Last Updated on 11/14/2022 by Dean
Just Chatting is the most popular category on Twitch by far. According to Twitch Tracker, the IRL streaming category has over 338,000 average viewers at any time.
In the last week alone, over 57M hours of Just Chatting were watched. That’s 2,375,000 days or 6506 years of watch time per week.
Clearly, the Just Chatting category has a huge audience and many streamers are taking advantage of this already.
This makes sense, because there is so much you can do on an IRL stream.
The Twitch space has changed a lot over the last couple of years and the Just Chatting category has opened doors to many non-game-related streamers.
Now we have live streamers who are taking their audience outside, we have fitness and yoga streams, cooking streams and we even have people broadcasting themselves while they sleep.
But the Just Chatting category isn’t just for non-gaming streamers, many gaming streamers are starting and ending their streams by talking to their chat.
As a beginner streamer though, the Just Chatting or IRL category is for sure the hardest streaming category there is.
While video game streamers don’t have to continuously talk to be considered engaging, a just chatting stream requires constant entertainment.
It’s clearly on a different level as you don’t have a video game to hide behind while you’re streaming. That’s why you need a proper plan for your IRL stream.
Plan out your IRL stream
One of the most important things you should keep in mind when starting a just chatting stream is that you have to create a plan beforehand.
Don’t dive in head first without planning ahead of time what you’re going to do as this will create a very boring format.
Sure you can start off by talking with your chat (and you should!), but you shouldn’t be doing that for 5 hours straight. No just chatting streamer does that!
If you pay attention to some of the just chatting streamers out there (and you should be!), you’ll notice that they are always doing something else.
You can be certain that they planned these events ahead of time.
They’ll often start off talking to their chat and telling them about their day, and then they might play a novel game for a while or start dancing to then divert back to chatting, taking their stream outside, and so on.
Many of these streams are planned out to the T and you should be doing that as well!
Ideas for your just chatting stream.
Use your skills!
If you’re good at singing or playing an instrument, you should be creating a little show on your stream! Musical streamers are doing extremely well online because live streaming is the perfect format for this type of thing.
But musical streamers are not the only ones in demand. Maybe you’re good at drawing, photoshop, video editing, these skills can be used to create a very original and entertaining live stream!
Bake or cook something fun!
Cooking streams do incredibly well on Twitch and are great to do with an active chat. You can guide them through your process, have them help out with ingredients, and so on.
You could even cook something based on the ingredients THEY pick and end up with something really … nasty that you can then attempt to EAT on stream!
Take quizzes on stream
The internet is full of fun little quizzes such as the ‘which tv character are you’ type of quiz, these are super fun to do on a live stream with your chat! This a great way to get them to learn more about your personality traits as well!
Cosplay on stream
Cosplay is SO popular these days and Twitch viewers absolutely LOVE it. If you love cosplaying and playing a character, this could be a great way to entertain your just chatting stream.
Take your audience outside
If you’re comfortable live streaming in public, you might want to take your audience outside! Many popular IRL streamers take their audiences to theme parks, beaches, cities, malls, and more! These types of streams are very appealing to viewers and do extremely well.
How to keep talking on a Just Chatting stream
The hardest part about just chatting is… to keep chatting.
Being entertaining and continuously talk on stream is something you will have to learn and while you likely won’t be a pro right off the bat, there are some tips that can help you out a lot.
1. Actively talk with your chat
Even if there is just one person in the chat, you should actively engage with them as this is what many viewers are looking for when they’re browsing through Twitch streams. Especially when they join a newer creators’ stream.
If no one is using the chat, you should encourage them to by asking questions and starting conversations. Don’t ever beg your viewers to talk though! Some viewers simply prefer to lurk and that’s okay, you should embrace that.
If your chat is really dead and you’re struggling to light the fire, you can invite some of your friends over to your Twitch chat. Having your friends engage with you through the chat is a great way to get the ball rolling because it will show your viewers just how nice and engaging you are as well and encourage them to join in on the conversation.
2. Talk about yourself and your life
When you’re streaming on Twitch, people come to your stream because they want to learn more about you.
That’s why you can never talk enough about yourself and what’s going on in your life. This also gives you the excuse ask your chat questions.
Here’s an example:
“How are you doing guys! What have you been up to today? I had lunch with my bestie at the mall earlier and just finished walking my dog. Oh, you went to the spa? How was it! Omg, I remember the last time I went to the spa…”
Talking about yourself and your life is a great way to keep actively talking on stream all the while engaging with your chat and keep the ball rolling.
3. Invite a friend over!
If continuously talking on stream is too hard for you there is one easy way to fix everything: have a friend on stream with you!
This is probably the biggest loophole there is when it comes to streaming and it’s not used enough by newer streamers who are struggling to keep their viewers entertained.
By having a friend over, it’s almost impossible to not have an entertaining stream! You can chat and do activities online or IRL together as if you were just hanging out!
Combine this with the both of you actively engaging with the chat and you have the recipe for a flawless just chatting stream. You’re welcome.
Other Tips for Just Chatting Streams
1. Become a consistent streamer
If you want to become an IRL Twitch streamer, you will have to become active and maintain a consistent schedule.
Big streamers can afford to ‘flake’ on their audience and quit streaming for multiple days but you, as a smaller streamer, shouldn’t.
Twitch viewers love consistency and many of them are looking for streamers to watch on an almost daily basis. If they liked your stream but you stop broad casting all of a sudden, what do you think they’ll do? They’ll find someone else to watch and forget all about you.
By streaming consistently, you’re also subconsciously intriguing people to come to your stream.
They might not click on you the first day, or the second or even the third but if they continue to see your name and title pop-up, at some point they will be intrigued enough to watch you.
That’s only possible if you actually stream consistently. This also brings me to my next point…
2. Take streaming seriously
Most streamers on Twitch are casuals who stream every now and then when they feel like it. This is fine, maybe this is what they enjoy, but that’s not how you build an audience on Twitch.
Only when you take streaming seriously enough is when you’ll create a consistent schedule, plan out your streams, study and learn from other streamers, invest in your setup, and much more.
If you’re struggling to get more than 5 average viewers on your stream, you’re likely not taking it seriously enough. And unless you start taking it seriously and start focussing on improving your streams, you’ll see very little growth.
How to promote your just chatting stream
Here are some tips to promote your just chatting stream.
1. Write a good title
You want your title to both be enticing and stand out amongst the crowd.
The title of your stream has a big influence on whether or not a viewer will pick your stream out of the hundreds of possibilities.
Many Twitch streamers don’t bother with their title and it’s biting them in the ass! For example I often see some streamers go with titles such as: short stream, just chatting.
Who the F is that supposed to attract? Don’t do this if you’re new!!
Here are some titles I found on the Just Chatting stream that were note worthy:
- 4007 matches on Tinder!
- Late night whos up?
- Come to my bedroom 🙂
- Explore Tokyo with me!
- 24-hour dancing stream!
These titles make you want to click on them because they intrigue the viewer.
I don’t understand why so many streamers decide to put ‘just chatting’ in their title, you’re streaming in this category, we know!
If you want your title to stand out, you should mention what exactly you’re doing on stream and make it intriguing.
TIP: check the ‘just chatting’ category every day and write down the note-worthy stream titles, this can give you ideas for your own streams.
2. Promote your stream on social media
Of course, the Just Chatting category is very big and viewers have thousands of Twitch streamers to pick and choose from… If you’re relying on just Twitch to ‘promote’ you, you’re going about it all wrong!
Becoming a Twitch streamer actually starts off-platform! You should be actively building an audience on social media such as Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, and more!
By building an audience online, you’ll ALWAYS have viewers in your Twitch. Imagine if you have 1000 real followers on Instagram, by posting a story before you go live you should be able to get at least 5 viewers from that story post!
You should also convert your Twitch viewers into followers on social media by encouraging them to follow you while you’re on stream.
3. Become active in Twitch communities
Did you know there are many Twitch communities dedicated to small Twitch streamers on discord, Facebook, and Reddit that you can join?
By becoming active in such a Twitch community, you can network with other streamers, find friends to play with, promote your own stream and more.
Joining and actively engaging with off-twitch communities is what every small and struggling streamer should be doing.
Popular Just Chatting Streamers
Like I said earlier, you should study and learn from just chatting streamers. Here are 6 popular Twitch ‘Just Chatting’ streamers you can learn from!
Ludwig
Ludwig is a very popular Twitch Streamer with over 1.6M followers and 20,000 average viewers on every stream.
Ludwig is very entertaining and often cracks jokes on stream which contain a lot of chat engagement. He often plays games such as chess during his just chatting streams and watches other Youtubers and Streamers during his streams.
Maya
Maya is one of the most popular female Twitch streamers, she has 411k followers and consistently averages 6000 viewers on stream.
Maya almost exclusively streams in the Just Chatting category and has mastered entertaining her Twitch following.
Maya will often chat with her chat, scroll through her subreddit on stream, watch videos on stream, watch other streams, and more!
Moistcr1tikal
Moistcr1tikal is a popular streamer with 2.6 million followers and 10,000 average viewers.
On his just chatting streams, Moistcr1tikal will talk with his friends, talk with his chat, watch youtube videos, and more.
Jinnytty
Jinnytty is a popular Twitch streamer with 569k followers and 4000 average viewers.
On her just chatting streams, she’ll often take her stream on an adventure outside. She also does cooking streams and actively chats with her stream.
CodeMiko
CodeMiko is the most popular Vtuber on Twitch. She has 555k followers and 9000 average viewers.
She’ll often meet other streamers on her broadcasts, play games, and actively talks with her chat.
Now it’s your turn
Hopefully, this article has taught you a thing or two to improve your just chatting or IRL streams on Twitch!
Remember to always create structure in your streams and plan them out. If you have trouble with staying entertaining you should have a friend over or ask them to engage with your on your Twitch chat.
Also remember to stay consistent with your streams, take it seriously and build a following online!
Good luck!