It’s almost been a year since Ludwig announced his shock move to YouTube. But, even though things have panned out well for him financially on the Google platform, he only just realized he’d had the wrong approach this whole time.
“I discovered recently I don’t know how to stream on YouTube. I just figured it out this week!” he said during an interview on The Iced Coffee Hour on Oct. 17.
The wise-cracking streamer said he’s been streaming as if he was still on Twitch, which revolves around trying to have the most viewers in a category and staying live for a long time.
“You’ll build up a lot of dead viewers, people who just have you on their second monitor, they leave to work, go to bed or whatever, and then you’ll stay higher in the category, and people always click at the top, and you’ll just grow and grow and grow,” he said.
It’s a recipe he’s familiar with, and one that influenced his approach to streaming. Maybe it’s even the reason why he’s accidentally streamed on Twitch a few times since switching platforms. But, things work a little differently on YouTube, and he wished he’d found out sooner.
“There are no categories. You don’t go to a game you like and watch that game. You’re fed a stream based on what the algorithm thinks you’ll like,” he explained.
The streaming star added: “It’s much more important to create a stream that has really good watch time and has a sense of urgency that makes people stick around.”
It hasn’t been an issue for him in terms of viewership. But, fans can expect to see him take his own advice on board in the coming weeks and months—and if it has the impact he thinks it will, his numbers could skyrocket.
YouTube has consolidated its power as Twitch’s biggest rival in recent months, especially after adding more popular streamers to their arsenal, including Sykkuno, who thinks Ludwig has played a pivotal role in making that happen.
Ludwig claims it’s making Twitch nervous behind the scenes and believes it’s inevitable YouTube will come out on top in the seemingly ever-lasting streaming wars.
