Disguised Toast Is Already Warning New Streamers Away From Twitch
Streaming on Twitch is a dream for a lot of people. Getting to log in, play video games, chat, and make money — what could be better? But there's a shady side to Twitch and growing on the platform is notoriously difficult, especially now. For every story about a Twitch streamer who blew up in 2021, there are tens of thousands of streamers who spent their year performing to an audience of zero. Many blame Twitch itself for not working harder to prioritize the discoverability of small streamers, instead, choosing to give partnered streamers who already have massive followings the lion's share of the attention. That's a big part of the reason so many streamers are starting to think streaming on YouTube looks better than Twitch right now.
Jeremy "Disguised Toast" Wang is one of the most popular streamers on the internet today. The Offline TV star got his start on the purple platform, then took a two-year contract back in 2019 with Facebook Gaming, which recently expired, allowing him to reveal his return to Twitch. This might seem to signify that he has a renewed appreciation for Twitch, but Toast recently came forward with a YouTube video featuring a few tips for new streamers, and the first item on the list was not to stream on Twitch.
Disguised Toast thinks Twitch is a bad fit for new streamers
After making such a bold statement about the very platform he currently streams on, Toast went on to explain in further detail. "You should never begin your streaming career by making a Twitch account and just starting to stream," he said. "You will not get any viewers. Do you guys know how bad the Twitch discovery system is?" He then demonstrated to his viewers what he meant by going to Twitch's homepage and attempting to find a stream. He clicked on "Minecraft" and explained that a vast majority of people will click on someone in the top three or four streamers, not even realizing that there are hundreds or even thousands of streamers playing the same game to audiences of two people or less.
Toast's first and most important tip was for streamers to be so insanely good at whatever game they're playing that people can't stop watching. He acknowledged that this is only realistic for the top ten players in a given game, and won't work for most people. The second thing Disguised Toast thought would help most new streamers build an audience for their stream was to build up a presence on another platform such as YouTube, Reddit, and TikTok by creating unique content that would draw attention to their streams. He recommended that most people start streaming on a different platform, only returning to Twitch if they already have a decent-sized following.