If you are thinking of buying Twitch viewbots for your Twitch.tv stream or are wondering about what they are I strongly suggest you to read this article. Many streamers have ruined their live streaming careers by getting involved with viewbots.
Why do Twitch viewbots exist?
When ever live content sites rank home page content by concurrent viewership there will always be people who try to inflate their viewer count so they can gain awareness by being shown above the fold.
When it comes to live streaming on Twitch if you can even get 5-10 viewers you are doing better than 80% of all streamers and thus you will more likely be seen since it is ranked by the highest streams first. This has always been the way Twitch worked.
It also led to the big streamers getting bigger. The funny thing is…the bigger you are the harder it is to spot whether or not you use viewbots.
Once you have some decent level of engagement then viewbotting under the radar becomes possible because your regular chatters will cover an inorganic looking level of engagement.
What are Twitch Viewbots?
Basically a company sets up a bunch of computers which can be controlled from a cloud source that directs those computers to open twitch streams and “watch” them. Since so many people have trouble getting their first 100 concurrent viewers, it seems like a good idea to get some fake viewers early on and that way you move your stream up in the directory for more visability. The problem is it is quite obvious if you do use them and people frown upon the usage of viewbots and it is bannable by Twitch.
Should you use viewbots to grow your stream?
The flat out answer is no.
Using viewbots will only inflate your ego temporarily. But you will fall flat when you realize you can't monetize fake followers or build a community around them.
It is also very hard to trick people these days. It is pretty easy to recognize someone is viewbotting when they used to have 0-1 viewers and now they have 40+ but no one is chatting. Or the chatters are saying mundane robot-like phrases. You can't trick winners. You might be able to trick your mom and dad if that is what you think is cool, but in the long run you will be hurt by any usage of viewbots.
Not to mention you can get banned by Twitch by using them.
How can people tell I use viewbots on Twitch?
Because you will have no one actually engaging with you. It will all be hollow. Twitch is an interactive platform and it is very unusual to have 50+ viewers and no one chatting.
It is also likely that soon Twitch will be able to track the IP addresses of these bots and potentially use that data to incriminate other channels who have similar viewers.
How much do Viewbots cost?
Doing a simple Google search I found two websites offering viewers for around $25 a month. You would be so much better off using that money to pay someone to edit your stream highlights or put that towards better equipment.
Using viewbots is a very bad idea and will not take you anywhere in life.
The end.
Stay live,
Lake
You say they serve to accomplish something (getting higher on the listings) and that people should not use them, but you give no solution to the problem of not being able to get noticed.
This is like telling people not to use a flammable life-boat when they are drowning.
Ok, so what do I do instead? Drown in obscurity?
Give them a try then. If you have to cheat to get out of obscurity what does that really do? can that really be sustainable?
The problem is viewbotting works, and its pretty much undetectable if you’re not an idiot about it. Obviously if you go from 0 to 40 viewers overnight with no active chatters, people are going to figure it out. But if you average 50 viewers, and you bot an extra 20 to push you up to 70 viewers, nobody is going to notice. And the benefit is you end up higher on the directory and attract more real viewers, and once you get more real viewers you can slowly increase the amount you bot.
Your argument is just plain wrong. Viewbotting is sustainable, it works, and just assuming every viewbotter is a fucking retard who’s going to expose themselves is ridiculous. The solution to viewbotting is to make getting discovered on twitch more attainable. People bot because they feel they need to, because when 90% of the viewers are the top 3 channels, and you’re at the bottom of the directory, its not a matter of how entertaining you are, its about finding somebody, anybody to even look at your channel. You aren’t cheating becuase your content sucks and you can’t keep viewers, you’re cheating because you aren’t even getting the chance to present yourself to viewers. The sooner people realize this and come up with actual solutions, the better twitch will be.
As a person who have used viewbots in the past, I can say that it is certainly not a good feeling. Knowing that you are “Cheating” in order to get even a single person to notice you sucks. But without it i’ll always be watching my own livestreams no matter how entertaining I am only because i’ll be at the bottom with 0 to no exposure. I agree with this post to a certain extent and almost everyone viewbots to the point where if you don’t viewbot you are just wasting your time in the streaming game. It’s been over a year and I probably won’t stream anymore and give up the hopes of becoming a partner with twitch because the competition is just about capital and influence.
For those who are thinking about viewbotting, go for it, if it doesn’t work out, it just doesn’t work out.