---
title: 'Why It''s So Hard To Grow On Twitch (And What You Can Do About It!)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=NWUADUyAkY0'
video_id: 'NWUADUyAkY0'
date: 2026-08-01
duration_sec: 1709
---

# Why It's So Hard To Grow On Twitch (And What You Can Do About It!)

> Source: [Why It's So Hard To Grow On Twitch (And What You Can Do About It!)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=NWUADUyAkY0)

## Summary

In this video, Eagle Garrett explains why growing on Twitch has become increasingly difficult due to oversaturation, discoverability issues, and mental hurdles, then offers practical ways to overcome these challenges. He backs his claims with TwitchTracker data showing how the platform's growth has not kept viewer-to-streamer ratios healthy, and emphasizes building an audience through other platforms like YouTube.

### Key Points

- **Million-View Milestone** [00:26] — Eagle's previous 'How to Grow on Twitch' video surpassed one million views, a dream he had since starting YouTube in 2011, which validates the demand for Twitch growth advice.
- **Oversaturation Problem** [04:24] — Twitch has more streamers than ever, and the ratio of viewers to streamers has declined, making it harder for individual streamers to gain attention.
- **Viewers Per Streamer Halved** [07:22] — In November 2012, the average was 49.8 viewers per streamer; by 2020, it dropped to 25 viewers per streamer, showing increased competition for eyeballs.
- **Monthly Broadcaster Explosion** [08:06] — Twitch went from 300,000 monthly broadcasters in 2012 to 6.5 million in 2020, making it much harder to stand out.
- **Counter Oversaturation With Uniqueness** [10:07] — The answer to oversaturation is to be unique — offer something that no other streamer does, so viewers have a reason to choose your channel over the millions of others.
- **Discoverability Fix: Other Platforms** [13:01] — Twitch still lacks a strong algorithmic discovery feed, so the best way to grow is to create content on platforms like YouTube, which have powerful recommendation algorithms.
- **YouTube's Algorithm Pays Off Eventually** [15:44] — Eagle's million-view video received over 32 million impressions, with 1 in 32 people clicking to watch. It sat at low views for three months before YouTube pushed it.
- **Growth Takes Time and Patience** [21:15] — Even if you do everything right, growth takes time. Having a consistent schedule and realistic expectations helps you stay on track.
- **Mentality Is Everything** [23:23] — Your mindset determines your endurance. The motto 'enjoy the journey' means focusing on the fun of streaming rather than obsessing over numbers.

### Conclusion

Twitch growth is hard because of oversaturation, weak discoverability, and personal mindset issues, but these can be addressed by being unique, using other platforms for discoverability, staying patient, and enjoying the process. Success isn't guaranteed, but a positive and consistent approach gives you the best shot.

## Transcript

the last nine months my wife and i have been expecting a little baby girl and a few weeks ago and so we've been kind of getting integrated and getting into her and her sleep schedule and feeding and changing and all that kind of stuff
but also in addition to that right after we went on our sabbatical for the birth this video right here our how to grow on twitch video hit over a million views and guys i'm gonna tell you right now i am blown away
who have watched that video or supported this channel and of course i love you guys everybody who subscribed the the flock here on youtube you guys are hitting a million views literally was one of my youtube dreams
come true and back when i started doing youtube videos in 2011 this was streaming things like that i never really thought a video to hit a million views of course it was one of my dreams and i wanted to
have that happen but to have a video hit a million views seemed like something so million views on this video is just mind-blowing and i cannot tell a ton of you guys and i i gotta say i'm super super excited and happy to hear
these tips have helped you in your streaming that video there's gonna be a card up here at the top i highly recommend you for ways to practically grow on twitch but after you watch that video
this video because there are also some comments i've had but some of you guys have said look i've done all the things that you mentioned a tee and i'm still not seeing the growth that
feeling like i'm i'm staying stagnant right so in today's that so many of us ask ourselves pretty regularly throughout our streaming journeys why is it so hard to grow on twitch and
reasons i think are probably the primary reasons but then i'm also going to give you five things that i believe are some of in order to counteract those difficulties and actually be successful
in your streaming journey so that's what we're covering today i hope you guys are ready i'm super excited to be back let's jump into this video
now before we jump into this video i do want to remind you guys i am a streamer over on twitch at twitch.tv slash eagle garrett and i would love to see best place to reach out to me with questions comments ideas so swing by
have you in our twitch community as well also i want to give a huge thank you to the sponsor of this video and one of our sponsors of our stream as well placeit.net placeit has thousands of mockups and templates for stream
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basis why is it so hard to grow on twitch so the first thing that i want to talk about and we did talk about this in our but it is still one of the biggest reasons it's difficult to grow
on twitch and that is over saturation now when i say over saturation i'm talking about the amount of people that are streaming on twitch actually viewing streams on twitch and this has been a problem uh you know
twitch has grown but really in recent history oversaturation more prevalent than ever before now don't let this freak you out because youtube has been over saturated for years and yet there are still channels
every single day that are blowing up and becoming successful on youtube even with a much larger user base and audience growing like crazy over the last few years
and so their over saturation has also started to become of people streaming versus the amount of people watching so i want to show you guys visually a little bit better what this looks like
and then we're going to talk about how you can counteract this but if we look we're at twitchtracker.com and twitchtracker.com is basically a website that follows twitch and the number of viewers streamers
and things like that and so there are a few different metrics i oversaturation make more sense and uh and so if we look see all the way back in 2013 you can see you
know 109 000 concurrent viewers 147 000 and as these are you know the amount of viewers on twitch at any given moment on average for these different years and so you can
see over time that this continues to grow and grow and grow and grow and then of course right here right when the pandemic hits of course we jump up skyrockets right when we're talking about concurrent viewers
home from school staying at home from work things like that and so boom viewership on twitch goes up right that's that's you can see the but even without this this pandemic situation happening
all of this all of this time right here it's been a slow build a slow build look at concurrent channels meaning uh the number of channels live at any given time on twitch again same metric continues to grow and
course more people during the the you know more people started streaming on twitch and so that number jumps way up there uh to over a hundred thousand channels live at any given time on average in
2020 so uh this is a good thing for streamers we want to see twitch grow and this is good growth metrics showing that the viewership and the actual broadcasters uh on twitch are going up both numbers
are going up but look what's happened on the flip side of that and this is where if we go over here to viewers per streamer and we click on that you'll notice from the same time period 2013
that the viewership was at what 49.8 in november 2012 and since then it has slowly declined until we get all the way to 2020 where uh you know it is um 25 viewers on average per streamer that is literally
cut in half from what it used to be in 2012 2013. what this means is that twitch has been growing like crazy more viewers more broadcasters but with the increase in broadcasters
it has spread out and kind of dispersed all of the viewers on twitch amongst a lot of different streamers and if we go down here and we look we can actually see metrics where you look at monthly broadcasters right here
and it shows that in 2012 there were 300 000 people that would stream 000 people that would stream in a given month in 2012. now in 2020 in a given month in 2012. now in 2020 6.5 million 6.5 million
month that is insane growth which means that in any given month there are 6.5 million other people clicking the go live button and starting their stream and so it's
the viewers all have these different communities multiple viewers are part of multiple communities i know i'm a part of multiple people's addition to our own
averages go down on viewership because now you've got a at the same time so this is over saturation and you can see the representation up here with uh you know the the growth of
versus the uh you know the decline of actual average to come check out jump on twitchtracker.com there'll be of the the video but but take a look at this
and let this be something that you utilize to understand better what is going on with twitch and kind of the the rise in popularity of course youtube had youtube was gaining popularity there were a lot more channels a lot more
and a lot more to watch so it's not as easy to grow or have a video blow up on youtube as it used to be back in the day although youtube has continued to grow it is massive and there are still people
uh you know full-time youtubers and things like that every day is oversaturated successful or grow on twitch but it means that you have to understand
the state of twitch and then what you need to do to try to counteract that over saturation now what can you do about oversaturation the simple answer is being unique you've got to put in the
build your content and things like that ways to make your content and your stream more unique and different than all 6.5 million other streamers per month
that's going to be different what am i going to add that's going to bring value to my stream that would make people want to come watch me when there's 6.5 million other people doing the exact same thing that i'm
doing right playing games just chatting uh you know doing art right what am i going to do differently and so uniqueness is one of those big key factors if you can be unique and do something that nobody else is doing
you're automatically going to stand out because as people run across you and that you are doing whatever this unique thing is that you're doing then the only place that they can come get that one
or two or ten unique things about your stream that nobody else is doing they're gonna come back to your stream because you're the only person doing it as to why it is so hard to grow on twitch is
have probably already heard this multiple times i've said it others have said it but discoverability on twitch is making great strides at least they've been making great attempts at
making discoverability a little bit easier on twitch they uh you know so when you go to somebody's channel page they have a channel trailer you know somebody who sees you when you're offline a little bit more reason
you out when you're live they've added recommended channels so to you that they think you would like based on your other watch history and so they've done some things like that but twitch is still
lacking an algorithmic based search engine or an algorithmic based recommendation feed that specifically looks at push your channel out to people there's not kind of a generalized or centralized
feed of streams for you you kind of are left to look at the homepage see what's up there and then figure out who all is streaming category you want to watch so it's it's still not where it needs to
be to help somebody who's starting out streaming or is trying to discoverability is one of the big things that holds people back especially because if people don't know your streaming how are they supposed to know
to come watch you and so discoverability needs to be it little by little but they just haven't quite gotten it where it needs to be so how do we counteract this how do we
counteract the discoverability problem on twitch well the answer to that is one of the biggest most important things you can do as a streamer today and that is create content on other platforms now we've talked about this in the how
to grow on twitch video as well but creating content on other platforms is by far the number one way to grow on twitch discoverability on a platform what is the most logical thing that you
discoverability it's create content on other more discoverable platforms so in this case my top recommendation is and the reason why i recommend youtube for you guys is because youtube has one
of the best algorithmic based growth systems on any content creation platform and if you don't believe me about today or the one that we talked about in the beginning of this video the
how to grow on twitch video that video has a million views and out of those million views you guys want to know how many times it popped up on feed for them to click on it and it's actually kind of sad in a way
but if we go over here and look at it right over here this is the statistics for my uh for my videos over the last um yeah over the last few years since and you look right here you see this giant blue line this
this video actually was put out way before all of spikes right here that you see all of these spikes you know these are these every time the video popped up in somebody's feed
but before this video started taking off way early on if we go all the way back over here this video was getting like you know i was getting a couple a couple views you know 50 views a day or or
views a day or or it was showing up on 50 people's suggested videos and stuff uh but then at some point right along youtube started showing this video it went from like 200 something people that
to like a thousand six hundred right and and so youtube showed this video to a thousand 1 600 people and continued to just get shown and shown and shown
until it just spiked up and went crazy and now if you go up here to the very to over almost 300 000 people in a given day that was on april 21st 2020 and so what i'm showing you this for is
because once i posted this video it literally sat on youtube with hardly any impressions or any views for like three months the video just sat there i posted the video
were a couple hundred views for three months and then after three months youtube decided the algorithm decided i'm going to push this video out and show it to a lot more people and as it
more people clicked on it more people viewed it well over 32 million impressions which means 32 million different times my video popped up for somebody when they were
scrolling through videos to watch and you know a million of them decided to click on the video and watch so one in one in 32 people decided to a million views on the video and i show you this to say that because
of youtube's algorithm discoverability on youtube is much much even though youtube is a much larger platform with way more people on it way more content creators and way more viewers the reality is is that
and if your video if you if you make a great video and it hits the right way or people are searching for it your video always has the potential to be seen by millions of people and even if it takes three months you
know like i said this video didn't start out and just blow up it took three months before it even started gaining you know a hundred views a day and so is that youtube is going to be one of the greatest platforms to produce
that you can talk about your twitch stream in and let people know you're a let's say that you know a million people have seen my how to grow on twitch video that i'm a twitch streamer so we've had tons and tons and tons of
people thousands of people come from that video alone over to my a follow and to join our community on twitch so youtube is going to be one of the greatest platforms that you can utilize
platforms that you can utilize to grow and get more discovery about so discoverability is an issue but places like youtube guys start a youtube channel if you don't want to do youtube or you don't
streaming then maybe go on twitter maybe go on start being consistent your content there and work at being proficient in how to maximize your exposure on these other platforms
and the more platforms that you can be a part of and make you know custom cultivated content for those things the better off you're going to be because the more eyes that see you from a bunch of different perspectives means
more people are going to discover you as a content creator and eventually wind up on your twitch stream talking to you while you're live now the next thing hard to grow on twitch is the lack of motivation to be creative
and this really can branch out of maybe you've started your stream and you've streamed for even a month or two and you haven't seen any type of growth or result from your stream and
you're streaming nobody and you just don't even want to put in you kind of look at it as like well if nobody's going to be there why would i put in the effort to be creative or to do fun things on my stream
that is the wrong mentality to have you want to say okay what can i start doing now whether or not anybody's watching me what can i start doing now that will add that that
we talked about and how can i be creative with what i'm doing so that when somebody does come across my stream they want to stay and they they want to return don't let that that initial you know
where maybe nobody's watching or not very many people are watching don't let that demotivate you and and pull you away from being creative with your content
you're streaming for a thousand people right or 5 000 people or 10 000 people should be something where you are putting in your full effort right whether or not someone is there and then when people come into your stream
if they come into a stream and somebody is literally creating a that's unique and it's creative and they're like that people are going to want to stay they're
you're all about and potentially become a member of your don't wait for people to come into your stream to in order to start being start being creative so that when they do come they want to stay
now a good way to counteract this lack of motivation to be creative yourself understanding that streaming is not easy and especially today with 6.5 million other people on the platform
streaming and going live it's not an easy process you can't have this expectation that streaming is going to be an start streaming and magically somehow you're going to just gain a lot of
thing it just doesn't happen that way so okay it's a long journey i understand that create content that i can be proud of i'm going to enjoy building a
single person that comes into my stream but look at it with the proper long journey it doesn't happen overnight and instead that it takes a lot of pressure off of you
your expectations are now realistic and so focus on that that'll help you out a lot uh set those proper expectations and it will be without that now that leads us into our next point
that holds people back and makes it difficult to grow on twitch and that is the time or the patience necessary in order to grow now the reality is you could be doing everything right you could do every
any other you know person out there giving tips on streaming has given those things the reality is the streaming is going to take time and you've got to be patient in most cases you have to put in the
hours of streaming and of working off stream on your stream and uh you know being patient with the process because it's not easy it's not simple and a lot of times it can feel like
you're not going anywhere and it's because we do live in a society you know pretty used to having things instantly even our phones charge faster than ever before now you can plug your phone in and have a full charge in an
whereas we used to have to plug our phones in overnight right and so like if we're used to everything being right here right now instantaneous and everybody wants that quick growth how do i get from zero to a thousand
viewers in no time at all type of thing but that's not realistic guys for twitch now one of the things that you can do in addition to understanding that it takes time and you have to be patient is to have a schedule
if you're consistent and you have a schedule not only will this help you but also it'll give you a goal in mind like like you know set yourself a goal and this day and then you set yourself that goal so
program that you're going to run at these different times on these different days and not only will it help you grow and people will know when to come back and watch your stream but now you're gonna be looking at it as
right i'm gonna put in the time i'm gonna i'm gonna put in the effort and i'm gonna do everything i possibly can do to see what happens so you've got to take the time
take the time to set up a schedule and to to to focus do that it's going to put you way ahead of the game and it's going to faster you're going to get that time knocked out
to come back and watch and the last thing that makes it super hard to grow on twitch is your mentality and guys everybody mentality and your mental state as a streamer is
mentality to understand that the journey is like we talked about long and so if put yourself in the right mentality you can look at it as a fun process a fun journey and something that you want to enjoy
maybe as a hobby in the beginning maybe as something you know past time that you maybe you just want to do it whenever you game because uh it's a cool thing to you're playing a game that you love but whatever the reason is look at it
view but rather look at it from a good mental this is something that i want to have fun with and just because i don't see these numbers that i really hope or wish for
so how do you do that how do you combat the streaming and combat that desire to kind of look at it and get well the number one thing and our our motto here on on
videos for streaming advice is enjoy the journey i've been saying it this whole time but enjoy the journey if you just stop and enjoy the process of streaming and the the fun that it can
looking into different types of equipment building pcs if you if you're you know getting a new pc and being able to get a better frame rate or you know being able to show people your gameplay on ps4 or whatever it may be
right it can be ps5 here pretty soon but whatever it may be look at the streaming or that you enjoy about the the concept of being a live streamer and focus on those things first enjoy
the process and the rest will come into play and if all the right things you're doing all the tips that we've talked about in this mentioned if you're doing all those things and
you're putting in the time then you have the best possible scenario for success not everybody is going to blow up and become the next streamer on the platform it's just not going to happen but if you can do these
then whether or not it becomes your full-time job or it becomes a hobby that you love for years to come the reality is something new that you really genuinely care about and
you really genuinely love so i want to encourage you guys to enjoy enjoy this process and don't get too caught up in you know the the the viewership and the numbers
that especially initially if you're just starting out don't look at that stuff first look at what's really important and enjoy it and it's okay to want to make money on content creation and to do it full time
there's nothing wrong with that if that becomes your main number one goal while to get started it can be very discouraging and so that's really what i'm trying to get at for you guys but with that being said guys those are
the five reasons that it is so hard to grow on twitch and some of the but guys i really appreciate you watching hopefully this video has been you think and uh kind of what your opinion is and if this
are things you already knew or a good refresher also if you want to talk to me about any of this stuff like i said earlier guys i a streamer over on twitch at twitch.tv eaglegear i would love to see you over
jump into the chat it's the best way to have a conversation about this a lot of and are asking questions in different formats and it's hard for me to get back jump into the chat i'd love to talk to you there also you can find me on
twitter instagram discord and facebook of course links for of this channel we do have a great discord community by the way if you guys want to join it is uh discord gg flock we would love
to have you in there over 22 i think it's over 22 is it over 22. it's over 23 000 members of our discord community so the flock on discord come by and join us we would love to have you over there
video and if you have liked this video make sure you this video out to more people and i would greatly appreciate it and of course in addition to that if you like this channel and you want to
smack the subscribe button we would love to have you in the flock community here on youtube and of course in addition to that if you want to know smack the notification bell and that way you'll get notified when we post a new
but guys thank you so much for watching and as always rock on and as always rock on peace out god bless and last but not [Music] least