Streaming star Ludwig ‘Ludwig’ Ahgren has explained why he ‘hates’ multi-streams and why streams should focus on one platform as some big names make their way back to Twitch.
When streaming first started becoming a legitimate career choice for creators, Twitch was, really, the only game in town. However, over the last few years, other sites have joined the party.
The likes of YouTube, Kick, Mixer, Facebook Gaming, and others have handed out exclusive contracts to streamers in a bid to compete with Twitch. These deals are designed to give a platform total exclusivity over a streamer. Yet, some have started ditching those contracts for a bit more freedom in multi-streams.
With multi-streaming, creators can host the same stream across different platforms all at once, allowing viewers to watch along from the site they prefer without missing out on anything.
While viewers benefit, Ludwig believes that multi-streaming might come at a cost to streamers and that the next big star won’t be a multi-streamer.
“Feels like every YouTube livestreamer instantly swaps back over to Twitch, or starts multistreaming, the moment their contract ends,” he said on September 1 after TimTheTatman and DrLupo made their returns to Twitch.
“I’m personally a multistreaming hater based off my goals. I find the benefit of added overall viewership isn’t worth fracturing the audience,” he followed-up in a reply to fellow creator PirateSoftware.
“I also find streamers have a bias towards their preferred platform leaving one of the chats as the “step-child.” The next Kai Cenat won’t be a multi streamer who has 50k average viewers on 2 platforms it’ll be a streamer who dominates with 80k viewers on 1 IMO.”
Ludwig did note that he multi-streams for events – like ChessBoxing. However, you won’t find him broadcasting a regular stream across the different platforms.
“Oh yeah I think if are growing you shouldn’t marry yourself to one platform,” he added. “And if your goal is just more viewership so you can spread your message to more people, make more money, or whatever that makes a lot of sense.”
Other streamers like Pokimane and Valkyrae also chimed in, with ‘Rae wishing that there was is a way to “squish” the pros and cons of YouTube and Twitch into one.
“Streaming on YouTube is fun but you can miss out on the traffic from game directories/metas, and it takes more effort to interact with other streamers,” Poki said.