Twitch Made Getting Featured on the Home Page Much Easier With New Update
Twitch streamers have always hoped for the chance to make it on the home page of the platform. Many streamers have gotten noticed this way and blown up overnight. The many eyes that see the home page when searching for a new stream to watch makes landing on the home page a gold mine for viewership. However, there is no way to get yourself there unless you are a big streamer. Even then it can still be only by chance.
“Hype Trains” are one popular way to land yourself a spot here. When viewers start sending bits, subs, and other gifts in a row Twitch starts to create hype around this action. If more viewers continue in on this quickly it can form a hype train causing it to display the users stream in more places. While this is great it requires a lot of viewers who are willing to gift a lot at the same time. Meaning this is not something a small streamer usually ever has access to.
This new feature Twitch is testing out allows viewers to pay directly to Twitch to get a stream on the home page of the platform. Now usually when a viewer donates to Twitch the streamer gets a part of the money. If a viewer decides to purchase this new option Twitch takes all the profit. Leaving the viewer and streamer having to decide between what’s better, getting money or being on the home page.
The patch notes can be viewed here regarding this information. But the basics of how it works is that for 10 minutes during a stream, a notification will pop up letting viewers know that a boost option is now available. Viewers can then pay for a number of “recommendations” that will essentially get a streamer noticed. In the video above there are two tiers that can be purchased: 1,000 recommendations for .99 cents and 3,000 recommendations for $2.97. While there may be more as the program moves forward these are the options for now. The option to boost a stream will be random and not always available for streamers. This will help keep anyone from abusing the system and cluttering the home page.
While Twitch has always been free to stream on this makes it possible to spend money on promoting a streamer better. With the rise in popularity over the pandemic and more people coming to the platform in hopes of streaming games, hobbies, art, etc., people have wanted a better way to promote themselves and now they have that chance. It will be interesting to see how this goes as it becomes more poplar and widely available.
