Getting more people to watch your live streams on Twitch is a difficult job. However, the task will be way easier if you know when is the best time to stream on Twitch. Choosing the right time is important as you can avoid competition with popular streamers.
In general, weekends are the best days to stream as Twitch has more active viewers during these days. If you already have a handsome number of followers on Twitch, you can stream during the Twitch peak time, which is 12 PM to 5 PM PST. However, you’ll face tough competition in the peak hours since most streamers choose the golden hours to go live.
So, what hours are less competitive? When should beginners stream on Twitch? Let’s dive into the details and find out.
Best Twitch Stream Times for Beginners and Experts
Let’s be fair, Twitch is a huge platform, and millions of people are visiting it 24 hours, 7 days per week. So, you’re likely to find a large audience whenever you start streaming. However, the number of streamers is also huge, and that’s why you need to choose the right time to beat your competitors.
Below I’ve noted the best streaming hours for seasoned and novice streamers. Let’s take a look.
Best Streaming Hours for Experts
If you’re among the big streamers with a loyal fanbase, you should choose the peak hours for your live stream. This is the time when most people visit Twitch from all around the world.
As mentioned, the peak hours of Twitch streaming are 12 PM to 5 PM PST (8 PM to 1 AM GMT). Remember, more viewers mean tougher competition.
Other streamers would also take the chance to engage more traffic to their streams. So, you need to give tough competition to attract an audience.
Best Streaming Hours for Beginners
For small channels with fewer followers, choosing the golden hours for streaming is not a good idea. Naturally, people prefer to watch popular streamers over a lesser-known channel. Hence, new streamers should choose the less competitive hours for streaming.
Typically, 12 AM to 5 AM PST (8 AM to 1 PM GMT) are the least competitive hours on Twitch. If you stream during these hours, you’re more likely to gain new viewers.
What Are the Best Days to Stream on Twitch?
Apart from choosing the best time, picking the right days of the week is also important. You’ll face less competition on some days, while the others will be more crowded with popular streamers. Here are the best days for streaming on Twitch-
Best Days to Stream for Beginners
If you’re a small streamer, you need to choose the less crowded days of the week. Generally, fewer channels are active from Monday to Wednesday, as these are the working days for most people. You’ll face the least competition on Mondays and Tuesdays, so you can stream on these days to attract more viewers.
Perfect Streaming Days for Beginners
As you’d expect, Twitch’s average viewership skyrockets on the weekends. People have more free time on weekends to enjoy watching their favorite streamers play. Although more viewers mean more competition, you don’t have to worry about that if you have an established channel.
Stream on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays to get the most viewers to visit your channel on Twitch.
How to Find Data on the Best Days for Twitch Stream?
Thankfully, we have many free tools available online to check out different Twitch statistics. I prefer using TwitchTracker to find out the best days to stream on Twitch. You can use the tool to get the audience-per-channel ratio for each day of the week.
Higher ratios indicate that the platform has more viewers available per channel. So, you have fewer active channels to compete on that particular day. Here’s how to calculate the ratio-
Step One – Search Results for Your Chosen Game
Go to Twitchtracker.com and use the search bar to get results for the game you want to stream. For example, type ‘Call of Duty’ in the search bar if you’re streaming it on your channel. From the new page that displays the search results, scroll down a bit and click on the ‘Days of the Week Analyses’ option.
Step Two – Analyze the Average
As you click, the tool will show you how many viewers, and Twitch channels were active throughout the week. It also shows you the average results for the previous 6 months. Note down the number of viewers and channels that’s been active in the last 7 days to analyze the average viewership per channel ratio.
For each day, divide the number of viewers by the number of streaming channels to get the ratio. Note down the results for each day of the week.
Step Three – Choose the Best Day
Now, have a look at the data you collected. The day with the highest audience-per-channel ratio is the best day to stream, while the day with the lowest ratio is the worst one.
Things to Consider While Choosing the Best Time for Twitch Stream
As Twitch is the most popular platform for live streaming, people stream and view on Twitch from all corners of the world. So, your potential viewers will belong to different time zones.
You must consider the time differences while choosing the best streaming time on Twitch. There are a few other factors that will affect the viewership of your channel.
Below are the things you need to consider before choosing your streaming time slot.
Time Zone
The first thing you need to consider while choosing your stream time is to check out the time zone or geographical location of your target audience. For example, if you’re streaming for a US-based audience, you need to set your stream schedule based on their local time.
There are many tools that can help you find data on the average and highest viewership of a particular area. I prefer the SullyGnome website, but you can choose whatever tool you like. Here’s how to use it-
Step One – Search Results for Your Selected Game
Visit the SullyGnome official website first. It’s a Twitch analytics and statistics aggregator that anyone can use for free. On the homepage, you can see a list of the most watched and streamed games. Now, do you see a search option left side of your screen? Click on it and type the name of the game you play on your Twitch streams.
Step Two – Expand the Data
As you search for your preferred game, a drop-down menu will arrive with different categories. Select the viewer category and choose a language. Expand the summarized data to 180 or 365 days to get the average viewership for the game.
Instead of the peak data, focus more on the average data to get gives more accurate results.
Step Three – Analyze the Given Data
A graph will appear on your screen showing the peak and average viewership. You can now narrow down the data to 7 days and see the highest viewership on a specific day of the week in your time zone.
Target Audience and Game Type
Before anything else, you must decide on your target audience. Are you streaming for kids, teenagers, or adults? This will play a key role in choosing the stream time. Let’s say you’re targeting your games at kids. In this case, you can’t pick hours when the kids are likely to stay at school.
Similarly, streaming at late night will be a bad idea as most parents don’t allow their kids to stay up late. If your streams are targeted towards kids and teenagers, the evening and early mornings are the best times for Twitch streaming.
As for the game type, some games are more fun to play during the day, while some attract more viewers at night. For example, most streamers play horror games at late night as the darkness makes the games more fun.
So, you need to use a tool like Twitch Tracker to check out what are the peak times to play the game you want to stream.
Streaming Schedule and Sessions
Maintaining a strict streaming schedule is a must for a new streamer to gain more viewers on Twitch. You’ve probably noticed that popular streamers go live at specific hours of the day. It’s an easy way to let your followers know when to remain active on Twitch and search for your streams.
Many streamers choose Twitch golden hours to stream, but you should come up with your own strategy and time slots depending on your follower figure. If you prefer less competition, use Twitch tools like SullyGnome or Twitch Tracker to find out the average viewership at different times of the day.
Or, check out when the big streamers go live, as they typically choose the hours when most viewers stay active. Don’t start random short streams at any time of the day.
Instead, choose specific days and hours to start streaming and let your audience know the schedule beforehand. This will definitely help you gain recognition within a very short time.
Now, you might wonder how long your live sessions should be. When it comes to Twitch live streams, longer hours are preferable for many users and streamers. So, your live sessions should be three to four hours long to increase the number of views and watch time on your channel.
As for the number of days per week, you should stream every day if you’ve just started your streaming journey. Even if there are zero viewers on your channel, keep streaming your game and go live as per your fixed schedule. Keep talking and utilize the Twitch chat feature to attract new viewers.
Popular channels with a larger audience don’t need to stream every day. Going live three days per week during the golden hours of Twitch is the ideal schedule for any famous Twitch content creator.
Your Personal Preferences
At the end of the day, it all comes down to your personal preferences. You know best at what time you feel more positive and energetic. Maintaining positive energy throughout the long streaming sessions is a must to keep your audience hooked to the channel.
Then again, you need better sleep and food habits to keep your body and mind fresh and energetic.
Even though Twitch analytics say evenings are the best time to stream, if you feel fresh and positive during the early mornings, you should definitely stream in the morning. Twitch has many viewers who prefer this time slot. However, if you want to increase viewership for your channel, you can stream multiple times a day.
Make 3-hour sessions targeting different time zones. Try to stream at least 5 days each week to increase your Twitch watch time.
Final Words
So now you know what’s the best time to stream on Twitch. Target the most crowded hours to get more attention from the users. Consider the game type, number of followers, and viewership per channel ratio to choose the right time for streaming.
For beginners, less crowded hours and days are preferable. Stream in the morning or late at night to avoid competing with the big names.
