Posted on
5/9/2022

Everything About the Engagement Rate on Twitch

On the streaming platform Twitch, streamers have a passionate fan base who trusts them perhaps even more than influencers on other networks. The connection between audience and streamers is unique in that viewers sometimes watch their internet stars for an hour or more every day. This is why brands should consider leveraging this attention through influencer marketing on Twitch., Kolsquare provides you with an overview about everything brands need to now about the engagement rate on the plattform.

Twitch logo
Twitch logo

As with any influencer marketing campaign, it is essential to understand the ecosystem of the respective platform. Only those who understand how to use Twitch will be successful. Twitch, of course, is unlike any other social media platform. For example, the amount of followers is not crucial here, quite different from Instagram, for example.

That is why we have put together the most important elements  in regards to engagement rates on Twitch on the Kolsquare blog.

Twitch users are an interesting target group, as gamers in general are quite a diverse and segmented group. Apparently, they do not like it when streamers directly promote products, but they still accept information and recommendations “because it feels personal. And people trust other people much more than companies,” says Influencer Marketing Hub.

Twitch compared to Other Social Networks

Founded in 2007, Twitch is best known for gaming and streaming offers, but users can also find other forms of entertainment such as sports, podcasts, music or DIY projects.

Influencer marketing on Twitch is very similar to other platforms, except that the actions are streamed live. If they are interested in collaborating as a brand, contact the desired Twitch influencers and negotiate details, usually via email. Brands most often select shout-outs, giveaways, and product unboxing.

As mentioned earlier, the platform’s focus is on video games. Most influencers play live games and comment on them while interacting with their viewers via chat. Within gaming, there are various niches such as eSports tournaments or talk shows on the topic of gaming.

Reach Metrics on Twitch

As with any social network, the number of followers on Twitch is your first indication of measuring reach. But the number of subscriptions on Twitch says nothing about the actual number of live viewers, which is crucial for a live streaming platform.

Accordingly, the next metric we want to address is live views. Live views are the unique visits to a channel’s homepage. Although more important than the followers count, the live view count is not a consistant element either. Instead, you need to constantly re-evaluate its current and future status. On the positive side, live views can expose so-called view-botting, i.e. if accounts are faking their live viewership. Hence, compare channels of similar sizes and ages to do this.

Moreover, what would a streaming platform be without video-on-demand (VOD)? These videos are, pre-recorded and saved livestreams, which in turn show how many people are streaming them on demand.

Metrics of Engagement on Twitch

Critical to your engagement rate on Twitch is Average Concurrent Viewership (ACV), which is the average number of viewers during a live stream. To generate an accurate value, Twitch repeatedly samples viewership in order to calculate the ACV, which is why audience engagement is especially important.

The AVC indicates how much actual attention a stream and an influencer receives. Only if the ACV value is close to the peak viewer number, you can be confident that the audience is actually invested.

In this context, you should also have heard of Twitch raids. Viewers are sent from one channel to another target channel in a raid. “Raiding” your channel is easy, either with the command “/raidTwitchPresents” or via the dashboard. If you are offline, your channel also hosts the target channel at the same time. If you have any questions, you can contact @TwitchSupport on Twitter.

To determine the total range, the ACV is of little help however. Instead, take a look at viewer hours. This metric shows how often a stream has been viewed. The issue  here, again, is the engagement rate, which cannot really be determined this way because the metric will not distinguish between a few viewers with high interaction and the opposite. Accordingly, it is important to precisely define the goals and target audience even before launching the influencer marketing campaign on Twitch. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the majority of users on Twitch are young, male and interested in gaming. Consequently, you should be honest about whether Twitch marketing makes sense for you.

The Twitch Dashboard for Channel Analytics

Twitch, like almost every other social network, offers a creator page and platform of its own analytics statistics. On the streaming service’s Dashboard, users can find an overall view of their channel’s performance. By default, Twitch shows a 30-day summary, including revenue generated and audience insights. However, the time period can be adjusted individually as well as  manually at any time.

The following information can be found in the summary:

  • Average number of viewers (concurrent)
  • Live views (unique views of live content)
  • New followers
  • List of streams by means of a stream video producer showing thumbnail, title, date and time
  • Breakdown of views
  • Five channels that have the highest audience overlap, percentage-wise, with their own channel
  • Five categories preferred by viewers
  • The most viewed clips on one’s channel
  • Summary of the top three performing go-live notification performances
  • Percentage of tag traffic performance

The following data is only available for partners and affiliates:

  • Subscriptions (new and old)
  • Total revenue less share for Twitch, other fees and taxes
  • Breakdown of revenue from paid, gift, and Prime subscriptions, advertising, bits, game sales, expansions, bounties, and other interactions
  • Breakdown of subscribers by tier and respective revenue breakdowns

In addition to Instagram and similar, the live streaming platform conveys with a specific target group and precisely through live content. Read more about all topics related to influencer marketing on the Kolsquare blog.

About Kolsquare

Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, a data-driven solution that allows brands to scale their KOL Marketing strategies and implement authentic partnerships with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). Kolsquare’s technology enables marketing professionals to easily identify the best Content Creators profiles by filtering their content and audience, and to build and manage their campaigns from A to Z, including measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors. Kolsquare has built the largest community of influencer marketing experts in the world, and offers hundreds of customers (Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, El Corte Inglés, Lacoste, …) the latest Big Data, AI and Machine Learning technologies to drive inspiring partnerships, tapping into an exhaustive network covering 100% of  KOLs with more than 5,000 followers in 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. As a Benefit Company, Kolsquare has been pioneering Responsible Influence by championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations to inspire change.

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