How Often You Should Stream on Twitch

New streamers are curious about how often they should stream each week. There's not a definitive answer to this question, but guidelines that can help you create the perfect streaming schedule.

How often should you stream on Twitch? 

The answer depends on your other responsibilities in life and your streaming goals. You should stream at least twice a week and no more than 6 days in a row if you’re looking to grow your stream.

Regardless of what anyone says, there’s not a sure fire “stream X times a week” to grow your stream, but there are some guidelines that you can use to determine how many times you stream weekly.

Balance the Rest of Life with Streaming

This is the biggest factor to determine how much you should stream each week on Twitch. Unless you’re a full time streamer who has the ability to stream 40+ hours a week then you’re going to need to accommodate streaming with all of life’s other responsibilities.

Whether it’s work, school, family, and friends there are other parts of life that are important to not neglect. One of the pitfalls of streamers is not prioritizing the rest of life and letting streaming take over. While many streamers dream of making a career out of streaming you shouldn’t sacrifice friendships, family, and other important duties in pursuit of the dream.

When determining how often you should stream you should look at your weekly and monthly calendar and realistically schedule out times when you will stream and the other weekly/monthly activities. Schedule time to be with your family, friends, exercise, etc.

Many streamers suffer from mental health issues, and one of the reasons (in my opinion) is that they prioritize streaming over all else. Having days to not stream, times to exercise, times to socialize with others, are all healthy activities that not only will make the streamer feel better, but I believe will make the stream content better too.

What’s the point of growing your stream if it means sacrificing relationships with those you love?

The Pros & Cons of Streaming 1-2 Times a Week

Many streamers have a full schedule each week between their career, their social life, and other responsibilities. With such a full weekly schedule it only allows them to stream 1 to 2 times a week. When we first started the HeyYouVideoGame twitch channel this was our allocated amount of time to stream each week.

The benefits of streaming once or twice a week is that it’s not very time consuming. You’re able to have a couple streams each week while still having the time to do everything else that you need to. 

In addition, one of the positive attributes to streaming 1-2 times a week is that it gives you plenty of time to brainstorm and create an above-average stream. Each week between streams you can take the time to decide on which game you’re going to play, but also brainstorm fun conversations, add stream overlays, and come up with other entertaining bits for the stream,

The main negative aspect of streaming this little each week is that growth will be slow. Unless you’re heavily promoting your stream on social media platforms (TikTok, Instagram, Twitter) you’re going to see few new people join your stream each week.

If you're hoping to grow your stream quickly I would recommend streaming more than once or twice a week. With this said, you’ll need to decide whether you have the time to stream more than this.
The Pros & Cons of Streaming 3-5 Times a Week

It’s our opinion that this is the best amount of time to stream each week. By streaming 3-4 times a week you’re able to have consistent time with your community on stream. It allows viewers to connect with you on a regular basis, and it gives you ample time streaming so that new people can find you and follow your channel.

Unless you’re streaming a large number of hours, 3-5 streams a week won’t cause you to experience burnout. It also allows you to have days off from streaming to rest and relax.

The only downside to having this type of schedule is that it requires you to have the time to do it. Not everyone can dedicate enough time on a weekly basis to stream this many times.

The Pros & Cons of Streaming 5-7 Times a Week

Whew, so you’re really going for it huh?

The benefit of streaming this month in a week is that you’re giving the channel A LOT more visibility. If you’re promoting your channel on other platforms you’ll see an increase of viewers coming to the channel. Whether they stick around will depend on your ability to entertain them, but you’re guaranteed to see more people stop by at least.

With this said, here’s a story that’s been told a hundred times….

A person starts a new channel and is excited to start streaming. It’s all they are talking about and thinking about. They launch the channel and start streaming 5, 6, 7 times a week. This lasts for about a week, maybe two or three weeks. But then they experience burnout and they experience it HARD.

Maybe it’s because they expected 100 viewers right at the get go, and that failed to happen. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because they just streamed for 40 hours a week and they quickly discovered that streaming can be exhausting.

I’ve witnessed new streamers launch into a long, exhausting streaming schedule only to see them burnout. Some got burned enough that they never came back to streaming ever again.

Don’t let this happen to you.

While there’s many streamers who put in a 5-6 day week I wouldn’t recommend it right at the start. Instead build up to it with a 2-4 stream per week schedule to warm up. Also I would recommend never streaming 7 times a week. Having a day to rest and relax from streaming is good for your mental health, and for the stream.

When is the Best Time to Stream?

Regardless of what anyone says there isn’t truly a perfect time to stream, because there are too  many factors to consider. Some games are more popular in particular countries or with different age groups. There might be a time in which one game would bring in more viewers than another.

If you’re trying to find the best time to stream a specific video game I would suggest trying out TwitchStrike.com and searching for the game you’d like to play. TwitchStrike considers a number of factors to determine when the best time to stream that game is.

Most importantly the best time to stream for your channel is one that is consistent. Streamers with unreliable streaming schedules will grow slower than a streamer who streams on a certain day at the same time each week. Viewers are people of habit. They like to know that at such and such date they can count on their favorite streamer to be online streaming.

Pick a day and time, and stream every week at that time.

How long should I stream?

This is another question that is hard to answer, because every streamer is different. But here’s a few thoughts to chew on…

Bare minimum stream an hour.

‍This is the minimum amount of time you’d want to stream, but honestly I would recommend more hours than this. Many of your viewers will see your notification or arrive late to the stream. In addition, it will be difficult to have new people join if you’re only streaming in 60 minute increments.

3-4 Hours is Perfect for Casual Streamers.

‍This is the perfect amount of time to allow your viewers to come in, but also live for new viewers to hop in. You’ll be streaming long enough to catch a few raids too.

This amount of time is easy to keep yourself energetic and entertaining, but not too long to get tired from streaming. If your streams are 3-4 hours long your viewers will be begging for more.

5+ hours for more growth.

‍The longer you stream the more visible you are to people who may check out your channel. You’ll also gain more lurkers who will boost your viewer number and push you closer to the top for your stream’s category. The only downside of streaming for this many hours is that you may get tired, and content could potentially become stale. But this really depends on you, your stream, and your temperament. 

Creating a Stream Schedule

Perhaps you’ve seen other streamers post a graphic of their stream schedule on Twitter or their discord. Typically it’s a graphic with the weekdays on it showing exactly when they’ll be streaming and what they’ll be doing on stream.

These can be a good way to inform your community of when you’ll be streaming on any given week.

Curious how to make one of these? I’d recommend using Canva. Canva is a free online platform that allows you to create beautiful graphics easily. You can quickly craft a good looking stream schedule to show your community.

In Conclusion

The amount you stream is completely up to you, but hopefully these guidelines help you decide on the right amount of times. The most important thing is consistently and to not stream yourself into burnout.

If you’re looking for more tips, strategies, and streamer stories please check out our podcast “Streamer Growth School.” Each week I interview a streamer to hear how their streaming journey has progressed, and to learn practical tips and tricks to grow a stream. You can find our podcast anywhere that you listen to podcasts at.

Happy Streaming!