Comment by macspoofing
6 years ago
It's not an issue of discovery. There's just too much out there. No matter what algorithm you choose, you will leave out the vast majority of other streamers. And YouTube isn't any better. In fact, it's going through its own mini-drama with even established YouTubers seeing their subscription counts going down and blaming YouTube for it, when in reality, there are just too many people creating content.
It really is about discoverability, though.
On Youtube, everything is about producing enticing videos and if you do a great job, the algo will favor you even if you are a small channel. Youtube search plays an important part in all of this.
On Twitch, the unit of interest is the live stream and that is much more difficult to produce content around. It also makes finding interesting streams challenging because search doesn't work well with this type of content. Heck, you can't even query the directory for basic stuff like [show me streamers living in Sweden who usually stream GTA 5 RP].
Discoverability matters much less than you think because discoverability is a zero-sum game. If the algorithm favours one type of creator, it necessarily means that it takes 'it' away from another - so the more creators you pile on, the harder it is for any one of them to breakthrough - regardless of how awesome your discoverability algorithm is.
There are some caveats. If the audience is growing relative to the number of creators, you (on average) still have a chance. YouTube also has a huge audience and wide variety of content (much more than Twitch, which is heavily focused on video-game streaming), so it's possible that there are some niches that can still be exploited in a way that you couldn't on Twitch, which is heavily focused on a small number of niches.
None of that takes away from the larger point - it's a race to the bottom when trying to be a viable creator, and the probability of building a big-enough audience to make enough money to even partially support yourself is very very low.