Best Games to Stream on Twitch as a Small Streamer

If you're searching for the best games to stream, you're about to find a hundred listicles naming the same big titles. Those lists are exactly wrong for a small streamer.

Here's the actual answer. The best game to stream is one that still has viewership but isn't popular to stream. That's it. That's the whole framework, and it never goes out of date.

Let me show you why with what happened to me.

The game I quit made my stream

Back in 2014 I was streaming Advanced Warfare when it came out. Brand new CoD, huge hype, hundreds of streamers in the category. I was last on a list nobody scrolls to the bottom of. And honestly, I didn't even enjoy the game.

That second part matters. I wasn't just invisible, I was grinding hours on a game I didn't even like, for nobody. That's the trap the "stream what's popular" advice puts you in.

So I quit AW and switched to CoD Ghosts. A year old, hype long gone, but it still had an active audience. I went from tens of followers to over a thousand in a year.

Nothing about me changed. The math changed.

Why this works

Ninja pointed out this same advice a while back: go to smaller games that still have viewership, then switch over to the big ones later once you've established a base.

I agree with him. Although I don't even know why I'm citing him, I could have told you that advice before he said it, because it worked for me back in 2014.

Twitch's category list is the only discovery a small streamer gets, which I broke down fully in How to Get Viewers on Twitch When You Have Zero. So when you're picking a game, you're looking for exactly one thing: an audience that still shows up, and a streamer list short enough that they can actually find you.

"But I want to play the newest CoD"

Okay. This advice is for people dead set on streaming and growing. If you're dead set on a specific popular game instead, you can still do it, but the job changes completely.

Play the newest CoD. Then start making social media content covering it. News, weapon breakdowns, whatever people are searching for about that game. Make the content, post it, and link your Twitch stream everywhere.

And here's the part I'm dead serious about: promoting your stream should take 5x the time you actually spend streaming. Maybe more.

Do that and you might start growing. But it still won't be close to what I'm suggesting above. The small game path grows you with the time you're already spending live. The popular game path makes you a content creator who also streams. Know which deal you're taking.

The short version

Pick a game people still watch but few people stream. Ride it to a real base. Switch to the bigger games later if you want, with an audience that follows you there.

I streamed to nobody in a hyped game and grew to 1,000 in a forgotten one. The game you pick is the biggest growth decision you'll make at zero.

I write this blog for creators going from zero to their first 1,000. Subscribe below and every post lands in your inbox.