When is the Best Time to Stream on Twitch?

It’s important to stream on twitch at optimal times if streamers want to gain recognition and increase their viewership quickly.

The best time to stream on Twitch is 7 am to 11 am for your specific time zone. The reason is you’ll have the least amount of competition, and therefore you’ll have a better chance at reaching new viewers. Most popular streamers go live in the early evenings, and Twitch viewers are more likely to browse and explore new creators when their favorites are offline.

With that said, when is the best time to stream on twitch? In this article, we’ll help you understand the different factors that may affect your viewership and help you decide the best time to stream on twitch.

4 Tips for Picking the Best Time to Stream

You should consider several things when choosing your streaming schedule on Twitch. Each of these will depend on your personal brand, your current Twitch following, and the content you intend to stream.

Take each thing into account as you narrow down your options.

1. 1. Choose the Right Time for Your Time-Zone

   One of the simplest methods is to pick the time that suits your geographical location. For example, if you’re a US streamer, and your target audience is primarily situated in the US, it’s ideal to stream in US times to catch an enormous influx of your audience.

   Now, regardless of your timezone, it’s best to stream on twitch anytime between 12 midnight and 9 AM. However, streaming during these peak hours means you’ll be competing with other streamers for viewers.

   So, if you are a new streamer, you can opt for streaming hours between 11 AM to 2 PM. You’ll have less competition during these hours and you’ll probably have the most viewers with this schedule as a beginner.

   Some streamers also decide to split their stream into two segments. Instead of doing a single 8-hour stream, they’ll split it into two equally divided sessions, each of which lasts four hours. This is an excellent strategy if you’d like to stream to two different audiences, targeting both a US and UK audience. Plus, this strategy gives you more viewers in total!

2. 2. Choose the right Time for your Game

   Sometimes, specific games draw in a core audience at golden hours. For example, party-based or tabletops games typically have a much larger influx in the evenings rather than in the mornings.

   Most streamers in these genres tend to target the evening since the category is quite a niche, meaning they’ll have the least competition since fewer channels choose this type of content. Plus, they’ll be exposed to as large of an audience as possible on Twitch.

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3. 3. Choose the right Time for Viewer Ratio

   A great tool that streamers use is Twitch Strike. Twitch Strike is a service that aggregates data for Twitch’s categories. It displays statistics such as; the most active streaming period for a game and the most viewers at a specific time for a game and then gives you a ratio between the two.

   Essentially this channel ratio is how many viewers are available per Twitch stream for one particular category.

   It’s important to learn your average viewership and number of concurrent viewers. This will give you the best time to live stream on Twitch.

   

   For your timezone, you can identify the exact times when your streaming category has the highest viewership potential. Typically, you can easily compare viewer ratio numbers – the higher the number, the more theoretical viewers are available for your stream.

   You’ll generally find that the highest viewer ratios are available very early in the day. Most categories have the largest viewer ratios between 7 am-11 am. If you’re a streamer that struggles to grab an audience, it might be worthwhile trying to stream earlier in the morning!

4. 4. Choose the right Time based on Other Events

   The last way to choose an adequate time is by holding events. For example, many streamers reward their communities when hitting a milestone with 12 hours of 24-hour streams.

   Consider keeping these sparse to keep them memorable and eventful, and plan how you will saturate for that time!

What to Do if You Can’t Stream at the Best Time

If you can’t stream at suitable times or peak hours, whether it’s other commitments that eat up your time or whatever reason, there are other methods you can incorporate to drive an audience to your streaming time.

• Leverage Social Media to gain traction

  If you have other social media with a following, such as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitch, you can leverage your following on those platforms to gain Twitch traction.

  For example, you can produce a “Going Live” post with a brief description explaining what you’re going to do and, finally, let your audience know the time.

  This way, your existing audience can plan to join your stream when you finally go live. This will also push you up in your desired category, attracting other viewers too!

• Game Selection

  Choosing a game that has a high following, however, generally, a smaller live audience can help you get the boost in viewers you need without needing to worry about a specific time. For example, a great choice is Stardew Valley.

  

  The game has an enormous amount of loyal followership while also having a smaller concurrent viewership number. Another added benefit is that the Stardew community enjoys watching multiple streamers, as they’d like to grow interested in their game!

  • Best Games to Stream on Twitch

Twitch Analytics

If you are beginning your streaming career, it’s important to track your progress as you go. This way, you’ll know if you are going in the right direction. You can use Twitch tools to help you understand your Twitch stats, such as the number of viewers and followers.

You can even experiment with streaming different time slots and use a Twitch tracker to see which time slot works for you, your streams, and your viewers best. Additionally, analyzing your stats can give you an idea of the best time slot you can gain new viewers.

Here are a few of the Twitch Analytics Tools you can try for yourself:

• Twitch Analytics – found on the creator dashboard
• StreamElements
• Streamlabs Desktop
• TwitchTracker – free Twitch analytics tool

Conclusion

In summary, the best time to stream on Twitch depends on many factors. The consensus is that if you’re looking to gain an audience purely through Twitch’s directory system, you will want to stream as early as possible.

However, other strategies, such as streaming less saturated games and using existing social media, can allow you to have an audience during a time that is preferable for you. It’s worth experimenting with these options and seeing what works best for you as a content creator!