SO boring, right?

Then why oh why is that every Twitch streamer with less than 20 viewers seems to be doing exactly that?

in order to get 3 average viewers on twitch you have to entertain your viewers like pokimane does on stream.
Pokimane is a pro at keeping her viewers entertained

Successful streamers are always either talking to their chat or talking with their friends. These people stream for multiple hours and never go silent.

This is because they know what happens when they stop being entertaining: people leave.

If you’re just starting out, it may seem almost impossible or weird to engage with your chat (especially when you have zero viewers) but that is what you have to do.

And it will suck at first, it will feel weird and silly but as long as you don’t master entertaining, you will never succeed as a streamer.

This is where many of the previous tips come together:

  • Stream with friends and collaborate with fellow Twitch streamers
  • Use Twitch Communities to find other streamers
  • Plan out your stream to make it fun and entertaining

These tips should help you become more entertaining. If you want to learn more about entertaining on Twitch read our article on ๐Ÿ“š how to develop a Streamer persona.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Watch (and learn from) popular streamers

Getting viewers on Twitch is a journey. Unless you’re already popular on other platforms, achieving success on Twitch is going to take a while.

As with any journey, you will make many mistakes and have to learn from those mistakes in order to improve yourself.

watch and learn from popular twitch streamers in order to gain 3 average viewers on twitch
Hasanabi is one of the top streamers on Twitch right now

One of the better ways to comfort yourself with the mistakes you’re making is by actively watching popular streamers and taking notes of their actions.

  • How is the layout of their stream?
  • What kind of streamer persona do they have?
  • How do they prevent silence and keep their chat engaged?
  • Do they collaborate with other streamers?
  • What games do they play?
  • Do they crack jokes?

You can learn a lot simply by watching the very top of Twitch do their thing.

The best artists in the world have always studied OTHER artists. The richest people in the world have always studied OTHER rich people.

If you want to be a successful Twitch streamer, you should study those that you deem successful.

Studying someone successful allows you to notice things you otherwise might not discover until years of trying yourself. Take advantage of that!

ludwig has seen phenomenal growth on twitch that you can replicate in your road to affiliate

Tip: Pay attention to streamers such as Ludwig

He might not be on Twitch anymore since signing an exclusive contract with YouTube but Ludwig is a prime example of a streamer who does everything right.

  • Ludwig collaborates with other streamers
  • Ludwig creates lots of fun challenges
  • Ludwig plays niche games
  • Ludwig makes entertaining YouTube videos
  • Ludwig has a highly developed streamer persona

Ludwig managed to grind himself to the very top of Twitch after just 1 year of streaming. That’s impressive, but he worked hard to achieve this feat.

His streams aren’t boring in the slightest, they are well-planned.

Ludwig has mastered creating a community, engaging with viewers, building up a brand beyond Twitch, starting from a small niche (smash bros melee) and so much more.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Grow a following online

Earlier I talked about how many streamers seem to believe they will somehow attract viewers organically…

That’s just not how it works.

If you study any popular streamers’ road to success, you’ll notice that their Twitch following grew at the same time as their following on other platforms.

They didn’t one day start streaming on Twitch and become famous the next day…

Twitch isn’t some miraculous potion that turns people into celebrities overnight… Popular Twitch streamers worked hard to establish a following online and promoted their Twitch to this following.

I can guarantee you that the large majority of their viewers in the early stages came from OUTSIDE sources and NOT from Twitch.

That’s why it’s important that you start creating a brand around yourself and master your social media game.

TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are the best platforms to establish a following online.

If you want to grow on Twitch, you have to start posting actively to those types of platforms and establish a following which you can then send over to your streams every time!

Imagine you have 1000 followers on TikTok and Instagram, that’s 1000 people who can see your story EVERY time you go live!

You’d need to convert less than 1% of your audience every time you stream to get 3 average viewers on Twitch!


Here’s what you SHOULDN’T do

Now I know it might be tempting to cheat your viewer count but in reality, those things will always come back to bite you in the ass.

Someone might report you, Twitch might ban you or it simply might lead to you not taking Twitch seriously because of the lack of achievement.

Don’t use a viewbot

Yes by buying a viewbot you can easily reach the 3 viewer average on Twitch… But that wouldn’t be fair to yourself.

Finally becoming a Twitch Affiliate should is an achievement for everyone, if you cheat this step by using a viewbot, it will never feel right with you. You will always feel like a cheat.

On top of that people KNOW when you are view botting. It’s simply so obvious when someone has viewers but no one is using the chat function… Stay away from viewbotting it will do you far more harm than good.

Don’t create multiple accounts to cheat your viewer count

Some people will cheat by creating multiple Twitch accounts and watch their own stream from different browsers or devices, sure this can work but… Don’t.

Do you really want to achieve the 3 average viewers on Twitch by cheating the viewercount…?

What sense of achievement will you feel? Zero. Nada.


Now it’s your turn

If you implement these 10 tips, you will eventually reach 3 average viewers on Twitch and beyond!

Keep streaming consistently, build your audience off-twitch, study other streamers and work on being more entertaining in general.

You’ll be a Twitch Affiliate and looking at our Twitch partner guide before you know it. ๐Ÿ˜‰

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