Choosing a game to play when starting out as a streamer can be daunting. If you check out my previous blog post it will talk about being one game streamer and a variety streamer and how both have pros and cons. This post will talk about choosing a game to stream and what are some of the things you should look for when doing so as well as games I have mainly played too.

When I first started streaming from my PS4 I would play the game Rainbow Six Siege every day. I loved it even though I was absolute trash at it. I had a great group of people to play it made the time more interesting. Though as many things come to an end I got bored of it and the people I played with moved on to different things and we kind of fell out of playing together. I never played it a whole lot on my own either.

That being said, Rainbow Six is a pretty popular game. I played this just because I had fun. I wasn’t looking to grow or be at the top of the category I was just playing what I enjoyed and let it happen. If I was going to go back in time I probably would still play the same game because I wanted to and enjoyed it. However I have also played games like Little Big Planet and have seen a lot of success with hat and games like GTA as well too. Depending on the game though they can be too small to even make an impact. When you play an older game or a game that is unknown it can be hard to find new viewers and you are ending up either playing for yourself or your community though.

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Once I had gotten a PC it made things easier. I was gifted a copy of Dead by Daylight one Christmas from a viewer and was instantly hooked. I was playing it nearly every stream. PC gaming was far easier for me since the games library on steam alone is endless. Dead by Daylight is a pretty popular game however I wouldn’t compare it to League of Legends or the latest FPS game. It has a pretty decent community size so being discovered isn’t as difficult in terms of there is a lot of people watching but there are some heavy hitter streamers playing it that have their abundance of regular viewers. Sure when you start out you might be near the bottom or middle of the directory but that is a lot better than being dead last. And since then I have been primarily playing Dead by Daylight ever since with the odd dabble in games like Stardew Valley, Spooky games and PS4 ones that I love like Spyro the Dragon or Crash Bandicoot too!

If you prefer to play only older games or smaller fan base ones that is totally okay also! I think realistically though you might need to work a bit harder on seeing results and growth. You might need to work on your social media reach so that when you play these games you have some regulars that show up to see whats happening. You might need to explore a bit about other content creators and see if you can connect there for a colaboration. Normally a smaller following game has their star streamers, which could be you eventually! This is a great way to see what types of people play them and how you would like to see how you fit in there!

Discoverability is huge if you want to see growth on twitch or any other streaming service. If you don’t care about growth and you don’t care about viewers and just want to stream and game then totally disregard this section! If you want to be “discovered” then playing a medium tier/popularity game would be best. If you are playing Fortnite when it was at its peak viewers unless you have god like skills the chances of being discovered are probably extremely low. Same goes for playing a game that is completely off the map or has a very little fan base. I’ve seen people complain about getting little to no viewers and when people suggest different things to try the person has said “but I like playing retro games”. Well that is okay to do, however you cannot wait around for viewers to magically show up and support your game choice and who you are. You have to put in work in order to see results. Make yourself discoverable! Do not wait around for that slim chance of a massive raid or host like that will be the savior for streaming. Spoiler alert: Raiding and hosting WILL NOT help you grow, most of the time people who are coming from the raid will always watch the streamer they came from before you. Though you may make some new viewers chances are they won’t be regulars. Make people want to click your like by doing whatever means necessary on other platforms and things!

Lastly, And I think this goes back again to the one game vs variety streamer blog post. If you ware wanting to throw yourself out there and only play one game. A game that you want to become the best at or a very memorable person within the community, I think it is important to see the direction the game is going. What I mean by this is, will this game be around in a year from now, 2 years, 5 years or 10 years (Though anyone playing a game for 10 years honestly should receive an achievement hahahaha!!). If you start playing a game for example I see it with a lot of Paladins streamers. They played the game since the very beginning, and now they are finding themselves stuck. They don’t like the direction of the game, it is broken, the fan base is a very young/child like and they want something different. If the direction of the game you are playing isn’t going anywhere, not releasing new content, or making the game interesting to viewers you will have a much harder time trying to keep their attention. It’s like if I was to play Spyro the Dragon as my main game, the game is done, there is no DLCs and unless I am trying to speed run the game and constantly practice it will be extremely hard to keep people entertained with the stale content.

Regardless, I think at the end of the day anyone should play a game that they really enjoy. If a streamer enjoys the game their community will be more willing to chat and stick around. If you start to hate a game or do not enjoy playing it, remember that you can always take a break and come back to it!