It depends, articles can say, especially with different game categories. We can say Ifs and Dos when comes to when is the best time to stream on Twitch. But we should categorize and segment these times based on values like, whose are your streamers, what games did you playing, where do you currently at. With these, we can basically determine, If you want to reach a certain goal, when will it be the best time.
On average, the best time to stream on Twitch, where the competitions are low. It’s through mid-day from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. and at nightime, from 11 P.M. to 5 A.M. Keep in mind, that the low competition means less viewers, because in these times most people are working or in school. That’s why most people don’t streaming in these hours.
After we checked what are the average best streaming hours on stream, let’s see how you can get the most out of it. Starting with different timezones, game categories, and target viewers.
Why do you want to stream, when the competition is low?
We are not in 2012, when the streaming industry started to boom, and there was such a low amount of people who are broadcasting games, that no matter what you’re done, the viewers just came. Right know in 2023, on average 100+ thousands channels streaming daily, on monthly basis more than 7 million streamers going live at least once. We should associate the viewers as well, which can grow up to 2-3 million a month.
So we can distribute, that one streamers should get 23 viewers, but of course, that’s not how it works.
On Twitch, basically only the top 1% get’s all the viewers, while most streamers only reach 20-30 viewers max. We can say, that’s not equally distributed, but we speak about people, and to simplify the things:
If they like what they see, than they will stay on your stream.
But, again, If you’re starting right know there’s probably no chance, to get viewers while streamers like, with 10+ thousands active viewers, go live. In short, that’s why you want to stream, at times where bigger streamers are offline.
Also we currently drifting from offer – demand, to demand – offer, which means, you need to adapt your streams to people, not vica-versa. You need to search for viewers, and you need to stream when are people going to watch and follow you.
Combined the two, at the beginning in your streaming career, the best time to stream on twitch, depends on two factor. The first one, is the time, when the great streamers are not broadcasting, and the second one is based on people, to whom you want to stream.
Best Time to Stream on Twitch, When the big streamers are offline?
As we stated the best time to stream on Twitch when the competition is low, or there’s none. Let us be clear, there won’t be such a situation, because of the Twitch size. That’s why you should create great stream background, epic transitions, and so on. But we can aim to the options where lowest tthe numbers of streamers, but the viewer potiantility is big.
The first one is midday, where most streamers are working, but also the viewers as well. In this time period, from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M., you will find such a viewers whom have spare time to watch some stream, maybe ill, or the kids who currently skipped the school. But, there’s your time to catch them, and make them at least follow you.
The second one is late night, probably between 11 P.M. to 4 A.M. This maybe a better fit for you, specially If you’re streaming along a job. You will aim the people whom night owls, and like to game long hours after a long day, or just they on vacation.
The last one, that we didn’t mentioned is the weekends. Most big streamers thinks to streaming as a job, so they are only streaming in weekdays, but not on weekends. This is your time to shoot, especially on Sunday evening. If you’re going to work on monday, we know this can be a hard thing to do, but It’s only a temporary thing, while you gain viewers. After this phase, when you have more than 1000 followers, you can go live, when the big streamers are, but until you need to focus on this.
How to pick people to stream to by time?
As in marketing or in business, you should choose your target audience, whom you’re creating your content. By picking your audience, you will know, how to pick your games, how to pick the hours when you’re going live. For example If you’re choosing World of Warcraft, then you should pick night owls, that’s when most of the raiding, and great battles are happening.
How to select games?
Selecting a game, and combine with the best time to stream on Twitch is crucial. When you’re starting, you should pick a not well played game, like Fortnite, but games like which have a more niche audience, like Metin2. Of course, If you’re in the top 10% of Fortnite players, you should only stream Fortnite, the combats that you’re playing can be an inspiration for some, but otherwise you should start with a more forgotten or low competition game.
Different timezones
One of your main goal should be understand timezones, and how It’s connected your streaming schedule. In below you can see the different timezones and which part of the world is in them.
The first one is the United States. If you’re in Vancouver, and you want to shoot for people in Washington D.C., then you need to keep in mind, that there’s a +3 hour difference in your time. So If you’re starting streaming at 5 P.M., it’s 8 P.M. in Washington D.C. But we can go further. There’s a good chance, that some people in India, will check your stream, also will start to follow you.
So for example, If you’re still in Vancouver and you want to target Mumbai viewers, there’s a +12,5 hour difference. Let’s say, you’re starting streaming at 5 A.M. this time will be 5:30 P.M. in Mumbai.
What should I do next?
There’s no absolute – golden rule when you need to go live, to earn 100 viewer. We don’t know that and If someone claims that knows when to broadcast, also “It’s included in their course”, than it’s a lie.
But we can say, that there’s a great strategy with maybe a 100% success rate, and that’s testing. You need to go live in random time periods, and analyze what was the best. You can also create a sheet for that and export or just simply write it down, what Twitch analytics says about that time period. Like I’ve streamed in Monday from 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. There were max. 15 viewer, and min. 1 at a time. I gained 5 followers. And so on. After 10-20 case you will see what’s the best, and you can start streaming constantly in that time.
Of course, while you doing testing, with 10×3 hour streaming you can make 100+ TikToks, YouTube shorts and YouTube compilations, which you should.
Also keep in mind, that these tests are should be based on much data. What it means, that If you’re streaming only one hour, there’s not enough chance for Twitch to determine your stream value and so on. So at least stream 2 hour in one sitting.
Do you have a good strategy when the best time to stream on Twitch? Let us know in the comments!
