Twitch’s help section on December 1st 2020, just posted a new program for Twitch Partners / Affiliates to have their stream be promoted. Now if you’re a streamer, you already know that discoverability on Twitch is effectively non-existent. With the primary means of discoverability being having a high viewer count so you are seen in the category you are streaming in. Extremely effective for those who are already have an established viewership, but not so much for smaller partners and affiliates that stream unique or dynamic content.
As this is an experimental program, here is how Boost This Stream is meant to work. Due note as Boost This Stream is an experimental program, expect this to be a limited timed program as Twitch is trying to create solutions to the discoverability program on their website.
As a Twitch Partner or Affiliate, you’ll get an e-mail if you are eligible to test Boost This Stream. Boost This Stream is treated just like other community challenges, viewers have a limited time to use their channel points to meet the required amount in two days. If successful, your content will be listed as a promoted content on “highly visable parts of Twitch”. Meaning that your stream will likely be at the top of the list when it comes to their existing recommendation algorithm for viewers. The example the Help Guide uses is “Live Channels we think you’ll like”. So your stream will appear on the front page if the viewer watches content that matches content they already watch likely based on categories such as Just Chatting, Retro, or specific games you have streamed.
Two things I’d like to emphasize about the Boost This Stream Challenge from the help article.
- The time window for Boost This Stream is 48 hours. It’ll only start when you start streaming. However, the challenge will NOT stop if you go offline during that 48 hour period.
- The channel point requirement of Boost This Stream will be varied by the channel determined by factors such as average size of your channel and the number of viewers you have.
One part where I am concerned about Boost This Stream that isn’t answered is how long will the streamer be promoted when the challenge is successful?
Say for example that you’ve started the challenge and your viewership is successful at the end of your stream. Does that mean that the challenge and your promotion will be wasted if you don’t keep on streaming? Will you be promoted again if you go back online within the 48 hour period? Because the main concern I have is that this challenge will result in Partners and Affiliates to develop unhealthy streaming habits.
Overall, it is good to see Twitch try different things to increase discoverability for everyone. Given that the reach of the promotion will likely be based on a recommendation algorithm, it’ll be interesting to see if streamers will be willing to share their analytics to see if the challenge is effective in both the short and long term.
If you would like to read the help article for yourself, you can click this link below.
https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/boost-this-stream?language=en_US