---
title: 'How Six Full-Time Streamers Got Their First Viewers'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=TJap5ptz7hg'
video_id: 'TJap5ptz7hg'
date: 2026-07-13
duration_sec: 1100
---

# How Six Full-Time Streamers Got Their First Viewers

> Source: [How Six Full-Time Streamers Got Their First Viewers](https://youtube.com/watch?v=TJap5ptz7hg)

## Summary

Six full-time Twitch streamers share how they got their first viewers and built a sustainable community. The key lesson: focus on discoverability and engagement, not fancy overlays or branding.

### Key Points

- **Introduction** [00:00] — Eljay introduces the video: six full-time streamers share how they grew from zero viewers to a sustainable community.
- **Reaps: Play a Niche Game** [02:04] — Reaps started with a niche game (60 Seconds) after a big streamer went offline, attracting viewers looking for more of that game. He advises sticking to one game for a month, setting a schedule, and engaging viewers.
- **OnlyTrails: Niche Within a Niche** [04:50] — OnlyTrails focused on a small community (Old School RuneScape) and found a unique way to play it. He made YouTube highlight videos, shared them on Reddit, and built a core audience that followed him to other games.
- **Metal: Research and Stories** [07:39] — Metal chose a game with high followers but low active viewers (Pokémon Sword/Shield). He engaged viewers with repeatable stories, which kept them coming back.
- **CobbleWobbles: Cross-Platform Growth** [10:08] — CobbleWobbles brought a small YouTube audience (around 50 viewers) to Twitch. He committed to a niche (Nintendo games) and slowly expanded.
- **Mandy: Leverage Twitter** [12:46] — Mandy used existing Twitter relationships to get 10 viewers on her first stream. She emphasizes authentic connections over self-promotion.
- **Crescentine: Build a Community** [14:58] — Crescentine advises creating a Discord server and hosting offline events to build friendships among viewers, making the community self-sustaining.
- **Final Lesson: Content First** [16:39] — Eljay concludes that all streamers focused on discoverability and engagement, not equipment or branding. The priority should be unique, engaging content.

### Conclusion

The most effective growth strategy is to plan for discoverability and engagement before streaming, rather than focusing on aesthetics. Building a genuine community is key to long-term success.

## Transcript

every single video i get asked "Eljay,  how do i get my first few viewers?"   and i've answered that by making videos about how  to get your first five to even 25 average viewers   but that's just my opinion about how i think you  should be doing it and how i did it so today i  
asked six full-time streamers how they grew  their first few viewers but more importantly   how they then took those first few viewers and  grew them into a sustainable community that   would grow further on twitch let's go hey i'm  Eljay with streamscheme.com i'm also a variety  
streamer over at twitch.tv/eljayem_ there is a  link in the description to that as i said today   i have six full-time twitch streamers we're going  to be talking about how they grew their first few   viewers and then how they took that and turned  it into an audience and a community that watched  
their streams now you've probably heard some of  the advice in today's video before but there is   something incredibly different about today's  video they're not just gonna say hey go play a   small category or go do just chatting segments no  they're actually going to give you the specifics  
about how they did it exactly what category  they played exactly how they made it watchable   and hopefully it'll inspire you guys to get out  there and do it yourself when you watch them one   by one there are some fantastic lessons to learn  but when you look at them as a whole there is one  
really powerful thing that you can take away from  all of it so i'm going to cover that at the end of   the video but because i know i've been saving the  best tips for the end of the video a lot lately   i'm also going to make it worth your while by  throwing in a couple of owned tv 50 vouchers  
so if you want to win those vouchers and get  your twitch stream looking scpick and span then   just stay tuned i'll cover how to enter that draw  very soon now there are links in the description   go check them out while they're live first up we  have reaps who is an amazing australian streamer  
with some production quality that i think even the  largest streamers on the platform wish they had   and he's gonna be talking about how he managed  to grow entirely on twitch which is something you   on twitch so reef's gonna cover that take it away  hi guys my name is reaps and it is an absolute  
pleasure to come back and talk to you about some  advice on how to get those first few viewers when   you've done nothing at all inside the twitch  atmosphere the first time that i ever came on   twitch i had no background on twitter on youtube  or anything i was starting fresh this was my first  
foray into social media and what i noticed  very quickly was that the big time streamers   were playing variety games so back in the day  sodapopham was playing this game called 60 seconds   and i was like i've got that game i should stream  that game i'm gonna stream it right now so i was  
streaming this game that nobody really played  along with sodapoppin and as soon as soda pop   and got offline people like you know what i want  to see more of this game so they came over to me   and there i was not on the first you know  fortnight or league of legends or anything like  
that i was playing a niche game and that's where  people find you because if you play those big time   games you're not going to be found people don't  go scrolling down to people with zero viewers just   to be a good sole unless they want that youtube  revenue for saying i donated x amount to small  
times dreamer but the chance of that happening are  very very very slim if you do variety straight off   the bat chances are people come and follow you  during one game but if you don't play at the next  
stream they may be like oh i thought i thought  you wanted to play this game and i was really into   that you can grow obviously but just give it some  time of sticking to one game for about a month or   so and then slowly initiate another game into it  and i must say my biggest piece of advice if you  
want your five to ten followers to come back set a  schedule and stick to it no matter what sometimes   people don't get those notifications sometimes  people aren't following you on the discord or   on twitter so i just say stick to it go with the  schedule when people come in say thank you so much  
let them know when you stream and get on with  the game that was how i got my first five to ten   viewers and from there it's gone up astronomically  with a schedule i hope that sorted some of you   out and um leads you down a good path you're  gonna do amazing i'll see you next time guys  
summarize reaps if you didn't quite understand  you need to take a step back and before you   start streaming do some planning and research what  categories can you appear in who's watching what   what niche are you gonna fill it doesn't matter  if the potential audience is only 20 to 30 when  
you're starting out because you're starting at  zero and 20 and 30 people is a huge amount of   viewers when you're just starting once you're in  that niche category you pick a schedule you lock   it in and you work to bond with your audience this  keeps those people coming back and it allows you  
to boost your numbers and eventually transition  to variety streaming next up we've got only   trails he's going to be talking about how he used  not only a niche game but also a unique way of   streaming that game to create a huge following and  a massive audience take it away trails yo what up  
guys it's trails or only trails and how did i get  from five to like 10 or 50 viewers well i focused   on very small communities at first i started  focusing on a game that has a small community but   a lot of people watch for me that was old school  runescape but that was not enough i looked into a  
niche within that game i found another way to play  the game so people are more interested in watching   my streams than other people's streams because  i was doing something different i started making   youtube videos around this concept and i shared  it on small reddit communities that were about  
playing the game old school runescape differently  i know it gets a little bit tricky but if you can   find an original way to play a game that already  exists within a small community and that is your   game plan at least it was for me i bundled up  these videos into highlight videos on youtube  
stream now the problem with this is that it gets  really difficult to venture into variety games   because a lot of people are there to see that  specific thing of you but i found a little fix   for that now after a while you'll start building  relationships with your viewers and you'll gain  
like a core audience that will follow you no  matter what take this core audience and just   stream another game once a week or something like  that even if you go from 100 viewers to like 20   that core audience will follow you and you'll have  a viewer base for that other game now when you're  
playing this other game try and host someone that  is also playing that game that you don't know   and start interacting with their community so you  become friends with people from other communities   this way this streamer might return to favor give  you a host or a raid and initially raids and hosts  
and stuff like that so as a conclusion try and  build your niche within a small community and then   try and build that core audience bring them to a  variety game and then start making friends within  
that other games community that's it i absolutely  love this advice by trails because he went into   streaming with a plan not only was he gonna play  a niche game but he was also going to play it in   a way that allowed him to stand out and be unique  i often talk about small ant and how he created a  
niche inside a niche in a similar way by playing  games blindfolded or with his feet this is exactly   what trails has done as well he's taken his niche  game and he's played it in a way that adds stakes   it adds a unique engaging factor when you take all  those things you put them into a highlight video  
and you drop them on youtube but you don't just  sit there and hope that's gonna work you then take   those highlight videos and you share them out to  communities and subreddits who are interested in   those games and playing those games in a unique  way this is so much more discoverable than if he  
just played runescape and just did his best and  maybe chucked out a crappy let's play and just   hoped there's a strategy here there's a way to be  discovered and there's a way to make it engaging   and clearly it's worked next up we have metal fair  who you guys gave so much positive feedback to  
you said that his advice about networking was the  best tip of our last video this time around he's   going to talk about how some careful research into  a category and the right time to stream allowed   him to go from zero viewers to 75 with a little  help of some engaging stories being told over and  
over again take it away medal hey everyone what i  did to get my first few viewers was i found a game   that had a large following but did not have a lot  of people actively viewing it at the time that i   streamed that game was pokemon sword and shield at  the moment it has 1.4 million followers but only  
between 1 thousand to two and a half thousand  people that were viewing it when i streamed and   that meant that when i was live i wasn't too  far down the list for people to scroll through   now once i got a couple of viewers trickling in  what i had to do was i had to engage them now  
to do that i told stories really fun interactive  and engaging stories that kept people's attention   these could be stories about real life my job  as a full-time teacher or about the game that   i'm playing all right boys and girls come on round  come on around grandpa's going to tell your story  
one of the best things about being a small stream  is then you can repeat those stories if you're   telling a story for only a couple of viewers  between zero and three people and then you'd tell   that same story again the next day or a couple of  days later those same people might not be in the  
stream again and if they are that means they're  enjoying your content and they probably don't mind   hearing that same story again and again even now  after growing my stream i still get people that   ask me to tell the same stories again and again  and i'm sure there's people that have heard a  
story ten plus times but still enjoy it and each  time you tell it it's a little bit different you   might be able to embellish a little small detail  you might want to add a little bit more that you   didn't add last time and people always love the  stories i hope you found those helpful guys have  
a great time streaming hopefully you're starting  to see a trend here with these first three clips   no one went into this and just hoped for the best  everyone went in with a careful game plan a way   to stand out in a way to be discovered now we  have three more streamers left who are going to  
talk about external platform growth as well as how  to grow as a community but of course we've still   got my lesson that i took away from these six  streamers as well as the owned voucher giveaway   consider checking out our other content we've got  videos about all sorts of things streaming related  
whether it's an affiliate guide whether it's an  emote guide it doesn't matter check it out and   if those help you maybe consider subscribing and  finally i've managed to finish up our glitch pack   that's right you guys have been asking for this  for ages it'll be released later in this week  
in our discord next up we have the legend himself  mr cobble wobbles and he's gonna be talking about   how he took a very small youtube audience  and converted them into a twitch following   in order to grow straight off the bat take it away  com if i remember correctly my first five viewers  
actually came from youtube because when i started  twitch i had done youtube for a few years i   basically had like a core audience like around  50 people-ish that watched almost every video  
that i put out i announced that i was quitting  youtube because i was really sick of it and i   wanted to still make content so i moved over to  twitch with live streaming right out of the gate   i would have like an average of five viewers so  that's a tip that i can give you if you start  
your twitch channel and you've probably heard this  like a million times before but also start doing   something on different platforms to bring those  people over to your twitch because that actually   works a different thing that i then did to like  enhance those viewers from like 5 to 10 15 20  
is committing to a niche and you've probably  heard this before as well and the reason why   you've heard it before as well is because well it  works i started playing exclusively nintendo games   if you commit to a niche you can really speak  to a specific audience after committing to that  
niche you can branch out to different games  that are kind of similar to the things that   you're playing but also innovate in a new way  and then you can slowly branch out even more  
until you eventually might become like a variety  streamer or something that's basically how i did   it alfred here completely endorses it alfred  here is the mastermind behind all this i'm i'm   i'm just the puppet he's the he's the  real he's the real content creator  
you might be thinking straight off the bat well  he had an audience somewhere else so that's   not helpful advice but if that is your first  thought then i think you're missing the point   if your goal is to be a streamer but you  can't find your niche to stand out on twitch  
with zero viewers the same way reaps did the  same way metal did or the same way trails did   then don't stream yet go and create content on  another platform discoverable content and build   a small audience i know a lot of you guys think  that in order for a youtuber a tick tock audience  
to help boost your stream it needs to have 100  to 500 viewers every video when in reality all it   needs is 20 to 50 because those will convert to 5  maybe 10 viewers over on twitch and that's enough  
don't understand that that prior following in  order to boost your stream doesn't have to be an   influencer following t with mandy is a fantastic  streamer and she's gonna be talking today about  
how she used her prior following from twitter to  launch her twitch stream and go from there hey   my name is mandy i am a partnered streamer over  on twitch and i've been streaming for about three  
years or so so i'm here to answer the question  how did i get my first five to ten viewers   uh so for me they pretty much all came from the  same place and that was twitter i used twitter  
quite frequently before i started to stream  and i had quite a few relationships on there   especially the people who were gamers as well  yeah when i did my first stream i announced   it on twitter and then i had about 10 people  who showed up to my very first stream which is  
that's amazing it was incredible it was very  exciting it was comfy for me it was it was   super nice it was awesome i i feel like it kind of  helped me skip that very first like difficult step   of uh getting you know getting those very first  few viewers so yeah you can use any kind of social  
media uh you can even use irl just get to know  people make friends um and just be authentic be   genuine don't uh use people because they can  see that you can you can feel if you're being  
you know used just so somebody has a viewer but  yeah just genuinely try to form relationships   build friendships and eventually you know if  you do that you'll meet people who will want to   either consume your content they're excited about  what you're doing or they like you and they just  
want to support you or or maybe both which would  be awesome so anyway thanks for listening there   is no huge marketing plan here and it also covers  a question you guys ask me all the time which is   why i really value this advice constantly you  guys say i don't have any friends who can come  
actively do enjoy anyway such as reddit tick tock  twitter maybe it's a discord instagram you name   it if you spend your time there and create genuine  connections and then turn around and say to people  
hey i'm actually going to try to become a twitch  streamer it really helped me out if you could just   check me out or maybe lurk or even just give me  some feedback obviously as long as not breaking   any self-promotion rules i'm sure those people  would love to check you out if you built a real  
genuine connection i've saved the final and  one of the most important tips for last today   and it's from crezentine we're gonna hear from her  and then i'm gonna talk about the lesson i learned   by watching all six of these clips and i'm gonna  be giving away that own 3d voucher so stay tuned  
hey guys what's up it's me chris from twitch.tv  slash crescent early on you'll probably hit the   plateau of three to five viewers potentially  five to ten viewers and then you'll realize  
that no matter how long you stream your stream  never grows and these new viewers just seem to   change and always find other streamers or content  to watch the way to grow past these plateaus is   really to focus on building a community when new  viewers come into your stream welcome them warmly  
and then invite them to a discord server on your  discord server you can even host game nights or   movie nights to interact with them offline and  the goal here is really to create a community   by having these people not only be friends  with you the streamer but also be friends  
with each other and that's really how a community  starts to build i see a big issue in some streams   where the viewers are only there for the streamer  which means that if the streamer stops interacting  
and starts focusing on what they're doing chat  instantly dies and this is something that you want   to avoid so it's really best to create a community  and start introducing people to each other   focusing on offline interaction as well as online  interaction you guys know i think this advice is  
crucial every single growth video i do i talk  about how it doesn't matter how many followers   you have it doesn't matter how many viewers you  have it's about a community it's about having   people who engage with each other engage with you  are active in your chat and your discord that is  
how you become a sustainable twitch streamer there  really isn't much else to say about chris's advice   so let's give away that voucher and let's cover  the final tip that i learned from watching this   video if you listen to every single streamer  today and when they talk about growing their  
average viewers they thought about two things  the first how they were going to be discovered   and the second is how they would make their  content engaging or stand out that people   would come back no streamer in this video said  you needed to buy a six thousand dollar throat  
guzzler 5000 microphone no one said you need  to have the fanciest overlay in fact no one   even talked about panels branding no one talked  about your offline screen so why is it that so   many small streamers even the ones in the stream  scheme discord spend so much time on their panels  
they're offline screen changing their branding  spending hours getting a logo for their stream   then they go live and there's no discovery there  they're just still playing a game like everyone   else there's no unique way to stand out maybe  they haven't even put time into their title and  
there's certainly no time put into the thumbnail  so really there's no reason for someone to click   you you guys know that i put so much emphasis  on my title you guys know i put so much emphasis   when i started on making my thumbnail look good i  green screened myself into a milk aisle so people  
thought what the heck and had to click me you  need to find a way to make your content stand   out that should be your number one step not  an offline screen it doesn't matter no one's   coming to you when you're offline work on  making your content unique and engaging  
so in order to allow you to keep focusing on your  content i'm gonna give away these owned vouchers   it's not a sponsored video i just have some  vouchers for you all you have to do is go down   to the comments and type hashtag own3d your twitch  username so i can get in contact and which person  
today's advice you liked the best i'll see you  guys next week and remember content comes first