Reaching Affiliate status on Twitch

When I was younger, it wasn't uncommon to see me in front of a game console.

I started my gaming journey with an Atari 2600 Jr and a Commodore 64 Personal Computer. I'm not sure which of these two came first, but I remember quite fondly of a time I would sit on the floor in the loungeroom of my mother's townhouse playing video games on our old CRT television.

Years later I'd be playing games like Sonic the Hedgehog on a Sega Master System II, and this was the first memory I have of people wanting to watch me play, rather than to have a turn themselves.

Fast forward to 2023 and I now find myself playing Fortnite: Zero Build at night on my gaming PC. I also own a current generation gaming console (Sony PlayStation 5) that just collects dust, as I have a Samsung G9 gaming monitor with a 32:9 aspect ratio that the PS5 isn't able to support.

The market for streaming gaming content is now huge, with massive communities built around watching someone play games for hours on end becoming mainstream. According to statista.com, revenue in the Games Live Streaming market worldwide is forecasted to reach US$13.65bn in 2024.

I decided that since I was playing already, I would live-stream my games to the world for anyone to watch and I was now faced with the decision of which platform to use. It's possible to stream to multiple platforms at once, but I wanted to focus my effort in building a single community.

The major game streaming platforms that I'm aware of are as follows:

• Facebook
• Kick
• TikTok
• Twitch
• YouTube

From these 5 options, only Kick and Twitch seem to be primarily focused on game streaming, while the others are general streaming services. As Kick is relatively new, I decided to go with Twitch which had a much higher number of users. The other option I did consider is TikTok, because of the way in which people are able to find your stream, and how quickly a community can be built.

Once you start building a community on Twitch, you can become a Twitch Affiliate. To reach Affiliate status, you must complete the following goals in a 30 day period.

• Reach 50 followers
• Stream for 8 hours
• Stream on 7 different days
• Average of 3 viewers

The easiest goals to reach are the ones that focus on the amount of streaming, as the person streaming can choose how much time they spend streaming content to users. The other two are a bit more difficult as you have less control over what viewers are doing. I didn't find it difficult to reach 50 followers, but I did have issues reaching an average of 3 viewers.

Where I messed up...

If you're anything like me, you will want to start streaming content before inviting viewers to join. You'll want to make sure that your streams are stable, that everything is set up correctly (overlays, etc.) and that you can monitor and participate in chats.

While 3 viewers doesn't seem like a lot, because it's an average it can add up quite quickly. As I've streamed 159.5 hours of content over the last 30 days (including times when no one was watching), I'd need people to watch my stream for at least 478.5 hours between them.

One option for me was to wait; once the initial testing content had reached 30 days of age, the average would rise. Thankfully, I was able to reach a higher than 3 average, which got me to 3 sooner than waiting.

If you're trying to grow your stream, here are my tips:

• Create engaging content; Watching someone in silence is way less fun than if you can hear chatter and laughter.
• Engage with your viewers; When you have viewers watching, ensure they know they're a part of your community by speaking to them.
• Appreciate your viewers; It only takes a moment to thank them for following/subscribing/etc.

If all else fails, ask a few friends to sit in on your stream so you can get your view time up!