A relatively small group of superstars dominate attention and money on Twitch, but it’s still a place dominated by a vast underclass of lonely hearts looking for viewers. Twitch Roulette, first spotted by The Next Web, is my new favorite way to watch people on Twitch. It makes it easy to find the streamers out there searching for the 50 followers it takes to become a Twitch affiliate.
After flipping through a couple of offline channels and garden-variety Fortnite streams, I found “Big Lee:” a new streamer who says he has been going hard non-stop for the past few days. When I joined the stream, Lee was playing American Truck Simulator with no audience. (As my colleague Patricia Hernandez reported, some Twitch streamers spend years broadcasting to no one.) “I wanna hit 10 followers, then 50, and then keep going,” Lee told me in his chat room.
Though the most popular streamers may put on the most polished shows, Twitch has always been a great place to watch people who are just starting out, because they’re able to pay more attention to visitors and engage with their audience more deeply. One of the reasons I watch Twitch so often is that it just feels like hanging out with a friend you’ve never met.
Check out Twitch Roulette on the web to find those Ninjas-in-waiting, and lend a follow to a lonely streamer if you’re feeling generous. I’m done spinning the wheel for today, and I’ll be spending the rest of my afternoon watching Big Lee drive virtual trucks through the American countryside.