Views from Outside Twitch update

Update to 'Views from Outside Twitch'

A undocumented change happened in the stats dashboard for Twitch streamers that you should know about! Views from Outside Twitch has a source called "Direct" and you are probably wondering what exactly gets put into the direct section?

Answer is any sub-domain urls that are embedding your stream all get put into direct -see update note. Note: It also include other things but to the best of my knowledge its mostly subdomains. If anyone knows what else is put into the direct bin, please let me know by commenting below!

In the past you would be able to see blogspot and gamepedia being listed in this stat section- see update note. Here is a example of that via the screenshot

Now its more limited, here is a recent screenshot from the "Views from Outside Twitch" section.

What is more helpful for streamers to know? A Bulk number of external views coming from who knows where or knowing each of the URLS of the top most external views. In my opinion its better to know the exact domains / subdomains and URLS of what is showcasing your stream. Right now if any gamepedia wiki features a streamer, they will not have any idea where that viewership traffic is coming from because it will not list gamepedia anymore in the views from outside twitch section.


Having a section called "Direct" just doesnt make sense either. When you are listing views from outside twitch and then put in something called direct, people will be confused. I hope they do some changes in the future to bring back the more detail reporting. The more information streamers know about how and where their streams are being consumed the better planning and decision making can occur.

Update - 6/6/2020 - "Twitch has made changes and now shows subdomain information in the views from outside twitch section. Not exactly sure when they implemented the update, but basically they took the suggestion from this post and fixed it to show subdomains and other helpful information."

Atlas Launch delayed, but the hype meter was on overdrive

Atlas Launch has been delayed, viewers showed up in mass on Twitch.

During the failed launch of Atlas on Dec 19, we saw over 210,000 viewers on Twitch waiting to see what the game is all about. For a game with very limited information other then some screenshots and 2 trailers, I find the hype meter really high.

Some of the biggest streamers on Twitch all switched from their regular scheduled formats to showcase this new game. Here is a look at the game directory on Twitch with some thumbnails of majority of the streamers.

Judging by the interest in viewers and of streamers, this game may do really well if the next launch window isn't delayed again. What makes this game different from other mmo's is how they are saying its going to be similar to EVE Online with having a majority of players on a single shard.  If they can pull that off, with ARK like mechanics and trading economies from EVE, this maybe one of the best games for streamers to get into for regular sessions.

Check out our new PlayAtlas wiki website being developed.

That being said, if it gets into EVE Online mechanics with full loot and ship loss it may turn off a lot of players. All of it depends on the time it takes to create ships and gear. If its very easy to create ships and gear then that also makes things alittle gimmicky. Since its on a single shard type of server setup, stream sniping is going to be a issue for streamers.

12/21/2018 - Latest Update from community manager states they will be allowing some streamers into the game before launch. Here is the discord screenshot of the full statement.

Overall this entire roll out has been poorly managed for the game in my opinion.  A lot of things should of been setup and handled better way before launch date(s).

How to get free game keys sponsor for your twitch stream!

Unlock Free Game Keys and Sponsorships: The Ultimate 2026 Guide for Streamers and Content Creators

As a streamer or YouTube creator, scoring free game keys isn't just a nice perk - it's a powerful way to keep your content fresh, engage your audience, and open doors to bigger opportunities with game developers. In 2026, the competition is fiercer than ever, but the right platforms make it easier for legitimate creators to connect directly with publishers who are eager for authentic coverage.

These specialized services act as matchmakers. They verify your channels by linking your Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and social accounts, pulling real data on your audience size, engagement, and content history. This screening process helps cut out fake accounts and ensures developers are sending keys to creators who will actually deliver value. The more you stream, post, and grow your following, the more opportunities come your way.

Here are the key platforms I rely on regularly to fuel my Twitch channel with new titles. I've updated this list with the latest info for 2026, including some important platform consolidations.

1. Keymailer.co

Keymailer remains one of the leading game key distribution platforms, connecting over 55,000 accredited gaming influencers with publishers and developers. It's perfect for discovering new releases, requesting keys, and even participating in creator programs. Publishers list their games, and creators like you can browse and apply based on your niche.

Pro tip: Get accredited to stand out - it signals to publishers that you're an active, genuine creator.

2. Noiz.gg

Noiz.gg offers key distribution along with fun monetization opportunities through quests and campaigns. It's a vibrant platform that helps creators earn while engaging their communities with brand partnerships in gaming and entertainment.

3. Terminals.io

Terminals.io is a robust key distribution and PR platform with access to over 29,000 verified media, streamers, and YouTubers. Developers use it to get games in front of the right eyes efficiently, while creators can request keys and stay updated on upcoming releases.

4. Gamesight.io

Gamesight.io excels in targeted key distribution and creator programs. They've paid out millions to creators and distributed hundreds of thousands of keys. It's ideal for building relationships with AAA and indie studios through structured campaigns.

5. Xsolla Partner Network

Xsolla's Partner Network is performance-driven, offering game keys, affiliate programs, and sponsorship opportunities. It's great for creators looking to monetize through promotions and earn while playing. The platform has grown even stronger through strategic integrations.

Note: Arsenal.gg and Rainmaker.gg Integration

Arsenal.gg evolved into Rainmaker.gg and has now been fully integrated into the Xsolla Partner Network. This consolidation brings together analytics, key distribution, and powerful creator tools under one unified platform. If you were using Arsenal or Rainmaker before, your accounts and opportunities are now managed seamlessly through Xsolla.

Pro Tips to Maximize Your Success

• Complete your profile thoroughly: Link all your channels and socials for accurate verification and better game matching.
• Be selective and consistent: Request games that fit your audience and deliver high-quality streams or videos promptly.
• Track your metrics: Many platforms provide analytics - use them to understand what works and grow your channel.
• Build relationships: Positive interactions can lead to repeat opportunities and exclusive sponsorships.

These platforms have helped me tremendously in keeping my content pipeline full. If you're serious about growing as a content creator, sign up for a few and start exploring what's available today.

Know of any other great services not listed here? Drop a comment below or reach out - I'm always on the lookout for new ways to support the streaming community!

Android App - Browse games by number of viewers

How to sort on the Twitch Android App by number of viewers!

So Twitch by default it seems has a preference setting that says the following; "Language Ranking" - Show me streams where a large portion of the viewers share my language first.



This setting makes games and streamers of your language have higher placement on the directory listing sections on the app.  If you want to have it so its all sorted by viewer numbers and no language, you will have to turn this setting off in the preferences.

Steps to get to Preferences, since it seems alittle cryptic to finding this settings option.

Login to the Twitch App

On the Top Right corner there is a Icon for your profile.



Click on that, then scroll up to see the Cogwheel.



Click on the cogwheel, select settings

Then click on Preferences and move the language ranking setting to the off position.

Tags Guide

How to use the tags system on Twitch.tv!

The new tagging system is now live as of September 26, 2018 on Twitch.tv. Tags can be used to categorize channels with additional details. To add tags to your channel go to the dashboard and check in the "Stream Information" for the tags section.


Search for the tag that best fits your channel, you can have up to 5 different tags. Your language setting is also included in the tagging system. Once you have added in all the tags for your channel, press update information button.

All the various tags will be available as filter options in the directory pages. The tagging system will also be used in personalized recommendation section(s) to show more similar streams based on past history and tag listings. For instance, if you watch channels that are tagged as 'PvE', the recommendation sections will show more of those types of channels.

Notable Changes
 
The gaming directory now has unique tags dedicated to genres.

List of Game Directory Genres:

• Action
• Adventure
• Adventure Game
• Battle Royale
• Card & Board Game
• Compilation
• Creative
• Driving
• Driving/Racing Game
• Educational Game
• Fighting
• Flight Simulator
• FPS
• Gambling Game
• Horror
• IRL
• MMORPG
• MOBA
• Non-gaming
• Pinball
• Platformer
• Puzzle
• Rhythm & Music Game
• Roguelike
• RPG
• RTS
• Shoot 'Em Up
• Shooter
• Simulation
• Sports
• Strategy

You can not set your tags to any of these genres, they are only listed for games and special categories.

The POPULAR listing is now called Live Channels, this still includes 'ReRun' streams.


If you are looking to search for specific languages, you can either type it in the filter or switch the 'Showing' section to 'Live Channels' and find it in the drop down list.

 

Creative Section changes

The creative section has changed, "Creative" is now a genre with tags that are searchable.

• Music & Performing Arts
• Art
• Food & Drink
• Makers & Crafting
• Beauty & Body Art

IRL Section changes



The IRL section has changed, "IRL" is now a genre with tags that are searchable.

• Just Chatting
• Music & Performing Arts
• Talk Shows & Podcasts
• ASMR
• Travel & Outdoors
• Food & Drink
• Makers & Crafting
• Science & Technology
• Beauty & Body Art
• Special Events
• Sports & Fitness

---

Update 4/18/2020

Make sure to use all 5 tag slots for your stream because Twitch is using certain tags for their sitemap indexing pages that search engines crawl and then index into their directories. This is sadly going to only benefit the top viewed vod and the most live concurrent channels but you maybe lucky with a smaller channel to still be index'ed in time to time because many top end streamers are to lazy to add in tags.

Here is a list of the current specific tags used in Twitch's sitemap index that you should be using.

Channels	VODS
100	100
12 Hour Challenge
Achievement Hunting	Achievement Hunting
AMA	AMA
Analysis
Animals	Animals
Animation
Anime	Anime
Any	Any
Arena
Auditory ASMR
Backseat Gaming Allowed	Backseat Gaming Allowed
Basketball	Basketball
Beginner Players	Beginner Players
Blind Playthrough	Blind Playthrough
Cash Game
Casual Playthrough
Celeb	Celeb
Challenge Run	Challenge Run
Charity	Charity
Closed Captions
Coaching	Coaching
Competitive	Competitive
Cooking	Cooking
Cooperative	Cooperative
Cosplay	Cosplay
Digital Art
DJ	DJ
Drawing	Drawing
Duos	Duos
Early Access Play	Early Access Play
Educational	Educational
Electronic Music	Electronic Music
End Game
Epic Level Characters
Esports	Esports
EU Server	EU Server
Evil Characters	Evil Characters
Exploration	Exploration
Family Friendly	Family Friendly
Farming	Farming
Fashion
Finance
First Playthrough	First Playthrough
Game Show	Game Show
Gaming News	Gaming News
Hard Mode	Hard Mode
Hip Hop Music	Hip Hop Music
Illustration
Improv
League	League
Let's Play	Let's Play
Leveling	LGBTQIA
LGBTQIA
Live Vlogging	Live Vlogging
Marathon	Marathon
Match Commentary	Match Commentary
Meme Runs	Meme Runs
Mental Health	Mental Health
Mindfulness	Mindfulness
Modded	Modded
	Mode Battle Royale
Mode Survival	Mode Survival
Multiplayer	Multiplayer
Music Performance	Music Performance
Music Production	Music Production
NA Server	NA Server
News	News
No Backseat Gaming	No Backseat Gaming
No Spoilers	No Spoilers
Party Game	Party Game
PB Attempts	PB Attempts
Permadeath
Playing with Viewers	Playing with Viewers
Pro Fortnite	Pro Fortnite
Pro Hearthstone	Pro Hearthstone
PvE	PvE
PvP	PvP
Racing	Racing
Radio	Radio
Ranked	Ranked
Retro
Roleplay	Roleplay
Singing	Singing
Singleplayer	Singleplayer
Soccer	Soccer
Social Eating	Social Eating
Solos	Solos
Speedrun	Speedrun
Squads	Squads
Standup Comedy	Standup Comedy
Strength Training	Strength Training
Tournament	Tournament
Tutorial
Twitch Stream Aid	Twitch Stream Aid
Visual ASMR	Visual ASMR
Voice Acting	Voice Acting
VR	VR
Warming Up	Warming Up
WR Attempts

Twitch appears to have a special tag called "Celeb" which only a couple channels appear to be enabled for which include the following: xqcow, drdisrespect, nickmercs, timthetatman, lirik. Some other tags in the above list may also be not accessible, I do not have the time to check all of them.

Another issue to be noted on is that you can only set the tags before your stream or during your stream.  Currently you can not go into your VODS and switch tags. VODS take the tags that were made during the stream session. I hope they allow VOD tagging to be enabled in the future.

When external Influencers start to censor!

How a powerful external influencer starts to censor?
As reported a couple months ago on this blog, one of the biggest external influencers which is OWNED BY TWITCH has been promoting twitch streams on their wiki network. The more popular a wiki is on their network, the more traffic and embedded viewership it generates for Twitch streamers.

Some of the most popular Wiki's on that network include but are not limited to the following;

• Minecraft
• Terraria
• Ark

The way they pick which streamer to promote depends on placement on the game directory. For instance, on the Terraria wiki, whatever stream is in the top spot (of the terraria directory on twitch) will get most of the traffic that is generated from this 3rd party embed on the Terraria wiki.

Now this sounds like great for getting additional exposure for your stream right? Yup it is and I wrote about that here - Free Channel Traffic / Free Views

And here is how the censorship starts due to complaints from streamers vs streamers.

My channel broadcasts 24/7 using the rerun feature that is provided by Twitch. I like to play sandbox games on my stream and sometimes do play through runs of games. I broadcasting each day for around 5 to 8 hours then run reruns until I stream again the next day. A month ago, I was streaming Terraria which is one of the games that is being VERY LARGELY influenced by this 3rd party. A majority of the streamers who regularly stream that game do not have the reach in views that my channel generates daily. So what happen was as soon as I took the top spot in the directory, a huge chuck of the 3rd party embedding traffic was being sent to my channel which made it very difficult for other channels to overtake the top slot on the directory. The "free channel traffic" was gone for them and they didnt like it at all.

Without the 3rd party embedding support for Terraria, its overall viewership is alot lower. Estimated additional concurrent viewers from 3rd party is 400 - 1500+ depending on time of day. Many people who stream this game only do it because of that additional embedding traffic, some use it to launchpad into other games. So once that was gone, they started to campaign against my channel. One of them talked negativity about my channel on their stream, which lead to trolling in my chat from their viewbase.

At some point they contacted the 3rd party to complain about my channel. The 3rd party agreed with the complaints and censored my channel from being listed + promoted on their wiki.

I messaged the 3rd party myself to see exactly what the reason was for not being listed anymore.

Here was the responses:

• That channel was banned from our wiki after it was brought to our attention that they were exploiting the system, as documented in a blog.
  
  • So I guess they didnt like how I told people about how they are influencing/sending tons of traffic to certain games on twitch.... Is this suppose to be TOP SECRET? Who knows ...I replied and asked for more clarification.
• The 24/7 streaming is the issue. Once you've grabbed the unit, you don't give it up because you fill up reruns. The point of the embedded unit is to promote LIVE content, not reruns.
  
  • They made up a rule that no one knows about, its not listed anywhere, how is anyone suppose to know? I replied, since doing reRuns until the next time I stream was the issue, I said I can stop doing that and asked to be unbanned.
• You will not be unbanned. The embed is for promoting the games and platform, not for streamers to game for revenue.
  • This is a interesting reply, note the "Streamers to game for revenue". I didnt know streaming on twitch was a hobby, this person's mindset is very poor.

So they censored my channel, what happened then?



This person "HLAquarius" was monitoring the situation and ran to whisper me, but then for some odd reason they delete their username a couple days later? Hmm?


What makes this censorship stupid is how the Twitch API gives details if channels are in ReRun mode or Live, if the 3rd party doesn't want to promote or list a streamer in rerun mode, they can easily code it to not do that instead of censoring due to complaints from streamers.

And now I recently started to stream No Man's Sky again, and guess what happened? Another complaint and tada censored on another wiki from this Twitch owned 3rd party.

Let me finish up with some words of advice, if you are a streamer do not become depended on any 3rd party traffic or embedding, one day it may help get more exposure and the next day it maybe gone. Build your own content, wikis, do your own embedding and promotions - be in control!

What is launch padding for streamers?

What is launch padding and how are streamers doing it?

Launch padding is basically using specific games with high 3rd party embedding traffic to gain higher directory placement in new or more popular games.

What are some games that are good for launch padding?

As of 8/30/2018 the day of this post, the following games in my opinion have the best launch padding potential.

• Terraria
• Ark
• Minecraft

Some of the ways I have seen streamers exploit launch padding is by streaming game #2 and then when they finish broadcasting for the day, they then do reruns streams of game #1 (usually one of the games listed). Because viewership levels tend to drop during certain time zones and the amount of streamers also goes down, they are able to grab the top slot in game #1 directory and once that occurs the traffic from the embedding 3rd party boosts them. This is not always perfect but in general its works pretty well for some.

Or they stream game #1 until they grab the embedding traffic spike, then switch to game #2. A good example would be some people streaming Terraria, grabbing the embedding traffic and then switching to other games that have 'Twitch Drop' enabled like Warframe which further boosts numbers depending on directory placement.

If you have a big enough community, you can leverage this to possibly help with getting more exposure on the platform. But always keep in mind, 3rd party traffic is not something you control, it can end at any given moment.