What Is the Best Time To Be Streaming on Twitch?

When is the best time to stream on Twitch? How can you make your stream a success? The crew at Powder has the answers you’re looking for.

When you decide to live stream, whether as a hobby or to jumpstart a potential career, there are plenty of factors to take into consideration. Having a healthy knowledge of the platforms you intend to stream on (like Twitch or YouTube) can start you out on the right foot and put you ahead of the competition — and don’t be fooled; there is a lot of competition.

To give yourself a leg up, answering questions like “What is the best time to stream on Twitch?” is vital. The game-obsessed crew at Powder is here to help you make those crucial decisions and push your stream from a passion project to a potential moneymaker.

What Is the Best Time To Stream on Twitch?

Let’s get the obvious out of the way — there’s no “magic” time frame to stream on Twitch that works for everyone or is guaranteed to make you a successful streamer. Discovering what your “golden hour” for streaming is will depend on a few different factors.

These will include:

• When you’re available (and the most awake — you don’t want to stream tired or groggy)
• When your target audience is available (taking into consideration where in the world they're located and their age range)
• When you have the most privacy to record (so there is less potential background noise in your stream)

However, there are also certain times of the day that tend to be the busiest to stream on Twitch, at least according to the statistics. If we use coordinated universal time (more commonly known as UTC), those busy hours occur between 2 pm and 10 pm.

If you’re on the East Coast of the United States, this translates to between 9 am and 5 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST). Streamers in the Midwest are looking at between 8 am and 4 pm Central Standard Time (CST), and those on the West Coast will see between 6 am and 2 pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) as their busiest streaming time.

Within those busy hours are “peak” hours, where Twitch is most likely to have the most people online — both streaming and watching content. If we again convert those times from UTC, peak Twitch hours occur between 1 pm and 3 pm EST, 12 pm and 2 pm CST, and 10 am and 12 pm PST).

While you don’t absolutely have to spam these hours to stream (as it can be tough for people who work or are in school full-time), trying to get some streaming in during these peak times can work wonders for your channel’s visibility.

Choose the Best Day To Stream

We know it can be tempting to stream daily (especially when you first start), but streaming too frequently can actually work against what you’re trying to achieve. It’s far more beneficial to your channel to stream wisely, picking days that your viewers will be available to watch instead of just bombarding them with a constant flow of content (even if it’s excellently produced content).

But what days should you choose? Picking some of the less popular days for live streaming while staying within your “golden hour” window is generally the best approach. Sure, you may not have as many viewers, but you’ll also have less competition, making it much easier to entice new followers to your channel. It’s just one more way to help yourself stand out.

How Else Can You Stream Successfully?

There’s obviously so much more involved in developing a successful live streaming channel than just picking the best time to stream on Twitch — if it were that simple, we’d all be millionaires living off our content. Here are a few more tips for helping to make your Twitch channel stand out.

Be Passionate

Finding success with streaming requires much more work than people anticipate, but at its core, it’s all about connecting with your viewers. While you can fake a lot of things with your channel, you can’t fake how much you actually enjoy what you’re doing.

If you’re not feeling it or don’t really care about the content you’re creating or the games you’re playing, your viewers will be able to tell. There’s nothing less fun than watching a content creator just go through the motions.

That’s why, more than anything else we can share with you about finding streaming success, you have to make sure you’re choosing games you’re legitimately passionate about. Yes, it’s still important to pay attention to which games are hot right now, but loving what you’re doing is the part that is actually contagious.

Plus, you might be able to single-handedly introduce people to a game that means something to you. While monetization is exciting, making a difference in people’s lives and getting to see them enjoy something you love is even better.

Upgrade Your Streaming Equipment

You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on top-of-the-line streaming equipment to be a successful content creator (on Twitch or any other platform), but upgrading your equipment can definitely help you gain more followers.

However, very few of us have unlimited funds. If you’re like most people and are upgrading your equipment on a budget, there are ways that you can still make the most of your money. Our top recommendations for what to upgrade first are:

• Your internet: It doesn’t matter what type of internet you prefer, but having a subpar internet connection is one of the main factors that will cost you viewers.
  
• Clipping software: Instead of having to micromanage your stream and capture all of your greatest hits while you’re focused on your community and playing, AI clipping software like Powder does the heavy lifting for you so you can extend the lifespan of your hard work streaming on social channels long after you power down.
  
• Your graphics card: A higher-quality graphics card can make the difference between jerky motion and smooth action sequences, drawing your viewers in even more.

Build Your Brand

The most successful streamers are more than just people who play video games for their followers — they’re true content creators who know how to market themselves and their channels.

Having a great personality that people enjoy watching is important, but if you lack the ability to market and brand yourself appropriately, your stream will likely stay a hobby. Take the time to think about how you want to be perceived and what you want to focus on, then do it!

Plus, if you end up becoming popular enough that you develop your own line of merchandise, having a brand already in place makes it much easier to keep everything cohesive — potential sponsors will appreciate that, too!

Diversify

Our final tip to help you find success as a gamer and content creator is to diversify your stream. Twitch is absolutely one of the most popular streaming websites, but you don’t want to be “just” a Twitch streamer. Sharing your content on other sites, like YouTube and TikTok, can help you find wider viewership. And there are myriad tools, like Powder, designed to help you extend your reach on these social platforms automatically with AI.

Plus, each platform offers you unique opportunities to create different types of content and earn money in different ways — why not monetize your stream on three platforms instead of one? There’s no downside, as long as you’re willing to put the work in.

The Bottom Line

While there are peak hours that tend to have the most streamers and viewers online, there’s more to being a successful content creator than just logging on at a specific time. To encourage success, it’s important to stream at the right time while also developing your brand, choosing games you're passionate about, and upgrading your streaming equipment work.

Powder PC is there for you every step of the way, allowing you to spend more time enjoying your gameplay and less time smashing those hotkeys. Simply create an account, open your favorite game in the Powder platform, and start playing. Our AI will do the rest, automatically capturing clips of your wins, kills, and epic battles.

If you’re a Twitch streamer looking to expand to other short-form platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts, check out Powder. Our creator-focused AI can quickly comb through hours of streaming footage to automatically stitch together epic montages of all of your best moments. With easy formatting capabilities, you’re ready to take your act beyond Twitch.

To learn more about streaming and video games, check out our blog.

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