The Different Types of Twitch Streamers (and which you should be)

Last Updated on 11/14/2022 by Dean

Do you wonder how many different types of streamers there are on Twitch? Maybe you want to figure out which type of streamer you should become?

In this article, we’ll look at the different kinds of streamers Twitch has to offer.

Types of Twitch Streamers

1. Single Game Streamer
2. Variety Streamer
3. IRL Streamer
4. Music Streamer
5. Funnel Streamer
6. Casual Streamer

Single Game Streamer

Single-game streamers play one game to a niche audience.

In most cases, single-game streamers are professional players, ex-professional players, or highly ranked in their respective game. This attracts a niche audience that shares the same passion for their game and looks to them for tactical advantages, information, or simply entertainment purposes.

Variety Streamer

Variety Streamers stream a wide range of different games to an audience that enjoys their content regardless of which game they play.

Each stream, they might play an entirely different game. Oftentimes, variety streamers will play multiple games in one stream causing them to continuously change their streaming category.

Variety streamers are also known to frequently collaborate with other streamers. Unlike Single Game Streamers, who are limited to collaborations within their respective games, variety streamers can collaborate with just any type of streamer on Twitch.

Largely due to the flexibility that variety streaming offers, variety streaming has become increasingly popular among creators.

Aside from being very flexible in their content strategy, variety streamers also possess a tight-knit community. Variety streamers have a streamer persona.

IRL Streamer

IRL Streamers are streamers who mostly stream IRL content as opposed to video games.

This type of streamer is commonly found in the ‘Just Chatting’ category on Twitch. IRL streaming is a very broad category. Some IRL streamers host talk shows while others might stream their shopping trip.

Music Streamers

Music streamers, you guessed it, entertain their viewers with musical content.

These types of streamers are found in the Music Category on Twitch. Among Music streamers, you’ll find DJs, singers, pianists, guitarists, and so on.

Music streaming is the most lurked category on Twitch. Meaning viewers often have them on in the background while they work, study, or perform household chores.

Funnel Streamer

Funnel streamers are streamers whose main focus is not Twitch streaming. Instead, they use Twitch as a means to redirect traffic to other platforms such as Onlyfans and Patreon.

While funnel streamers still make money from Twitch, they oftentimes make more money from offering subscription-based content off-Twitch. After all, an Onlyfans page offers subscribers plenty more benefits than a Twitch subscription ever could.

Among funnel streamers, you’ll find streamers who perform ASMR and spend time in the hot-tub streaming category as well as dance streamers.

Amouranth is the most popular funnel streamer on Twitch who redirects her audience to Onlyfans and Patreon.

Casual Streamer

The casual streamer is the type of streamer that doesn’t worry about followers, viewers, or scheduling their stream. They simply stream when they feel like it. You most likely know at least one casual Twitch streamer. They often don’t have a face cam, they don’t talk on their stream, and always have less than 5 viewers watching them.

Casual streamers don’t make money off of Twitch as they aren’t partnered or affiliated. They simply stream for the fun of it.

Which Type of Twitch streamer should you be?

Most likely, you are deciding between variety streaming and single-game streaming. While you should pick based on your preference, we do find that single-game streamers have an edge over variety streamers.

Starting off as a variety streamer is difficult. Building a community isn’t easy when you are constantly playing different games. While from an outside perspective it might look like big streamers are thriving off variety content, you have to realize that these are established streamers with large communities who adore them.

As a small, newer streamer, viewers aren’t going to be ‘hooked’ to your personality right off the bat. For this reason, they won’t follow you from game to game.

Imagine you stream Valorant one day, and accumulate 10 followers during that stream only to play League of Legends the next day. By streaming a different game you are essentially alienating those 10 followers you worked so hard to gain the previous day.

Even if they enjoyed your stream, those Valorant viewers are likely just going to watch another Valorant streamer instead of joining your League of Legends stream.

Instead, you are much better off focussing on one game, slowly building a community, and eventually moving over to variety streaming.

Someone who has followed you for half a year is much more likely to watch you even if you don’t play their preferred game because they are already hooked to your personality.

🚀 👉 Read Next: How to Grow on Twitch

Which is the best kind of streamer?

Any type of streamer can thrive on Twitch. However, one could argue that Variety Streamers have the highest chance to blow up on Twitch due to the many collaboration efforts they can go through.

For example, in 2020, Among Us caused many variety streamers to blow up. This was because Among Us allowed streamers to collaborate with up to 9 other streamers on Twitch.

This caused many streamers who double their audience overnight simply by playing a game that involved streaming giants such as Ninja, xQc, Disguised Toast, and more.

FAQ

Which type of streamers makes the most money?

Variety streamers such as xQc are constantly ranked amongst the highest-earners on Twitch.

Which type of streamer has the most success on Twitch?

Variety streamers have the most success on Twitch due to them quickly growing through collaborations. However, when a game is popular, single-game streamers can accumulate massive audiences as well. One such example is Ninja who became one of the biggest and most wealthy streamers ever through Fortnite.

Conclusion

Twitch has many different types of live streamers. We are all most familiar with the variety and single-game streamers. But other streamers, such as IRL and music streamers are quite common as well.

If you plan on becoming a streamer yourself, we recommend that you start out with one game where you can build an audience before moving into the variety of streaming.

👉 How to start streaming on Twitch