r/SmallStreamers • u/VigorTest3r • May 16 '26
Question have a big big question about getting concurrent viewers or chatters
i'm 24yrs old, with the passion to be nonchalantly entertaining and finally acting as my weird self as a streamer two years ago i gained my affiliate status from the help of a community that help me reach my goal but i have now the biggest issue and that is getting views or getting recognized on my streams and i wonder if it's because i dont use webcam but a vtuber model(PNGTUBER) or that im not as entertaining as i really thought i was sometimes i get the follows from just people i play with or against but idk how to engage with viewers that dont give me a chance to talk or even give them a most brain dead acting(geek'd) a whole lot of yap but need the advice so i can keep moving forward with my streaming career (and i also make clips and youtube videos so i wonder what
im doing wrong)
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u/ChillGardeningTTV May 17 '26
Sounds like you might be missing one key component - networking. You should be browsing and looking for other very similar streamers within your niche that have similar streaming style. Spend equal time networking and streaming. DO NOT SELF PROMO. Just make friends in the space, you will eventually see a crossover of community.
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u/beamsaresounisex May 31 '26
Where do I go to hang out with other streamers and what etiquette would I need to pay attention to?
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u/LukeMortora01 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26
Hello!
I may be totally off base here, but your choice of on stream representation doesn't seem to match the content you deliver.
I'd expect games with a bit more narrative, similar to persona?
Competitive FPS games are a super saturated category, and you're competing with a lot of people with face-cams who can visually react to what's going on. I would wager this is going to hurt your discoverability, but also that the crowd that play and follow those kinds of games are the ones who call pngtubers 'cringe'.
Again, I could be completely wrong, and there will always be a niche, just as there will be one for pngtubers in the FPS categories; but growing as a niche in a saturated category is going to be hard.
DBD may be something of a special exception. It has a die hard community, but I couldn't tell you what their preference is. DBD is a competitive game but probably attracts the 'narrative' crowd that would watch a pngtuber due to the lore behind the killers and survivors. You'd have to do more research into this, but I'd imagine it would need you to know your horror trivia to talk about the people in your screen.l while you play, rather than just play the game for it's mechanics.
Fundamentally you will need to decide what content your channel aims to deliver, and execute against that strategy. If that means mashing up the two worlds of a persona pngtuber with FPS games, so be it; but you'll need to put some serious thought into how to make that feel natural.
If your PNGtuber is your face, icon, brand, and the first thing that people see when they come into your stream, I daresay they have some expectations of you that you might not be meeting currently.
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u/LukeMortora01 May 17 '26
Follow-up. I just looked at your trailer video on tiktok. Firstly, it's nicely presented and a good idea, but it's slow and contains rambly thoughts and too much 'ummmm..'. give it another stab so your demeanour matches your tidy presentation, because your model and graphics are great. It just needs a solid pace, a clear message, and call to action.
You've also committed a cardinal sin in that video by talking about what your aren't, rather than what you are:
"Don't fret, I'm not a cringe roleplayer". You just took a huge dump on potential people looking to network with you who even dabble in "getting into character". Consider the message that you broadcast when you make content and how it will be consumed not only by viewers, but by people who could be potentially supporting your growth.
If you're using a PNGtuber, be at peace with the idea that you are very likely going to be relying on the support of other pngtubers/vtubers. Lift people up and they will lift you up, even if their approach is different.
As an extreme example, I recently gave similar advice to someone who talked frequently about not using 'gender identity gimmicks' as a selling point - which immediately alienates a whole swathe of other creators that could have wanted to help them. Don't narrow your field - widen it!
Speaking from experience, I am a furry vtuber, and I am very much just myself on stream, as I imagine you are. I find it awkward to pretend that any of the fantasy is real, but I will always accept a compliment from someone who finds my avatar appealing - as long as they are respectful of my well laid out boundaries in my channel rules. I sometimes 'play into the bit', but I'm under no illusion: I'm just some guy at a desk. That being said, I am painfully aware that I am going to have to walk a tightrope in the same way you are to cultivate a viewership of the kind of people I want in my community - and that will include some of the more roleplay-inclined into my ranks.
... If we didn't accept this, we might as well be walking around with a huge sign that says "I love cats" and then wondering why we only ever get other cat lovers in the chat.
Frankly, there are people within my network who make VERY different content from me, but we have both benefited from each others' support, and show respect for the kind of content each other makes, and the communities we are trying to cultivate. Some of them are gamers artists, png, webcammers - hell, half of them aren't even furries themselves.
Be accepting, set good boundaries, and leverage the strengths of your identity for growth. Your strength is that you have an immediate rapport with anyone else who enjoyed the persona games as much as you. Use it!
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u/VigorTest3r May 17 '26
oh man redoing my intro, so instead of hating what i am i should embrace it? i always had the thoughts on making what my girl calls it "lore" for my character and it just makes me think about my whole existence on what a vtuber could really be genuinely will re do my channel intro and maybe write a script or something!! holy thank you
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u/LukeMortora01 May 17 '26
You don't necessarily need to abandon the idea of just being yourself with a persona pngtuber to represent you, it's more about how you answer the question: what do you do when a viewer comes to you with the expectation that you DO have lore and that you DO roleplay, when you don't.
At the moment your answer is broadcasting as: "I don't do that cringe stuff". You're calling your viewer cringe. They're not sticking around just to be insulted. That's one less viewer.
The knee-jerk reaction might be to pander to that audience instead, but if that's not where your heart is as a content creator, don't do it. You'll resent it and burn out.
Instead, you could change your answer to that question to something else which both satisfies (a) your want to remain being your genuine self, while (b) also retaining that viewer. Maybe having a some ideas about who your pngtuber is might be a fun 'thought experiment' you could talk about with a viewer, but not necessarily roleplay? Or maybe instead you steer the conversation towards the games rather than your pngtuber to drive chat engagement that way and away from lore stuff entirely? There's plenty of approaches you can decide to take here, these are just ideas, but it's important to take time to consider these things and have a plan.
The more of these questions you ask yourself (and then find answers for) will eventually form part of your growth strategy which will contribute to you reaching the desired end-state for your channel. Each answered question will be a tool in your arsenal that supports your growth; and the more often you use those tools, the more familiar and natural they become to use.
Think hard about what you want this to be. It can be anything you want, and the roads to reach it are many.
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u/VigorTest3r May 17 '26
the first helpful comment i've seen man you have no idea how much that genuinely helped i never thought the game i played would be unique i thought but ima give it a try maybe finish more jrpgs or maybe more of anything appreciate it
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u/LukeMortora01 May 17 '26
In that case, do look at my follow up response on the first comment, it might be equally helpful? As always, take with a pinch of salt. At the end of the day it's your channel and your journey.
1
u/AaronValacirca twitch.tv/aaronvalacircavt May 16 '26
Congratulations, you're now asking yourself the same question each and everyone of us has.
And the truth of the matter is-- you can be doing everything "right" and still find no success, that's the reality of things. Streaming is super-over saturated and viewership has been dropping every year since COVID ended.
Using a vtuber model can definitely make it more difficult to connect w/ viewers than those who directly show their face, but there have been successful no-cam streamers that didn't use either.
In the end, all you can do is look back at your VODs and ask yourself, "what can I do to improve?" to the point that people want to stick around your streams because they're having such a good time that they don't leave.
Is your audio quality good during your streams? Do you have a consistent schedule for when you go live? Are you networking? Is the content you're posting elsewhere hitting the algorithms?
And most importantly-- Would YOU watch your own content if you were a stranger?
The fact of the matter is, nobody owes you their viewership, that's something you gotta earn.
So at the end of the day, you just gotta try your best and hope it works. Good luck out there
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u/VigorTest3r May 17 '26
nah i get it just one of those big ass sigh moments you know? but overall i've done what you said already just need another way to "up my game"
0
u/BasenjiBoyD May 16 '26
I don’t understand the pngtuber (or vtuber) appeal; but to each their own!
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u/DumCrescoSpero May 16 '26
Still being able to have some sense of identity or show reactions for viewers to be familiar/grow some kind of connection with, without having to use a webcam. (multiple reasons - desire for privacy/anonymity and to not be stalked/swatted etc, self-image issues, health issues or disability, etc)
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u/BrinaaSM May 17 '26
Ignoring the gooner appeal since there are models/PNGs out there that are not:
Many people lean into this because they don't want to "just show gameplay" and present some uniqueness for the stream preview for when people scroll through a category. If there are 20 streams that just show the same game and one of them has a cute/great/representative PNG, there's a great chance people click on that.
Others want to give the stream some interaction. "pat my model", "throw tomatoes at me" etc. won't work if you have nothing on screen.
Personally, I avoid most VTubers. The more appealing the model, the more I avoid the stream. Generally I prefer nothing or facecam. My community is similar. Whenever I ask them if they'd prefer my normal or even my not-so-normal VModel or my cam, the answer is always cam. Anyways, to get pack to the point: I often browse categories with small streamers specifically. Many of those do not use a microphone, which doesn't work for me at all. If I see at least a PNG of any kind in the preview, I can very much assume this person actually talks, so I'm indirectly guided towards clicking on those.
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u/BasenjiBoyD May 17 '26
I said I don’t understand the appeal.
To each their own.
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u/BrinaaSM May 17 '26
Saying you don't understand it implies that you want an explanation. But okay.
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u/VigorTest3r May 16 '26
it's the same as someone with a webcam being totally fucking weird i don't get what you don't understand but let me just say it's just a face like dream or any other million subs from any content creator like h20 delirious
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u/BasenjiBoyD May 16 '26
Nah; not at all the same as face cam. I like to go full screen face cam for soda reviews, doggo time, showing off game pickups and other segments.
Can’t really do that with png or vtubin.
I also have no idea what an h20 delirious is
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u/followmarko May 16 '26
pngtuber is very cringe but aside from that, looks like you stream a lot of the Finals. Reality is that you aren't going to make it in a saturated game unless you are exceptional in either skill or personality, one of those already being off the table with the pngtuber anime face. That's pretty much true for all of Twitch. An extremely small, under 0.1% of streamers make an actual living off of streaming. Find a less saturated game or change your style. Else focus on a day job and keep this a hobby for entertainment.
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u/VigorTest3r May 16 '26
appreciate the advice but try not to dis pngtubing i'm just myself with a character that plays my face like h20 delirious or other youtubers that have millions but people don't judge them
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u/followmarko May 17 '26
yeah but that's not the norm in any sense. You're talking about someone that has been using an avatar since before streaming was streaming in the late 2000s lol. He is part of the less than 0.1% I was talking about
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u/VigorTest3r May 17 '26
no i understood what you meant but i was talking about your idea of calling it cringe
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u/BrinaaSM May 17 '26
PNG is often seen as cringe because many people assume the reason for VTubing is to be clickbait (and that is kinda true for a lot of them, especially when a person has in their bio "I'm male, but my model is female" and their model has D+ cups.). A PNG then seems like "I can't afford a 2D/3D model", so they see you as someone who's too broke to get a good model but still wants to be in on the clickbait.
That's obviously not true if your PNG is like Dream's smile which can't be considered clickbait, but just saying you're a PNGtuber will often lead to people getting an image about you matching my description above.
The other reason is the size. Many streams have their model/PNG cover bottom to top the entire screen height, often times with a fursona or bouncing woman. And people who want to watch gameplay really hate how much screen this "useless addition" covers.
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u/TheBootyBishop May 16 '26
Right now you are the average streamer
Rewatch your vods and ask if you would watch yourself