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Twitch viewbots are definitely a thing, and not a thing that's going away any time soon. It can give people an unfair advantage over streamers who do not use a viewbot - it can attract people thinking its a big channel and it can allow them to potentially become an affiliate and then a partner unfairly. On the other hand, you might be someone who wants to use a Twitch viewbot and have come here to research how likely it is you'll be found out and possibly punished. We've got the answers for both sides. What it a Twitch view bot? A Twitch view bot is a script that simulates a real viewer on your stream, alongside pushing your numbers up some view bots can even enter things in chat to help avoid detection. Although still called view bots, some services out there can actually by viewing your channel through a large quantity of computers in a farm-like setting. A bit like this: Is it easy to detect a Twitch view bot? Yes and no. If you are casually streaming on twitch then you would not go out of your way looking at everyone's profile in the stream. They are just accounts with normal looking usernames who lurk there. Here's a screenshot of an actual view bot. There are a few giveaways that this account is used as a view bot from a human perspective - painfully basic profile description, 7k followers despite never streamed (the bots follow each other) and the suggested stream is Chess24_7. What Twitch Bot Detectors are there Websites which track view bots from Twitch have picked this account up with behaviour massively indicative of being a view bot - watches an impossible amount of channels, watching thousands of different games and never modded. Stream Charts View Bot List This particular detector is from Stream Charts. Twitch insights bot detection Looking at the above you'll notice that AT LEAST 58,000 people have purchased this bot to watch their stream - this is a massive number and clearly causes Twitch.tv massive of problems. This twitch view bot detector is Twitch Insights. So, it's clear that Twitch view bots can be detected and identified, but these websites as useful as they are are third-party tools and do not tell you what exact channels they've been watching. Sure, these bots have evaded detection (because they're still going) but the damage has been done at this point. But, if you're a creator and wondering if the viewers watching you are real or not you can put their user name in here to find out. If you're wondering if another streamer is using view bots then the effectiveness of these websites are reduced. Are view bots real people? A lot of view bots on Twitch are not actually bots, but real people operating many devices to watch streams like that image above. Technically, they are not view bots at all as the stream is being accessed by a human - but they are not really watching or engaging. This is how many of these providers claim they do not get banned or deleted as they are not violating Twitch terms of services. However, it is in fact against the terms of conditions as stated on the Twitch.tv help page. Using services that promise higher visibility in exchange for lurking in a large number of channels or viewing streams on pages with several unrelated, active embedded streams, is considered a form of fake engagement and is not permitted on Twitch services.Twitch.TV Help Does Twitch detect view bots? Twitch tries its best to detect view bots but it does miss the majority, this is why its big business. In their help FAQs they try and calm the reader down and emphasise that view botting is not always deliberate - view bots can be purchased to attack another channel just as much as they can be used to grow a channel. They ask users to get as much evidence as possible and then head to the filer a user report page. With the use of real devices and VPNs it can be really tricky for an algorithm to spot them, despite it being blatantly obvious to humans. Below, we are going to help you detect Twitch view bot usage to create your evidence file if you feel strongly about it. How to become a better Twitch view bot detector There is no one popular viewbot detection program online, it's simply not worth the time to make. There is one here on GitHub and there is this old Twitter account which would call people out. Other than that, there are some things you can look for to detect view botting activity on a given channel, including your own. Here's how to detect Twitch view bots. High view / low engagement A channel with high views is not a red flag, neither is low engagement. But high views and low engagement can be a red flag but not always. But, if a channel has 1,000 views and the chat looks dead then that is a red flag, whereas a channel with 100 views and a dead chat can be normal. If you are building a case, screenshots of this don't tell the story but a recording or better yet the URL of the VOD can be used with other pieces of evidence for you to send to Twitch. Gibberish chat As we've previously mentioned, most view bots are not scripts - they are real people with loads of laptops or phones in front of them OR they embed the stream and then have it open in a load of tabs. This means that on occasion the operator may actually type something in chat. Credit: Due to the nature of what they are up to, their comment might be completely out of context and certainly won't be about the actual conversation. It's worth screenshotting these instances or use a twitch chat log extractor to hand over entire transcripts to Twitch. These logs also include user names which makes the job much easier for Twitch to take action. Inconsistent average views Channels tend to attract the same amount of viewers on a day to day basis, even if they're in growth mode it shouldn't increase meteorically. You can use websites such as Twitch Tracker or SullyGnome to find the general statistics of a channel and then if the live stream stats don't match up it could be an indication of view botting. Other numbers to look for is the followers. A streamer with 50 followers should never be getting 1,000 concurrent views, as an example.

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