Best Games To Stream For New Streamers

Pros:

• Highly Engaged Audience
• Less Competition
• Easy YouTube Opportunity

Cons:

• Limited Overall Audience
• Can Be Monotonous
• Still Hard To Stand Out

Broadcasting a game with a cult following will never get you to the top of Twitch, but it may well get you towards the top of that particular category.

Games such as Runescape have a lower quantity of people streaming versus the large proportion of viewers they attract.

This is because most of the top dogs have built a Youtube following and have referred viewers to Twitch over time or vice-versa.

With cult games, you’ll be at a huge advantage if you’re actually good at the game. You’ll have (often high level) content which people want to see and they’ll stick around to follow your progress.

Uploading guides to Youtube will help you out massively in this category. Viewers will invest in your personality if they keep encountering your videos on their search for information. Equally, if there are any popular compilation channels within your community, submitting your clips is a great way to gain exposure.

Example Games

• World of Warcraft
• Runescape
• Dark Souls
• Mortal Kombat
• Tekken
• Path of Exile
• Guild Wars 2
• Elder Scrolls Online

Pros

• Constant Stream Of New Viewers
• You’ll Enjoy Playing A New Game
• You’ll Stand Out If You’re Good (Think Ninja With Fortnite)

Cons

• High Viewer Drop-off Rate
• Often Over-saturated
• Low Chance Of Gaining Followers

New releases always have an enormous amount of hype behind them. Major streamers are often paid by developers to stream their new game upon its release in order to generate sales.

Whilst this category is one of the most difficult to compete in, it is possible.

Ideally, you should try this strategy when you have built up a small concurrent viewership so you don’t get lost in the respective games listing page.

There are always plenty of non-English speaking streamers broadcasting new games; this could be an area for you to stand out. By advertising your stream as English you’ll attract viewers that want to know what’s going on in the game in a language they can understand.

You could even go as far as to plan ahead by streaming in a particular timezone which would be off-peak for European and American streamers, which is a trick I have covered in more detail here.

Example Games

• Death Stranding
• STAR WARS: Jedi: Fallen Order
• Modern Warfare
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
• Resident Evil 2

Pros

• The Sky Is The Limit
• Lots Of Sub-communities To Stand Out In
• Most Of The Sponsors Advertise Here.

Cons

• Extremely Over saturated
• Slow Early Channel Growth
• High Risk Of Burnout

Alright, if you think you’re an E-Sports level League of Legends or CSGO player, you do have a chance of attracting viewers here. The downside is, it is single-handedly the most competitive segment on Twitch.

People won’t spend the time watching you to find out if you’re good or not, you’ll have to prove your credentials in the form of attaining the likes of Master Tier or Global Elite.

Using League of Legends as an example here, a trick you can use is creating in-depth guides on sites such as Mobafire and leaving an embed to your Twitch stream somewhere within the guide.

Your odds of standing out will be better in the short term if you are what’s known as a one-trick (or, main). It will allow you to build up a brand and be known for your prowess with your chosen character.

It will also help if you are active in communities like Discord, Reddit or relevant forums.

Example Games

• League of Legends
• Counter Strike: Global Offensive
• Hearthstone
• Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds
• Fortnite
• Dota 2
• Teamfight Tactics
• Valorant

Pros

• Uploading Runs To Youtube Increases Exposure
• World Record Attempts
• Lower Streaming Competition Than Most Categories

Cons

• Easy To Burn Out
• Lack Of Variety
• Interacting With Chat Can Be Distracting

Speedrun games are another category you can use to grow a Youtube following alongside Twitch and vice-versa.

Some of these games can be very niche, so I’d recommend you join an active speed running community as opposed to simply speed running your favorite games.

If you enjoy a particular franchise like Tomb Raider or Dark Souls, you could speedrun the entire series as opposed to just one singular game.

Example Games

• Dark Souls
• Mirrors Edge
• Legend of Zelda
• Resident Evil
• Mario
• Sonic
• Pokemon
• Need For Speed

Pros

• Streaming Rare Games Helps Stand Out
• Nostalgia Will Make Viewers Stay
• You’ll Enjoy It

Cons

• You’ll Need Viewers To Make The Category Visible In Browse
• Chances Are You’ll Need A Capture Card
• Old Games Can Be Both Expensive & Hard To Find

You’ve seen all the unorthodox games pop up in the browse section before.

I’m talking things like Brutal Legend or Dead Space, random games that people haven’t played since previous gen consoles went out of style.

When people are browsing on Twitch and see these games, their first few thoughts are going to be something along the lines of “What the hell? Why is someone streaming that, I haven’t played that for years”

Nostalgia is a strong feeling (hence why Old School Runescape is so popular) and is absolutely something you can use to stand out whether you’re a new streamer or an established one.

Be careful if you’re thinking of streaming something you’d need an emulator for. Emulators sit in a very gray legal area, which you can read more about here.

Example Games

• TimeSplitters
• Tomb Raider
• Hitman
• Splinter Cell
• Metal Gear Solid
• Spiderman
• Pokemon

Pros

• It’s A Growing Market
• All The Best Titles Are Yet To Come
• Less Competition

Cons

• Motion Sickness
• Prolonged Usage Will Hurt Your Eyes
• It’s Tiring

Virtual reality setups have an expensive buy in. That’s why there are so many VR skeptics who watch VR streams.

There is a constant stream of new people who want to gauge whether they should buy a VR headset of their own.

Trouble is, there aren’t many high profile VR games out there and non-vr gamers won’t know which ones they should be looking for.

Chances are, they’ll search for something generic like Skyrim VR or Fallout 4 VR.

It’s a good idea to set up a Youtube channel alongside streaming this type of content.

The Youtuber Lonely Viper managed to grow massively over the space of 2 years by uploading funny moments of the VR game “Onward” before making the decision to start streaming on Twitch.

Now he has a sizeable audience who will migrate from Youtube to watch him, as well as a stream of brand-new viewers on both Youtube and Twitch to see his content for the first time.

Other Twitch streamers have made use of a mixed reality setup when they stream VR, which is where a camera points at you (usually from behind) combined with a green screen in order to make it look as though they are literally stood within the game. This type of content goes down a treat on YouTube if you check out the amount of Beat Saber videos using this method. You’ll need a wide green screen and a good stream lighting setup to accomplish this though.

Example Games

• Onward
• Skyrim VR
• Fallout 4 VR
• VR Chat
• Resident Evil 7
• Beat Saber
• Super Hot
• Half Life: Alyx

Pros

• Lower Competition (to begin with)
• Fantastic Opportunity For “1-Trick” Streamers

Cons

• Not Always Available
• Games With Drops Can Be A Little Too Niche

When developers want to start generating a buzz around their game, Twitch is now one of the go-to platforms to do some promoting. You’ll see this in a few ways, but usually this comes in the form of either Twitch Drops or Prime Loot.

In order to receive a Twitch Drop, viewers must watch a broadcast of the respective game either for a set period of time (for example, Sea of Thieves requires 30 minutes for a drop) or offer the drop completely at random, like Valorant did with their beta keys.

By providing the incentive of a drop, developers send a constant stream of traffic over to Twitch which will raise their game’s listing in the Browse page.

Twitch Drops aren’t always enabled, so if you find out that a new game is about to join the drop scheme, you can take advantage of the opportunity by streaming it yourself.

Example Games

• Sea of Thieves
• Elder Scrolls: Legends
• Valorant