Are you watching a streamer and wondering, “How on earth do they have so many viewers?”. Sometimes when you enter a stream you just have a suspicious feeling that these aren’t real viewers sitting in the stream, watching along with you.
In this article we are going to break down some methods to check if a user is botting their viewers on Twitch. Let’s jump in.
What is Viewbotting On Twitch?
Viewbotting is when someone has “fake” viewers on their channel. There is multiple ways people go about viewbotting on Twitch. Some will run bot accounts to their channel using view bot services. These are not real viewers or people watching the stream. Other people will “Viewbot” by using lurk for lurk forums and some will embed their stream on a website to pull in views.
Ultimately the person is trying to game the Twitch system to increase their views and move their way up the ranks in their category. The more viewers you have, the higher you will show up on in your game category meaning more people will see your stream.
This will then lead to you getting more real, active viewers in your stream.
How To Check If Someone Is Botting On Twitch
It is very hard to tell if someone is viewbotting on Twitch. There is no full proof way of saying those are “Real views” or “Fake Views”. This is why viewbots are so popular on Twitch. Even if Twitch could identify fake views accurately it’s hard to know whether the streamer bought the views or if a competitor bought that channel views to try and get them banned.
While it is hard to prove someone is viewbotting there are a few red flags you can check for in the stream:
Chat Engagement
If someone has 100 viewers and there is only 1 or 2 people every commenting in the chat then it is likely that the person is botting. In general Twitch has a very high engagement rate. In a stream with 20 viewers you might expect to see 5-7 people talking in chat.
Sometimes you will see streams with 3,000 viewers and only a few people in chat. They are definitely view botting in some way. Later in this article we will cover the different types of view bots.
Weird Chat Messages
Some view bots have the ability to also comment bot in the chat. This means they will post whatever the view botter has input into the bot.
These messages will usually be very easy to spot. They say things like “Great Stream”, “Great clip”, “I love this stream”, etc. They won’t ever be related to whats happening on the stream and they won’t be taking part in the conversation.
No New Followers
If someones view count is going up rapidly and they are not gaining any followers this is a big red flag that they are view botting. If someone gets a large raid in their channel you will see lots of engagement in chat and lots of people will follow the streamer.
If a streamer you follow has increased their viewers significantly but their follower count hasn’t went up then they could potentially be view botting.
Does Twitch Allow Viewbotting?
No, Twitch do not allow view botting but they find it very hard to combat it as bots become more and more sophisticated. View bots are bad for Twitch as it hurts their advertisers. If advertisers think they are purchasing 1000 impressions but 250 of those impressions are bots, they are getting ripped off. The larger the view bot problem becomes the more likely advertisers are to drop off.
This is why you will likely see more and more resources being used to stop view bots on Twitch.
Different Types Of Twitch Bots
View Bot Software
A view bot sofrtware works by creating fake twitch accounts and sending them to your stream as artificial viewers. This type of botting is not allowed on Twitch. If you are found to be doing this, you could get your account banned.
Lurk For Lurk
Lurk for lurk is when streamers watch other streams. This works through platforms that give you points for watching other peoples streams. The more points you get the higher in their directory you move meaning you get more views.
This type of botting is not against Twitch TOS but is probably not worth it in the long run. Instead of spending your time trying to game the system just focus on growing your own stream.
Website Embeds
Lots of people use website embeds to gain views on Twitch. This means they embed their stream on a website and anyone viewing that web page counts as a viewer. Some streamers pull 1000s of views on their channel by using this strategy. While these are real people, they are not actually watching your stream. They are likely browsing content on the website unknowingly watching your stream. This method is also not against Twitch Terms of Service.
Wrapping Up
You should now be able to spot someone using a view bot on their channel a mile away. Ultimately it’s hard to tell if someone is viewbotting on their channel. Even if it looks like they have fake viewers they may have been sent to their channel by someone else.
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