Author: Tyler Larson

Whether it happens to be around the holidays, a significant event, or just because you feel inspired, using your channel can be a great way to raise money for causes you care about. Charity streaming has been a mainstay of fundraising efforts for a while now with some great results. Aside from the benefit of raising money it can also be a great way to inspire your community in general. Here are our top tips on how to set up a charity stream and how to run a charity stream!

How to run a charity stream, getting set up right!

You want your charity stream to feel special to your viewers, it is important to prepare well. If it’s your first time, we recommend you check out some more seasoned streamers to see if they do anything that inspires you. Before you start moving your own plans forward, make sure you’ve got all the details locked down. Deciding on the charity you’ll support, setting your financial goal, and figuring out how you’ll take donations are all things that need to be settled. On that last point, it’s highly recommended if you’re relatively new to the streaming game that you use an established donation platform like JustGiving, Extra Life, or Tiltify. Partnering up with one of these will help people donate with confidence.

Another important consideration is the length of the stream. Most charity streams are significantly longer than a creator’s normal stream, but it’s important to know your limits. Don’t commit to a 16-hour stream if you’re not going to be able to manage it or fill the time. 8-10 hours is more typical. 24 hour streams might seem like a good idea but can be bad for your health. They’re best avoided unless you’re very prepared.

Create visual elements to engage and inform

Adding visual elements is next in finding out how to run a charity stream! Just as you acknowledge your viewers when they donate and subscribe to your stream, so you should when they donate to your charity. The best way to do this is to set up notifications for donations, and a fundraising ‘thermometer’ to track your progress. Many of the platforms mentioned have features you can use, but they can lack customization. XSplit Broadcaster has built-in widgets for JustGiving and Extra Life. You can tweak size, colour, and other aspects to match your own channel’s design. To access them, just head to the Plugin Store which is found under the ‘Tools’ menu on the main Broadcaster screen.

Bring some friends

Because it is likely that your charity stream is going to be longer than your normal streams, you’ll probably need to mix up the content a little bit to keep viewers engaged and entertained. A great way to help with this is to invite some of your friends to join you to help break things up. This could be in-game, to chat between sessions, or perhaps by allowing them to demonstrate a unique talent. Whatever you decide, remember to test how you’re going to bring them in before you start. This saves you time trying to troubleshoot while you’re live. 

Charity streams are a great way to reach new viewers and try something new, all for a good cause. We hope this helped you find out how to run a charity stream! Need some help figuring out how to schedule a stream that’s a little different from the usual? Check out our guide on deciding when to stream for some useful tips.

Even if you’re not planning on changing up your content any time soon, it can be good to know where to look for the new trends and metas as you try to grow on Twitch. It may seem like these movements come out of nowhere (and sometimes they genuinely do!), but if you want to avoid FOMO, here are a few places to keep an eye on for the next big thing.

Grow on Twitch using top game lists?

You can access a huge amount of data about Twitch from places like Twitchmetrics, Twitchtracker and Sullygnome. It’s a little intimidating at first, but here are two tips to help you get started figuring out what might be ready to pop off. 

Firstly, when looking at ‘trending games’ on any of those platforms, toggle between 90 days, 30 days, and 7 days for the search ranges. This lets you start with a list that has a lot of data attached to it (90 days), and then get narrower and narrower with your view. Keep an eye on what games pop on and off the list. If something jumps up in the rankings when you switch to ’30 days’ and it’s still there when you switch to ‘7 days, you’ve found something that people are getting interested in, and it’s probably worth taking a closer look.

Secondly, don’t forget to look at the change in the number of channels streaming the game as well as the hours watched. If you see a massive jump in the number of people streaming something over the last thirty days or week, you might have found a game that’s ready to see explosive growth. And this can be a key to helping you grow on Twitch!

Following the leader

It seems strange to pull one name out of a platform that has eight million active channels as of writing, but the influence that Félix ‘xQc’ Lengyel has on Twitch is undeniable. He’s the person most responsible for GTA V’s ascension to one of the most-watched games on Twitch, and he had a notable effect on the rise of both Among Us and Fall Guys as well. The choices he makes with content ripple through the rest of the platform.

This advice also applies to many of the top creators on Twitch. It can even apply to the circles you’re in of other streamers. If someone who frequently raids you is playing a certain game and you think you might enjoy it, it wouldn’t hurt to try it out! This is because the audience coming over already knows or likes seeing that game. When it comes to growing on Twitch, keeping an eye on what is being played is important!

Become a master of the release calendar

Our last tip probably sounds the most boring, but knowing the release calendar like the back of your hand can give you a leg up on understanding what the next meta could be. What games are coming out that could refresh a genre the way Valorant juiced the team-based shooter and became a top-10 watched game overnight? Maybe an older title is getting an update, DLC, or even a re-master that could pull it back into the mainstream. Knowing what’s on the horizon is a good way to see the next wave coming, and be ready to catch a ride.

Games and metas rise and fall: if you keep your eyes open, you’ll be ready to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. If you’re having trouble figuring out what to stream, check out our guide to streaming things that aren’t games to help get your creative juices flowing! Learning how to grow on twitch isn’t easy, but it can be rewarding!

The cameras and mics are checked, you’ve got your games picked out, and your weekly schedule locked in. You’re ready to go live for the first time! Your channel growth may take a while but it’s never too early to start forming the habits of a successful streamer. Here, we highlight some things you shouldn’t do when you start streaming.

Things you shouldn’t do when you start streaming? Not talking enough!

One of the things you shouldn’t do when you start streaming is sit in silence while you’re live. It’s not easy to keep up what can feel like a one-sided conversation, but ­­­­­­­your audience will be in your channel to hear from you! Extended dead air is one of the top streaming mistakes you can make and may lose you viewers. It can be helpful to remember that your conversation doesn’t need to stay focused on the game you’re playing. Chatting generally about music for a few minutes, for example, can be just as engaging for your audience as analyzing the new Fortnite meta.

Not checking your audio before you start streaming

Another common mistake streamers make when they’re starting out is not double-checking their audio before they go live. Remember, that means checking the audio inputs on each scene as well as general mic checks. Nothing looks worse on stream than switching to a new shot and losing your audio mid-sentence. In XSplit Broadcaster, you can do this when you’re preparing to go live by switching between scenes within the main window and ensuring that you can see the levels moving up and down as you speak on the meter. This is located directly to the left of the microphone.

Not shaping your audience from the jump

Another thing you shouldn’t do when you start streaming is not consider what kind of audience you want to have. Starting out, it can be really hard to kick one toxic viewer when you only have six viewers total. But your chat is inevitably going to follow your lead with how they treat you, and, maybe more importantly, how they treat each other. The best way to build a great community is to play the long game and make it your goal from the first time you go live to have an audience you really enjoy spending time with, and that will grow with you as a creator.

Going crazy on gear!

It can be very tempting to see streaming as an arms race, where if you don’t have the latest camera, the best monitor, or the fastest computer, you’ll never be successful. The truth is that the most important thing to upgrade when you’re just starting out is your own performance. So, take some time to really think before you sink cash into your stream, do two things: First, ask yourself “what am I going to get in return for this investment?” And second, check out our thoughts on good gear options for new streamers here to get you on the right track.

Not asking your viewers for feedback

Your stream is ultimately in your hands, but you listening to feedback with an open mind is a great way to grow as a creator. Massive international companies spend incredible amounts of money to get user feedback all the time! You have an advantage in that your “users” are always right there in front of you, so ask them about your stream from time to time. You can start simply by using polls for basic questions, like “what game should I play?” Or use some of your time on stream to speak directly with viewers who seem invested in what you’re doing. 

If you pay attention to the little things now, you’ll be on the right track for growth as you start your streaming journey. Stick with it, and be sure to check out our guide to the stream prep habits that will level you up to pro in no time.

Figuring out what to stream can be one of the hardest parts of planning your content as a creator. It’s not always easy to determine what the best games to stream are. Once you start thinking about what you like, what’s coming out soon, what’s popular right now, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by choice. So let’s take a look at some of the top games on Twitch right now and consider if they’re right for you and your audience!

The golden rule of content creation

Perhaps it’s not officially the golden rule of live-streaming, but we must stress that the best game for you to stream is one you love to play. It doesn’t matter if you’re streaming one of the top games on Twitch if you don’t actually enjoy it. Audiences respond to authenticity and will notice if it’s not there. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try new games or formats as you develop your channel, but you’re going to be spending a lot of time on your games as a live-streamer so make sure they’re ones you like. And of course, if you’re not into video games, check out our fantastic guide to streaming things that aren’t games!

The heavyweights in the best games to stream category

It’s hard to ignore what Grand Theft Auto V has achieved on Twitch. This is a relatively old game that has grabbed interest from streamers over the last year thanks to the explosive popularity of its role-playing (RP) servers. Though the game is still very popular, it is important to note that its viewership is now on a downward trend (at the time of writing) according to places like sullygnome. That said, GTA V remains one of the biggest games on the platform in terms of viewership by a wide margin, so it’s not too late to try and get into the world yourself, especially if you have a passion for online role-playing. We also saw a similar trend at the beginning of the year with Among Us, a game that completely blew up, and has now fallen off the charts. 

If you are looking to jump in and stream some of the most popular games, here’s a list of just a few to try.

The Top Games to stream on Twitch Currently (by Viewership):

Updated 10/29/2021

• League of Legends
• Grand Theft Auto 5
• New World
• DOTA 2
• Minecraft
• CS:GO

Don’t overlook the draw of alphas and betas

You love new games, right? Then it will not come as a surprise to you that other gamers really like new games as well. A quick ticket to getting views on Twitch is streaming a game that’s in alpha or beta, as it’s one of the first places for people to see the game in action. There is also the added bonus that the game’s community is in its infancy at this point, so it can be easier to connect with others who are interested and make a name for yourself while the pool of creators is still relatively small. So if you grab an alpha or beta key, get online and don’t keep it to yourself.

One title that’s in exactly this phase is New World, a brand new Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO) published by Amazon Game Studios. Currently, in beta, it racked up nearly 5.2 million hours viewed in its first few days on Twitch. Another one to watch out for is Back 4 Blood with the chance to earn a beta key actually available by watching other streamers play the game.

Once you’ve picked your game, remember that you’re not locked into it for life. Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins started as a Halo player but became famous for Fortnite. Balancing meeting your audience’s needs while still playing games you love is ultimately the key to success.