Twitch raids are a relatively new feature within the world of video game streaming and are one of Twitch’s most powerful tools.
A raid is a feature that allows you to send some of your viewers to someone else’s livestream. This can be used to promote yourself or another streamer.
Benefits
Raids are a great way to grow your audience and a really good way to build relationships with fellow streamers.
The biggest thing to keep in mind though is that raids aren’t meant to replace regular live broadcasts. A raid is simply another option to add to the list of ways to grow your audience.
The concept of Raiding is pretty straightforward – it’s essentially gifting your audience to someone else. This makes sense because, whether you’re a big name or just starting out, you want people to see your content.
What To Consider Before You Raid
It’s important to know how to pick the best targets for your raids so before you start the raid process ask yourself the following questions:
- How much does the target streamer already have?
- What type of content does the target streamer offer?
- Is the target popular enough to warrant a raid?
- Does the target streamer have a large following?
How Do They Work?
Raids are a way to bring together people interested in the same thing. When raids occur, everyone on the channel gets sent there automatically. You don’t even need to do anything special; it happens automatically.
To initiate a raid, type /raids followed by the name of a channel you want to raid. This will send everyone on that channel to the targeted one.
If you’re looking to raid multiple channels, just add each channel name onto the command separated by commas.
For example, if you wanted to raid both the TwitchPresents and the VODcast channel, you’d type: /raids TwitchPresents,VODcast.
Alternatively, you can click the Raid Channel button on your profile page to select a channel from a list of suggestions in the dropdown menu. Or, you can use the search bar to find a specific channel.
Once you’ve selected a channel to raid, a popup appears at the top of the screen tracking how many viewers are participating in the raid.
Viewers will be able to choose to join the raid before it starts. They’ll see a prompt in the chat window asking whether they want to participate in the raid.
Clicking Yes will cause everyone on the channel to go to the raid channel immediately. Clicking No will allow viewers to either continue watching the stream, or return to the channel they came from.
If you leave the raid early without clicking Join, you won’t be able to rejoin later. Raid works best in the latter half of your broadcast.
Can You Control Them?
There are many reasons why you might want to disable raids from other streamers. The most obvious reason is because it could potentially ruin your game experience. However, there are some less obvious benefits too.
For example, you might want to limit your raid participation to people you know, or maybe even just to people you follow. You could do this by disabling raids altogether, or you could choose to limit yourself to people you follow.
On Twitch, there are three ways you can control your raid activity. First, you can choose to allow raids from everyone. Second, you can choose to accept raids from anyone, unless they’re someone you don’t follow.
Third, you can select specific people you’d like to participate with.
Here’s how to access those settings:
On Twitch.tv, click the ‘profile icon’ in the top right corner of the site. Then, click on the ‘dashboard’ button next to your name. From here, click on the arrow in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
This brings up a menu where you’ll find the option to stream’. Once you’ve selected ‘stream’, you’ll be able to change your settings from there.
Moderating Raid Messages
Moderation makes sure that the streamer isn’t spamming your chat. They can send a raid message once every 30 minutes, or once every hour, depending on what moderation setting you choose.
Once they’ve sent their message, they’ll be able to receive one reply per raid message.
If they continue to spam your chat, you can mute them.You can also set up a custom rule that allows moderators to ban specific words from being used in the chat.
For example, you might want to allow certain swear words but disallow racist slurs.
Banning Raiders
There are times when a player might try to raid your stream without permission. They might even try to do it repeatedly. This could happen because they want to troll you, or maybe they’re trying to make money off of it.
If this happens, you’ll likely want to take action against them. However, there is another way to handle this situation. You can use Twitch’s “Raid Review” feature to block certain players from raiding you again.
You can ban raiders by opening up your channel’s Settings menu. From there, scroll down towards the very bottom of the list. Here, you’ll find a section called “Moderation.”
Scroll down to where it says “Review Recent Raids,” and click on that button. Now, you’ll be presented with a screen that lists every single person who has raided your channel recently.
To begin blocking someone, simply select the name of the player you wish to ban, and click the “Report” button. A pop-up box will ask you to confirm the action, and once you’ve done that, the player will no longer be able to raid you.
Conclusion
Twitch raids are a great way for streamers to interact with each other. It gives viewers a chance to see what kind of content you create, as well as get involved in your gameplay.
However, if you don’t want to share your stream with others, then you should consider disabling raids entirely. That way, only people you invite into your raid group will be able to join.
