On Twitch, You Don’t Count Views. You Build Trust.

A former League of Legends player turned agency founder, Chloé Le Hors is one of the few French experts who has known Twitch from the inside since its early days. As founder of Cleophele Agency, she works with brands and content creators with a clear conviction: companies that think Twitch is “just for gamers” are missing one of the most powerful influence levers on the market. From misread KPIs to underestimated consideration, outdated assumptions about the audience and mounting competition from YouTube, she gives an unfiltered read on where the platform really stands in 2026.

‍

You’ve Been Working With Twitch Since 2012. How Would You Describe the Platform Today Compared to Two or Three Years Ago?

In the French market, Twitch really took off during the COVID lockdowns. After that surge in viewership, the platform stabilized at an average of 1 million daily visitors in France in 2021, according to Médiamétrie. A natural selection followed, separating creators who truly understood the platform’s codes from traditional media players who failed to build a loyal audience.

‍

The biggest shift over the past three years has been the rise of live events. Back in 2012, we were already producing video game tournaments in concert venues, bringing players together outside their bedrooms. Today, top creators like Squeezie have picked up that model of connecting physical and virtual experiences through Twitch, though it has moved well beyond its gaming origins. The most popular formats are largely sports-based, which naturally reinforces that desire to share a moment together.

‍

The wall between TV and Twitch is also coming down, with streamers becoming TV commentators, TV hosts becoming streamers, hybrid formats emerging and even co-broadcasting deals.

‍

The most recent shift is the arrival of an entirely new audience. Over the past year, prominent TikTok and Snapchat creators, like Benoît Chevalier and Lena Situations, have moved to Twitch to produce more complex live content and, above all, to take advantage of its monetization model. They’re bringing with them an audience that has no interest in gaming whatsoever, which is gradually diversifying the platform’s overall viewership.

When creators migrate from TikTok or Snapchat, do they actually bring their audience with them?

Yes, and the numbers back it up. Some TikTokers get off to a flying start. They’re not winning over Twitch natives, they’re arriving with their own communities who are already highly engaged and well-versed in the live format.

‍

The real obstacle to that audience transfer is multistreaming. A lot of creators broadcast everywhere at once. So why would a viewer bother discovering a new platform when the content is already available on the app they already use? Where Twitch holds its own is in its technical comfort: its moderation tools, sponsor integration and monetization features are the best in the business for streamers. On the viewer side, access is immediate. You don’t need an account to watch, you land on the interface and flip between live streams the way you’d channel-surf on TV. It’s one less barrier to entry.

‍

The biggest sticking point for agencies and brands today is still editorial. Twitch still carries the “geek and gaming” stigma, and even though its most recent audience records have been set by sports and entertainment content, gaming remains the dominant content type on the platform.

‍

The real risk for us is that if YouTube decides tomorrow to upgrade its live module with the same technical features and user experience, Twitch will lose its main competitive advantage.

How Does Content Discovery Work on Twitch?

Unlike TikTok or Instagram, Twitch doesn’t rely entirely on infinite scroll driven by a passive algorithm, though the mobile app is starting to experiment with it. Discovery here is much more active. If you have an account, the platform prioritizes your favorite streamers and suggests creators with similar content. Without an account, you land directly on the top creators who are live at the moment you log on.

‍

The interface is designed to make things easy and create the feeling of an endless live feed. In the sidebar, you get a clear overview at a glance: your online subscriptions first, then top profiles or targeted recommendations based on your viewing habits.

‍

The real heart of discovery is the “Browse” section, organized by interest categories. That’s where the user experience becomes genuinely unique. If you’re in the mood for Just Chatting, you go into that category and filter the live streams. You can go for the big audiences, but you can also flip the filter to look for streams with very few viewers. That lets you drop in with a smaller creator, have a real back-and-forth in the chat and interact directly with them. It’s something you won’t find on any other platform, and it’s a big part of why engagement and completion rates on Twitch are in a league of their own.

Does That Desire To Interact With a Low-Viewer Creator Actually Attract a Meaningful Segment of the Audience?

Absolutely. Interaction is what makes Twitch tick. People don’t come just to consume content, they come to break out of isolation, find a community and, most importantly, have a real conversation in real time.

It all depends on the experience someone is looking for. Top creators bring the energy of a stadium, but mid-tier channels with around 40 or 50 viewers are the real sweet spot. The ratio is just right: there’s enough activity to keep the chat alive, but the scale stays human enough for the streamer to read and respond to everyone.

The need for recognition is everywhere. Viewers repeat their messages or spend their channel points just to catch the creator’s eye. That’s the whole spirit behind the now-famous hashtag #JYFUS (“J’y fus” — meaning “I was there”). On smaller channels, the expectation of closeness becomes even more intense: if the streamer misses a message, the viewer will call it out immediately: “I wrote to you and you didn’t see it!” What the audience is buying here isn’t just a video, it’s the authenticity of a shared moment happening in real time.‍

What’s Your Advice for Marketers Who Are Used to Thinking in Follower Counts?

My first piece of advice: stop chasing impression volumes. The goals on TikTok or YouTube and the goals on Twitch are completely different. If you’re after pure awareness, Twitch is a tough platform. Even someone like Squeezie doesn’t pull the same raw audience numbers there as he does on YouTube.

But for consideration, Twitch is hard to beat. Why? Because you have the luxury of time. A live stream runs anywhere from two to seven hours. That’s the ideal space to do a real product demo and address doubts live, in real time. Take Samsung: in a live setting, the streamer has time to show the phone, put it through its paces and answer the chat’s burning questions (“Does the battery actually last all day?” / “Have you tested it while traveling?”). On Instagram, the post is static, the message goes one way and the audience just has to take your word for it. On Twitch, you’re in a conversation, it’s like sharing a coffee with a friend. That’s why the recommendation carries the same weight as advice from someone you actually know.

I have a great example of a creator I work with who took up running. She uses her treadmill on her streams, with no sponsor involved at all. Within six months, her community had already bought 30 treadmills. Those aren’t 30 sales from a marketing campaign, that’s pure consideration in action. Her viewers made the purchase because they had living proof, day after day, that the product worked.

This isn’t quantitative awareness, it’s engagement built on genuine trust. The further I go, the more I’m convinced that’s Twitch’s DNA. And the brands that have figured that out are the ones getting the best results on the platform.

What About Brands That Are Nervous About the Live Format and Losing Control Over What Gets Said?

If your legal constraints are too tight, pharma, international sporting events, live just isn’t the right fit. Don’t force it, or you’re setting yourself up for a bad experience.

The alternative is Twitch’s ad network: pre-rolls, page skins or pre-recorded video capsules that play during a live stream. It’s classic paid media that’s fully controlled and brand-safe. It’s not influencer marketing, but you’re in the right place and it mirrors the codes of the creator economy.

For brands willing to take the leap into live, it’s all about casting. You need to work with seasoned professionals. Profiles like Domingo or Samuel Etienne, who come from journalism or broadcast hosting, know brand messaging inside and out. Zero risk never exists, that’s just the nature of live formats, but working with true professionals dramatically reduces the chances of anything going sideways.

And if you’re feeling more adventurous, there’s always the gifting option: you send your product to a creator with no brief and no financial agreement, and you let them do their thing. There are no guarantees, but the authenticity is off the charts. And if the creator talks about you on their stream, you’ve already won.