When it comes to growing your stream, choosing the best games to stream for growth can be a really challenging process. How do you decide what to actually play?
Play what you enjoy but avoid the top 5 games, then build a following around a game or genre you enjoy which will pull viewers back. Try to use a tool like “What To Stream” by Quizzical Pixel or Twitch Strike to get specific games to try out.
This topic has a lot of different opinions around the internet though, so let’s dive into it and see if we can get some concrete advice.
We will focus on Twitch in this article as tools vary from platform to platform.
Our Favourite Tools
Deciding which game is actually best to stream for growth can be challenging as it’s a constantly moving target. Even day to day the actual opportunities are shifting.
Luckily for you, the gaming community is AMAZING and there are 2 tools we recommend all the time.
What To Stream by Quizzical Pixel
Link To The Website »
This one tool has found us more games to stream for growth than we can count, it’s less well known compared to Twitch Strike (spoiler: that’s the next tool!) but we find the results are just consistently better.
When you arrive on the website it’s a good idea to change the filter from showing you games in the top 100 to the top 150 instead, then also “sort by” Channels rather than viewers.
Once that’s set up you’ll get to see some really big opportunities, games being streamed typically by 1 or 2 big streamers which pulls the numbers in but very few smaller channels.
Twitch Strike
Link To The Website »
As one of the better-known tools in the industry, most people have come across this in their Google searching to find an answer to the best games to stream for growth.
Twitch Stike we find really helpful, it refreshes the list of games on an hourly basis so it’s not as quick as others – that’s actually a good thing though.
Rather than chasing “the next shiny object” you instead begin to see the trends with opportunities.
With this tool what you’re looking for is games wit ha high amount of viewers and the top 5% of streamers in that game category hold the majority of the audience. There’s a chance that when one of those larger streamers finishes for the day they will want to help out someone else on the same game, so it could work well for you.
Checking Without Tools
You can still find good game opportunities without the use of tools, just look for games where there are only 20 – 30 channels but there’s a big streamer or two.
You can see a great example in the below screenshot, this was Super Mario World at 21:00 on a Sunday evening. There’s one big streamer and lots of smaller ones.
Within 30 mins we saw electronicLogic (top right) go from 1 viewer to 11.
Stick It Out
Once you do decide on a game, set a goal for you to meet in-game and make sure you actually achieve that goal.
The reason behind that is there are so many new streamers who are trying to establish themselves, however they spend their time chasing trends from game to game.
Make sure you use one of the tools above and then, once you’ve decided on a game to play, you stay with it for a while.
Here are a few examples:
- You could decide to do a full playthrough of an RPG game such as Divinity: Original Sin 2, it will take quite a while to finish the full playthrough so make sure you set out a schedule and get it done.
- Hit a rank in a competitive game, so if you find World of Warships is a good game to stream then make a goal to hit League 2 within a season and focus on that.
- You could also play a series, such as all Doom games back to back since the original. This is much more of a commitment, but it’s a great focus for your streams and you’ll pull in people who follow you along.
Avoid The Very Top Games
Naturally, you may think of the best games to stream for growth as being the most popular games right now – games like Fortnite, World of Warcraft and that sort of thing.
Although you can definitely find a place in those games, you have to be very skilled at the game you’re playing to get any traction at all and it’s way harder.
The reason is that the games are saturated by channels, feel free to go into the Fortnite directory and keep scrolling through the channels – at any time it takes about 10 minutes of non-stop scrolling just to get to the end.
Instead, it’s better to find games that typically have 100 – 500 viewers in their directory where you can stand out by being present in there often.
Bring On Nostalgia
Some games just stand the test of time as absolute classics – Final Fantast VII, the original Resident Evil’s, Metal Gear Solid games. You know the sort.
Those communities are constantly looking to watch people experience these games for the first time and they have a loyal fan base.
If you missed out on any classics (here’s a list) then ones of these really could be the best games to stream for growth, just make sure you make it clear you’re doing a blind playthrough in your titles so the community can rally behind you.
Popular Skill-Based Games
This isn’t a recommendation to play the popular skill-based games, it’s more a heads up to take caution if you’re delving into these as you need to be one of the best in the world to stand out.
Streamer Dizzy had an incredible rise in popularity primarily through his skill in Apex Legends just after launch, a lot of large streamers were calling him a “Mini Shroud” which was a pretty accurate description!
If your primary goal is to get followers though and you’re not confident you’re one of the best, don’t delve into the skill-based games which are within the top 5 games as it’s going to be a tough road.
Get Involved In Communities
When you’ve found the best games to stream for growth, make sure to seek out their communities and get involved.
That could be subreddits, discord channels, forums or even in-game communities like guilds or clans.
Once in there make sure you don’t just go spamming the tag for your stream, instead make sure you contribute to the actual discussions and start to build up a network of people who know you.
Making your name in these communities match up to your stream username is a good, subtle way to drive people to your channel too.
Check Out Steam Charts
Our final tip is to check out the Steam Charts to find the best games to stream for growth, you can find some surprisingly good games to stream by just scrolling from the charts and taking note.
Avoid the top 5 games in the chart, but anything after those is probably a good idea to test – a lot of stream viewers like to watch streamers in the background who are playing the same game they are.
That way they can pick up tips from the streamers around what in-game activities they should be doing to use their time most effectively.
Other Things To Consider
That sums up our advice on the best games to stream for growth, to finish up let’s go through a couple of other questions we get asked often.
What’s The Best Time To Stream?
There’s no perfect time to stream a game, there are people all over the world in different timezones logging in all the time – rather than find a game schedule, instead make a schedule and keep to that.
What Solo Games Are Good To Stream?
Here are some of our favorites:
- Faster Than Light
- Final Fantasy VII
- Bioshock Series
- Dishonored Series
- Tomb Raider Series
- Half-Life Series
Ask Yourself Why You’re Streaming
Before deciding on a game to stream, make sure you’ve at least considered your goals with streaming.
If you’re not looking to stream full time and make a full income from it then it’s not worth being overly concerned about hunting viewers – just play what you like and the viewers will come.