streamers haven

Should you buy viewers on Twitch or YouTube? Nope

We know that streaming to a non-existent audience can be very disheartening, but whatever you do, don’t buy viewers on Twitch or YouTube. It’s not worth the risk of being banned, and this also includes buying followers.

Don't Buy viewers on twitch or mixer.
This image is representing all the view bot advertisers tempting you, where you should simply say “No”.

It has come to my attention recently that quite a few people are participating in this scam in their attempts to grow. Let me explain to you why this is one of the worst things you can do for your channel.

There are a number of reasons as to why this is true, but the most important one is that your account will be flagged as a view bot user. What this means is any chances you had of becoming a partner is gone until the flag expires. Twitch makes a serious effort to prevent view-botters from becoming a partner, and that alone should be enough for you to not participate in buying viewers on Twitch or YouTube.

If that is not reason enough, Let’s go further into this.

Why buying viewers on Twitch and YouTube is a bad idea

Don't Buy viewers on Twitch!
5,400 searches a month…Bad idea guys!

These people that offer this service are doing so fully aware that it is against TOS and can get your account permanently banned. They are not your friends, they are scammers. So don’t fall for their sweet words. Here are a number of facts that you will have to contend with if you choose to ignore this advice:

  1. Partnership reviews will likely be denied if they suspect view-botting.
  2. It is against Twitch TOS. They could even ban your account, destroying potentially years of work.
  3. You need to spend a LOT of money to avoid flagging your account. 1-4 streams a week with a 70 viewer count at $20 a pop adds up quickly.
    • Which opens up more chances for Twitch to catch on.
  4. You may be hacked at any point during the transaction. This is especially true if they require a connection integration into your Twitch account. This means they hijack your account, 2FA or not (Since they have a back door).
  5. They can get your IP from when you visit their website, meaning they can directly hack you. (Think Ransomware, Astaroth Trojan, Keyloggers, etc.) Anything they can do to make more money from you.
  6. You risk your financial credentials and even identity being sold on the Dark Web, meaning fraudulent charges can be made to your account. This could potentially cost you thousands and a forced engagement in an uphill battle to prove your identity was stolen.

I totally get it is a frustrating experience to stream to nobody, and you may even be considering buying a viewer package from these sites. But there are better ways that are free, even if looked upon poorly.

So please, don’t buy viewers for Twitch. It really isn’t worth the risk.

Lurking Communities – The Free Viewers

Lurking communities work together to push each other's goals.

Join a lurker community. These tend to be looked at poorly by in large, but at least the viewers you get are free, and not bots. They might not engage with chat, or even watch your stream, but they are a hell of a lot better than a view-bot package you purchase from some obscure website.

Lurking Communities are a way to “generate free viewers”. No need to risk the theft of your credit or debit card, or fraudulent charges being made to your card after the first purchase. No risk of being banned, and you can actually make some real friends in these communities, and not have to fake it to a bunch of bots.

They also do not break TOS, and can even be a lot of fun. I was once an active member of the HypeSpeed Community (Formerly Lurkspeed) and I had a lot of fun with them and learned a lot from them. Many times, they even stayed and chatted for the duration of my streams. All for free. If all you are looking for is someone to chat with during stream, this is my recommendation to you.


Better than Lurker Communities

Instead of Buying viewers on twitch, join a lurking community. HypeSpeed Logo.
The Official HypeSpeed Logo used with permission from BlaineThePain. Check them out!

These guys, in particular (HypeSpeed), are a bit different from your typical lurking communities. Rather than simply open a chrome tab with your stream at minimum volume in a multi-Twitch tab like most communities, they actively engage in your chat, talk with people who stop in if you’re afk, and even drop bits, gift subs, and more. They are not a lurking community so much as they are a good streaming community.

Some of the things they do for members of their community include:

  • Active promotion of members of Hype Speed that have the “Official Streamer” role on discord.
  • Organize large raids for members of the community at large
  • Offer support for members who need someone to talk to
  • And much more. Join their discord to find out more!

This should be your first choice before you buy viewers on Twitch. (Which you should not do regardless!) Of course, you should also be making a big effort in advertising yourself. In fact, advertising yourself should be your primary concern when starting out. Like a business, if nobody knows about you, how are you going to get customers? YouTube is a great resource to use.


What you should spend your money on instead

Say no to Buying viewers on twitch. Use your money to improve your production value instead, or to do paid advertising

There are hundreds of better ways to spend money to see growth. It won’t have the explosive surge that a view bot has, but you will see organic growth using these methods:


Improving your set – Products designed to boost production value

There are a number of products that exist today that can make your life easier as a content creator. These will not directly result in more people watching your stream but can help to improve the quality of your streams. These are a far better investment of your money than buying a viewer package every stream at the very least.


Expand into YouTube – Hire an Editor and Scriptwriter

If you aren’t very good with editing, or creating a script to follow for a video, then investing in an editor and scriptwriter can be an excellent use of your money that will pay itself back over time. YouTube is probably one of the best resources on the internet for streamers to create video content that can serve as an advertisement to your streaming channel.

I have outlined a strategy for people who say they can’t make time for creating videos, which becomes even easier when you hire an editor to take that off your hands. In fact, utilizing this strategy, I’ve had one guy tell me that they even made 53 videos in a single day, and released them one video a week. In other words, by giving himself 3 days to do nothing but create YouTube videos, he made enough video content to regularly post a video once a week for 53 weeks straight.

53 videos released once a week. AKA, 1 year’s worth of videos in THREE DAYS.

AKA, 1 year’s worth of videos in THREE DAYS. Obviously, you don’t have to take it as far as that guy did, but even if you make 3 videos in those 3 days, that’s still 3 videos more than you had before serving as an advertisement to your streaming content if you mention that you stream in those videos.


Posters, Business cards, car magnets, blog articles, clips from a stream, etc.

Example Business card.
An example Business card.

Finally, we have classical advertising:

  • Posters
  • Business Cards
  • Car Magnets
  • Buying a blog article
  • Clips from your stream being posted to Social media
  • and many others

These methods of advertising are tried and true ways of generating public interest. Though, with the pandemic being what it is, some of them are off limits at the moment. Still, you can buy a blog article from some writers who can do an interview with you, apply to do a podcast interview with someone over the internet, purchase Car magnets to advertise your stream whenever you are out getting groceries, etc.

There are a ton of ways to get your content in front of peoples eyes that doesn’t involve buying viewbot or followbots for your channel. If, after all of this you are still going to buy them, then let me leave you with this:

Were they worth it?

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