---
title: 'The Ugly Honest Truth About Why You Aren''t Growing on Twitch...'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=J0tU0l7S0TY'
video_id: 'J0tU0l7S0TY'
date: 2026-09-29
duration_sec: 576
channel: 'Ashley Christenson'
---

# The Ugly Honest Truth About Why You Aren't Growing on Twitch...

> Source: [The Ugly Honest Truth About Why You Aren't Growing on Twitch...](https://youtube.com/watch?v=J0tU0l7S0TY)

## Summary

Ashlee, a Twitch partner and stream coach, explains why many streamers fail to grow: their streams lack value for viewers. She outlines four types of value — entertainment, relational, inspirational, and educational — and emphasizes that going deep into one can build a strong brand. The video is aimed primarily at men, who make up 88% of her audience, but the advice applies to all.

### Key Points

- **The Core Problem: Lack of Uniqueness and Value** [01:12] — Many streamers fail because they are 'literally the same thing over and over' and their streams have little value for viewers.
- **Gender Statistics on Twitch** [02:48] — Twitch is a male-dominated platform; 86 of the top 100 most followed channels are men, 11 are esports, 2 are women, and 1 is Bob Ross.
- **The Ugly Truth: Streams Must Create an Outcome** [03:24] — The ugly truth is that streams aren't creating an outcome for viewers. 'Entertaining' and 'adding value' are vague terms that need concrete definition.
- **Value 1: Entertainment** [04:12] — Entertainment value is creating a strong emotional response, which can be positive (laughter, escapism) or negative (chaos, drama).
- **Value 2: Relational** [04:54] — Relational value is networking and building friendships, but it's limited by Dunbar's number (~150 relationships), so it can't be the only value.
- **Value 3: Inspirational/Motivational** [05:34] — Inspirational value connects emotionally through stories of overcoming adversity, often shown in a narrative 'about me' section.
- **Value 4: Educational** [06:31] — Educational value is teaching viewers something for free, which can be as valuable as a college course.
- **Go Deep Into One Value** [06:55] — To build a strong brand, go deep into one value. As Lono says, 'transcend the game' — viewers come for you, not gameplay.

### Conclusion

To grow on Twitch, you must create value beyond gameplay by mastering entertainment, relational, inspirational, and educational value — and going deep into one to build a strong brand.

## Transcript

You don't have an established community, or your community has plateaued, or maybe you've even started losing people. Whatever situation you're in, you are growing on Twitch, and this is the ugly, honest truth about why.
What's up streamers, it's Ashlee. I'm a Twitch partner with 200-250 average viewers and a full-time stream coach. Now before I get that, oh that's so easy, you're a girl comment, because by the way, women have to work really hard at this too,
I want to be real with you. So 88% of my audience here on YouTube is men, and I'm going to be speaking to that 88% of you in the first part of this video. If you're a woman watching
this, feel free to take this opportunity to leave more about your channel. Tell me something about your stream down below so I can love on you super hard because this first part isn't for you. So, guys, I feel like I would be doing a disservice if I didn't speak to
that 88% of you directly at some point. I need to acknowledge if that is the demographic, if 88% of people watching this are men, then I need to speak directly to y'all. And now
the problem that I'm about to talk about isn't just a man problem, but since men are such a large part of the platform, it's a lot easier to notice this issue. A lot of you are failing to grow on Twitch because you are literally the same thing over and over and over and over.
Your streams have little to no value for the people that are coming in to hang out in your space. And that's not a gender specific thing that happens for everybody on Twitch. But it's very easy to notice this whenever so much of the platform is male and is exactly like you.
So try to be unique. Try to figure out how to be different from everybody else. But I know that's really difficult to understand the full context of. Like, how do you make a stream that's valuable?
I hate whenever people say, oh, just make your content engaging. Make it entertaining. Without really further explaining what that means. Because a lot of us don't know. Now, before I get, Ashley, you're contradicting yourself.
You're telling us to be unique. but there are a lot of men on Twitch so we can be unique It harder for us According to a 2015 study about gender on Twitch yeah it absolutely is a male platform and gaming as a hobby is a male
hobby as well. As of right now, these are the accepted statistics. So yes, you're right, there are a lot more men on the platform, but saying that there aren't men out there creating absolutely amazing, interesting, and valuable content and spaces for people,
it's just not true and it's kind of not fair to the 86 men that are in the top 100 most followed channels on twitch 86 of them are men 11 are women no wrong 11 are esports two are women
and one is our lord and savior bob ross okay i just wanted to clear that up because i know i'm gonna get a ton of comments about that and i just want to let y'all know what my answers are going to be ahead of time so there you go uh however speaking to everybody once again all of you that
are watching this video if you are having trouble growing here's the ugly honest truth it's because your streams aren't creating an outcome for the people that are watching them a lot of people tell you you have to be entertaining or you just need to add value to the
platform and i don't know about you but whenever i first started hearing that i wanted to tear my hair out because I didn't understand what those things meant. So I'm going to tell you how to add value to your streams and how to get people to keep watching so that you can grow. And these are
all things that you can do regardless of your gender. See, there are four main values to a Twitch stream. One is the value that everybody talks about, and that is entertainment value. That is you creating
some kind of strong emotional response in people. Now, entertainment value can be positive. It can be making people laugh and helping them to have a better day and to kind of further their escapism
and help them forget about their real life. Or it can actually be pretty negative too. So as much as I don't personally like toxic and kind of chaotic communities, there are a lot of people that enjoy
those and those bring entertainment value as well. The second value is relational value. So So this is a value that a lot of us usually see presented as networking So somebody who says you need to go out and you need to meet a lot more people And this is absolutely true You should be trying to
grow as many friendships as you can, especially whenever you're newer or you're smaller on the platform. But the problem with this is that human beings have a limitation to the amount of relationships that we are able to maintain. This number is called Dunbar's number. It's usually
about 150. Some people can manage more, some people can manage less, but networking will only get you so far and that's why it's really important for you to make sure that there's value to your
stream beyond just building relationships. The third value is one that you maybe haven't heard a ton about, but this is inspirational and motivational value. This is content that
motivates you to get off your couch and achieve something or inspires you because of a story that someone has shared of them overcoming something that was incredibly traumatic and negative in their life now you can obviously incorporate this into your channel in whatever way you want usually
we see this manifest as a really good about me section that has a narrative built into it to express a story that resonates on an emotional human being level so basically what you're trying
to do here is you're trying to connect emotionally with the people that are coming into your channel You're trying to get them to say, wow, this person has overcome something and I'm dealing with the same thing. Maybe they can help me or at least they can understand me.
Or you're trying to motivate them to make YouTube videos. The last value of a stream is my favorite value and this is educational value. So this one is all about teaching people something.
People pay thousands of dollars to go to college. So why can we not bring that to streams and educate people for free while we're live? There's so many things that people want to learn about.
If you have a hobby and you think that it's not presented on Twitch yet, I mean, we're not alone in our hobbies. There are other people that might be interested in hearing about that as well. So you want to try to nail all four.
But if you want to build a really strong brand, you probably want to go really, really hard into one of these areas. As the amazing Lono from Say No to Rage says you want to try and transcend the game So those 250 average viewers that I have those are all people that will follow me and watch me play whatever I want to play And it not because
my gameplay is fantastic, because it definitely isn't. What the hell? It's because I transcend the game. People come to me for advice and to talk about my life and how I can help them.
not for the gameplay. Unless you are an eSports level player, people don't care about the gameplay. They care about you. Obviously, there's a lot more nuance to this process other than, hey, just make your streams valuable.
You need to learn how to position yourself well in a game directory. You need to learn how to get your channel and yourself in front of more people that might resonate with you. You need to know how to get better at social media.
there's a lot of stuff to learn and we've got hundreds of videos here on this channel if you need help with those things so you might consider subscribing and checking out some of the videos that we've got here if you need help with a specific topic we're also transitioning our
content a little to start speaking about going full-time and how to build a better business model around your content you don't necessarily have to rely on a ton of bits subs or tips to
make sure that you can pay your bills. If that's something that interests you, let me know down below. And if you feel like there's some other kind of value, I mean, the four values that I outlined here might not be all that there is to Twitch. This is really all that I've been able to
pick up for the last few years. But if you feel like there's something else here that I missed, please let me know and I'd love to talk and think about that additional value a little bit more. Now, I know this video is very conceptual and for some of you might bring more questions than
answers but if you want to come through the stream and ask me any questions about this video and and how to help you clarify what it is that you want to serve people in your channel come through we're live every Wednesday Thursday and Friday at 12 p.m central time
we're never late and we never miss a stream so I'm live at those times make sure you come by and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already I'll see you all in the next video bye
Bye.