Twitch was launched back in 2011 and was primarily concerned with gaming and esports. Growth was rapid, and from around 3.2 million monthly visitors the platform grew to host 20 million a month by 2012.

As this article was being written, the 7-day average daily viewing figures stood at over 2.5 million. The TwitchTracker site shows live viewing statistics for streaming, as well as how many live channels are in play.

It is now one of the main destination sites for gamers and streamers, but competition is fierce. Over 3 million streamers are using Twitch now which makes getting views difficult for some.

Is Twitch the best platform for game streaming?
For gamers, Twitch is seen as an alternative form of viewing entertainment. Instead of logging into Netflix, game fans go to Twitch to watch live streams from their favorite gamers.

Just 3 years after it was launched, Twitch was snapped up by Amazon for nearly $1 billion. This may seem an absurd amount of money for what was still a fledgling platform, but revenue from the games industry may explain why this deal happened.

In 2020, the PC games industry was valued at around $37 billion, and the mobile games market was over $77 billion. Box office receipts around the globe amounted to $12 billion. In fairness, 2020 saw the arrival of Covid which damaged cinema attendance badly. However, the games industry is clearly huge, and titles are so advanced now it is at the point where video games become art in many instances.

Basically, Twitch was ahead of its game when it was launched and has continued to grow into the prime streaming site for gamers.

How many followers do the top streamers have?
To define being a top streamer can be a little subjective as the figures show. The serious names in the business such as Ninja have over 18 million followers on Twitch with even more on YouTube. Some content creators even explore strategies like Buy Twitch Viewers to boost their viewership and enhance their presence in the highly competitive streaming landscape.

But figures from the first quarter of 2021 show that you need far less than this to be in the top group of streamers. During 90 days at the start of 2021, 93.3% of all streamers had just 5 views or less.

This means it would only take 6 viewers to make a streamer reach the top 7% best performing streamers. Of course, there is going to be a huge discrepancy between 7% and the top 1% or 2%.

To make money from streaming on Twitch you must become an Affiliate or Partner. There are qualifying criteria for both of these memberships and they involve having viewers. This is why many people buy Twitch views so that they can start to monetize their streams. Once you have a following you will appear more interesting to other users and you will start to collect more views.

To become an affiliate you need a minimum of 50 followers and 3 concurrent viewers over the previous 30 days. The partner program is stricter and requires 75 concurrent viewers minimum over the previous 30 days.

How do you become a leading streamer on Twitch?
Anyone interested in gaming for some time will have seen the evolution from arcades to powerful gaming PCs now. Art styles in gaming have gone from simple monochrome pixel graphics of Asteroids to the photo-realism of Gran Turismo 7.

Now, platforms such as Twitch offer different ways to enjoy games as a viewer and fan as much as a player. Becoming a top streamer though means a lot of work and time. The top Twitch streamers are putting in up to 10 hours a day with perhaps 1 or 2 days off a week. Often even on a day off the top streamers will do a more chilled-out stream unannounced.

You will need to stream frequently and for long periods to gain recognition. Your personality will count, often more than your game-playing ability. Reliability will matter too. If you wish to gain a loyal following then you need to stream when you say you will. And audience engagement is essential, especially if you wish to monetize your channel.

Can you genuinely make money from streaming on Twitch?
There are a number of ways to monetize a Twitch channel. As a Partner or Affiliate Member, you can make money from donations, Twitch bits, advertising, and subscriptions.

Twitch bits
Twitch rewards and encourages quality streams, and making revenue requires work. Twitch bits are a kind of in-platform currency that is used to cheer streamers on. You would receive $0.01 for every cheer that is sent.

Donations
Streamers can insert a donate button to their channel and receive tips. The top streamers often take in $200 per day this way.

Advertising
These can be inserted in between streams to create revenue. Be warned though, you could also lose your audience and receive fewer views if you overload them with ads. Adverts can lead to $250 a month per 100 followers.

Subscriptions
This is how streamers make real money. If you are regularly hitting high viewing figures you are likely to pick up some subscribers. All subscription fees are split 50/50 with Twitch. The minimum monthly subscription fee is $4.99.

To get subscribers means producing quality content consistently, and offering genuine value. Streamers can offer extra benefits to subscribers as incentives.

Summary
The simple answer to how many viewers are needed to get into the top group of Twitch streamers is not many. But, to get into the truly elite group will take millions of views.

Buying viewers may not be practical as a strategy for the longer term, but to earn a place in the Partner Program and start monetizing your channel it can be worth it. After that, it will all be down to your labor and the quality of your streams.