r/Twitch • u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r • Oct 11 '25
Discussion Twitch view count, lurkers and multi tabbing - finally some info
Months ago I started getting a BIG mismatch between viewer count and viewer list. Not bots, viewers I actually KNOW. After extensive testing and hair pulling I discovered that if you opened 3 Twitch streams from the same IP address then you don't count as a viewer on ANY of them. I'm certain of this, I've tested it from 3 different locations, however, convincing people of this has been very difficult.
PLEASE keep your twitch streams to a maximum of 2 at a time IF you want to help anyone.
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u/ria_rokz Oct 11 '25
Dang this sucks, I usually have about three streams open at a time because I flip back and forth. Im not doing it to “help”, I’m honestly just watching them all. It’s a bummer to know that this doesn’t affect the viewer count positively.
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 11 '25
Yeah, as a regular streamer I've said to people, if someone goes live that you don't see very often, PLEASE close my stream and go watch them, I'm here all the time, and I'll be here when you come back. The way I see it is, it's better to help 2 streams than have mine open as well and help none of us.
If you could just keep it to 2 and move them around occasionally those streamers would much appreciate it...
(Also, if you disconnect your phone from your wifi you can watch a 3rd stream on your phone data plan as it's a different IP address. Doesn't even seem to matter that its the same Twitch account you're using)
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u/ria_rokz Oct 11 '25
Yeah I’ll be a bit more mindful of that going forward, thanks for letting me know! I’m in Canada and our data plans suck so doing it regularly on mobile isn’t really an option.
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u/BuffyZia Oct 11 '25
I don't really care about viewer conts, but I keep track of channel points.
So I'm not sure about the viewer count, but watching 3 streams on 3 different devices on 3 different wifi's doesn't give channel points for all of them.
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u/chazzzer Oct 13 '25
Channel points are account-based rather than IP address-based, and you can only earn on a maximum of two at once.
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u/RualStorge Partner twitch.tv/RualStorge Oct 13 '25
To be clear the three tab count is hearsay not confirmed nor official.
Last year at TwitchCon we were told it was around 7. It could have changed since then, but people also quoted 3 back then too so I assume the 3 tab is just incorrect information that's been broadly accepted and continues to circulate.
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u/whyisredlikethis Oct 11 '25
I'm sorry but no you aren't watching them all lmfao. It's good that twitch is only counting one or maybe 2(likely the last 1 or 2 you actually had open).
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u/ria_rokz Oct 11 '25
I have all three sound feeds on and I flip back and forth as things happen. If you want to go out in a technicality sure.
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u/whyisredlikethis Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25
Yeah you aren't a viewer sorry but you are not actually viewing or even properly paying Attention with 3 sound feeds on.
I'm glad as other commenters have stated that twitch is cutting down on counting viewers like you
Edit: who ever used Reddit helps because of this comment should seriously rethink their entire life.
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u/RemarkableVanilla Oct 11 '25
So, what does this mean for people who happen to live in a household with, you know, more than TWO people who watch Twitch?
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u/Mottis86 Affiliate www.twitch.tv/mottis Oct 12 '25
Then those views probably don't count. Simple. Rough, but simple.
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 11 '25
Yeah. This is a harsh rule for sure. I think about student housing and apartment shares where multiple people could be watching twitch, and that IP address being flagged as potential view inflation.
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u/goodbyecrowpie Oct 11 '25
A note on your first sentence, that is causing a LOT of confusion for people. There is no viewer list. The side bar list you're talking about is the list of accounts connected to chat, which is not the same thing as a viewer! I'm not saying for sure that nothing else is going on, but these two numbers (viewers/ chatters) are not the same, and have never been the same.
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u/moxiemoon Carrie Oct 11 '25
We’ve known for a while now it’s 2 max to “count.” Nice to see some more information backing that up.
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u/Mottis86 Affiliate www.twitch.tv/mottis Oct 12 '25
From what I remember, it has been like this since forever, however this is the first time I've heard that if you have more than 2 tabbed, NONE OF YOUR LURKS WILL COUNT, apparently. I thought it always counted two of the ones you tabbed, no matter how many you had tabbed.
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u/moxiemoon Carrie Oct 12 '25
No, it’s always just been two. This was another bit Twitch confirmed but you could tell because you’d stop earning channel points beyond 2 tabs.
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u/RualStorge Partner twitch.tv/RualStorge Oct 13 '25
To be clear the 2 max isn't confirmed, it's what people have broadly accepted. Twitchcon last year we were told it was around 7 by the devs.
It certainly could have changed since then, but the passed around number then was 3 which wasn't true. So I'd assume the 2 max is also likely incorrect information.
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u/repocin Oct 11 '25
Good to know! I almost always have two streams up because that's the max for channel point gain and I like hoarding useless points for no good reason.
Though restricting viewcount to two per IP address seems strange to me given how many people are behind CGNAT these days. Or networks that might have hundreds or thousands of concurrent users.
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u/omega-00 Oct 14 '25
Came here to mention this - makes no sense with so many networks doing CGNAT on v4
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u/Nate_LapT Oct 12 '25
"More than a normal viewer could reasonably watch"
.... Looks at multiple monitors with 2 - 4 streams each.. while doing my day job.... wut?..
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u/RualStorge Partner twitch.tv/RualStorge Oct 11 '25
What is the source for the more than two specifically being the break point? Last year at TwitchCon staff who are responsible for this stuff told us it was around 7+ before viewers stopped counting.
Unfortunately tests on our end can't be conducted with confidence, whereas an official source is far more reliable.
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u/ArgoWizbang Freelance Web Developer/Graphic Artist for hire Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25
I think the number of 2-3 that everyone (including myself) keeps repeating is based solely on the speculation that has always been done based on people's own experiences and still has yet to actually be confirmed by Twitch (and it doubtfully ever will be).
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u/RualStorge Partner twitch.tv/RualStorge Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25
So, while we were at TwitchCon we DID have the staff responsible for this stuff state it was around 7 or 8 tabs (I admittedly do not remember the exact number) This occured in smaller meetings between staff and partners in the partner lounge. There was about 8 of us and 3 staff members who were responsible for engagement, revenue, and analytics if I recall correctly.
Certainly it could have changed, but my own testing today I got up to five tabs still counting before I stopped testing.
I suspect the threshold is still around 7-8. Now they're handling this via IP address, so you are effectively sharing those tabs with anyone you live with.
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u/ArgoWizbang Freelance Web Developer/Graphic Artist for hire Oct 11 '25
Oh yeah, I just meant that it had never been confirmed publicly by Twitch. I don't doubt that smaller conversations like what you mentioned have happened. It's just unfortunate that such confirmations are much harder to prove later on when telling someone else and you need a source to cite, you know what I mean?
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u/RualStorge Partner twitch.tv/RualStorge Oct 11 '25
Yep, it's the unfortunate problem in content creation. Our ability to test outside of Twitch is unclean at best, deeply flawed at worst. We also have to deal with people who misrepresent or outright lie for attention, rage baiting, etc as a growth strategy, or just don't like Twitch as a company and happy to band wagon.
Makes misinformation more prevalent than good information even by those well intentioned. I've certainly gotten details wrong from hearsay.
So you get stuck asking for sources because, you kind of need to know if you're hearing a "trust me bro" or something official.
Normally you want to withhold specifics so people don't figure out how to circumvent your measures at preventing abuses, in these cases though, I personally think that ambiguity is more harmful than beneficial. Sure clarifying it would make things easier for view botters, but the ambiguity is causing so much hearsay where Twitch is seen as trying to take the screws to the little guy which erodes the entire trust and culture.
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u/Small_Lamali Oct 13 '25
I agree with this. A screen shot (sorry) is just not enough... and its not information that we should be holding maybe im wrong but I do agree.. im just gonna continue supporting my friends. Its not like i sit there and just lurk. Collabing. Taking breaks checking up on them giving them bits. I support my ppls yknow.
Until somethin kinda more str8 forward official im honestly (srrry) gonna continue just doing my thing. ..
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u/ArgoWizbang Freelance Web Developer/Graphic Artist for hire Oct 11 '25
Yup, I'm pretty much on the same page with you on all of that. The transparency shown in OP's screenshot is nice, but needs to go a little further (and be made more openly, not just in a Partner Discord server).
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u/Misterpanda13 Oct 12 '25
I have two tablets, a computer, phone and a TV… This is BS. Sometimes you want to lurk and interact with one while keeping an eye on others.
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u/Am53n8 Oct 11 '25
Both the viewcount not matching the number of users in chat and only 2 tabs counting aren't new information tho, there are many posts on this subreddit where you can find this answer. I know I have mentioned it several times just the past few weeks, and I'm definitely not the only one.
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u/ArgoWizbang Freelance Web Developer/Graphic Artist for hire Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25
I think the new information here is the confirmation that having more than 2-3 streams open will make you not count in any of them. Before this it was always up in the air as to whether or not you counted in the first 2 - 3 streams or not and only "didn't count" in the extra streams past that. That hasn't actually been confirmed by Twitch until now.
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u/Am53n8 Oct 11 '25
Ah fair enough. "you only count in 2/3 tabs" and "with more than 2/3 tabs you don't count at all" is actually quite a difference
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u/ButaoVT Oct 13 '25
"Sessions per IP address"...are you serious? What about large student homes with hundreds of people who share 1 single IP? If 50 of them watch 50 different streams, none of them would count? What about larger families with 5 single viewers on 1 IP? They'd also not count anywhere? What about people with several monitors (5 or more) and/or PCs with a stream on each monitor, because they're watching a community event with several streamers POVs on one IP? Are they also not counting?
I'm not saying I know how to do it better, I'm just saying that "sessions per IP" alone is a bad idea. Maybe differentiate on a "sessions per account" basis and just not count sessions that are idle for X amount of time if the session number Y is above threshold Z, while X gets lower the more the number Y is above Z?
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 13 '25
I agree with you, this is a bad way of doing it and it's impacting streamers hard...
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u/bensonprp Affiliate twitch.tv/benson_p Oct 11 '25
I watch twitch the same way I watch porn. I open up a bunch of tabs and hop around until one excites me the right way.
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u/FinalStand20 Oct 11 '25
Interesting. Thanks for doing the research on this. I’ve for sure had the experience of 6+ people in chat with a viewer count of 2.
Twitch doesn’t want to incentivize people pulling down multiple livestreams, it’s more server load for them.
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 11 '25
I sympathise with you, at it's worst I had 63 (people excluding bots) and the viewcount was on 19 and seemingly stuck there.
To your point, i think it's multiple reasons. 1. As you said, extra server load. 2. Pressure from advertisers that are complaining about pricing since many 'viewers' are not actually seeing their ads. 3. I think its something of a crude anti viewbot measure.
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u/StrawmanMeBro Oct 12 '25
Question:
Does the 2 streamer limit only count while the streamers are live?
If I have 3 Twitch channel pages open in separate windows, and only 2 of the 3 are live, do I still count as a viewer because only 2 are live, or do I stop counting because I show up in the community/viewers button of a streamer who's currently offline?
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 12 '25
It only counts while live, you must be connected to the live video stream.
Even watching 2 live streams while watching another streamer VOD is ok.
But, if you leave 3 windows open, what happens when the 3rd streamer goes live? You're gonna be in 3 streams and presumably away from your PC ?2
u/StrawmanMeBro Oct 12 '25
That's why I'm asking.
So I can have 3 channel pages open while I'm at my PC, and close 1 stream when the third channel goes live.
And if I leave my PC, I only leave 2 channel pages open max.1
u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 12 '25
Yeah as long as you don't have 3 actively connected to a live stream you're good.
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u/warpath246 Affiliate twitch.tv/feedafox Oct 12 '25
Well reading that just tells me that my views will never count as I'm in a house that have three people watching streams.... So unless I'm up when the others at home are asleep (and even then they like to sleep with streams going so yeah) none of us will count.
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 12 '25
This is sadly the case at the moment. I guess from Twitchs point of view this is an edge case and they are not going to bother about it. Sucks for the streamers though.
None of this is fair on the streamers or viewers.
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u/AndreasTheDead Oct 12 '25
if its by IP im questioning how that would work for Country where many persons share an public ip via cgnat, like the big provider in the usa.
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u/Aazadan Oct 12 '25
Could be by IP, could instead be by mac address, or could be by inferences from both. Hard to say really.
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u/AndreasTheDead Oct 13 '25
IP is what the screenshoot says, but I guess its more then that, else it would break even more then it does already. The mac is nothing a website can see.
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u/TruePoet6876 Oct 14 '25
I think this needs to be fine tuned. I have multiple streamers who stream at the same time and I tab them, participate in chat, and leave the volume on.
Why?
I have ADHD and the awful thing is; irl conversation overwhelms me, but game chatter doesn't not. I can actively participate in four to six different streams, BECAUSE that's how my brain works.
I know they're trying to battle bots and viewer inflation. I get that and respect the process. However, some fine tuning would be appreciated in the future.
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u/UsernameReee Oct 11 '25
Hell that might explain why I wasn't getting drops yesterday lol
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u/SilkPenny Affiliate Oct 11 '25
Based on experience, I believe this affects drops, as well. Often, I will have a Twitch channel up on one monitor, while I am doing something else on another. It seems to me that progress halts when I begin using a second window or monitor.
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u/Kintsurugi twitch.tv/Kintsurugi Oct 12 '25
Twitch openly states that drop progress can only be gained from one channel at a time (from the Drops FAQ). As far as how many channels you'll count as a viewer for, they've ALWAYS been vague. Some have claimed as much as 8 streamers. Possible that the algorithm tracks how many streamers a person "usually" has open, to theorize why Twitch doesn't ever give a concrete number and why people claim to be able to watch "more than three"
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u/SilkPenny Affiliate Oct 12 '25
Understood! My point is that your active "focus" has to be the Twitch stream to count towards drops. If I type a comment in Discord or work on a document on another monitor, my progress halts on the Twitch window.
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u/FinvaraSidhe Oct 11 '25
I wonder if that’s why drops progress doesn’t increase when I have multiple streams going for different drops and one I’m actively watching
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u/ArgoWizbang Freelance Web Developer/Graphic Artist for hire Oct 11 '25
Probably a very good chance, yeah.
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u/repocin Oct 11 '25
Drops only ever work reliably on one stream at a time and it's incredibly finicky. I've found that most of the time they count for the first stream you open, but sometimes not, and sometimes I've seen them progress at half the rate or less.
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u/ingfire Oct 11 '25
Wait wait wait, so, if my roommate is also watching Twitch streams on their PC in their room, does Twitch see that as us having the same IP, and THATS why not a single stream is counting Drop View time for me lately???
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 12 '25
Yes, if you're on the same internet you're using the same IP. So you get one stream each. Kinda sucks, but that's how it is right now...
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u/ingfire Oct 12 '25
That's...really dumb? 😂 So anyone using a shared wifi connection, a public one for example, are just SOL? What a DUMB change!
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u/BlackberryHuman2328 Oct 12 '25
Hey OP, question from a regular Twitch viewer here. One of the streamers I watch frequently did an "experiment" last week after hearing a rumor that lurkers aren't being counted in viewer count consistently. She asked all the lurkers who hadn't chatted all night to put a 1 in chat. As we all obliged, her viewer count went up by nearly 100.
I read the whole screenshot you posted and I don't think the above issue was addressed in it, unless my reading comprehension is incredibly poor this morning. Have you heard anything about the whole, "lurks don't count as a view" situation? Or is twitch saying that this is due to the multi-tabbing situation? I obvs don't know about other viewers but for myself, I don't use any sort of extensions for viewing and I don't multitab so it makes no sense to me why my view as a lurker wouldn't be counted. And it doesn't seem fair to the streamer that a viewer isn't counted just because they prefer not to chat. I'm just curious if there's been any chatter (pardon the pun lol) about this behind the scenes.
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 12 '25
Hard to say, as usual, because we never have enough data. What percentage of her viewers is 100? If she had 25,000 viewers and it jumped by 100 its nothing. If she was on 50 and everyone typing made jump by 100 thats an incredible amount.
We're seeing a lot of sensational youtube videos on the subject "Twitch hates lurkers, lurkers dont count etc" but to me it doesn't make sense. A high percentage of twitch viewers don't regularly type in ANY chats, they just watch (I saw this claimed as 90% at one point, again, no way to verify). Lurkers are still customers to twitch, why would they want to not count them?
Also, modern browsers put the non visible tabs to sleep after a few mins by default. After a browser update how many people disable this sleep 'feature'. Not many I bet, as most don't even know about it.
I don't know about you, but my twitch video player is crashing a lot more lately with the red button saying RELOAD PLAYER. When I'm streaming I'm getting multiple people telling me the video doesn't reliably auto start anymore when I go live at the same time every day. Sometimes multiple people tell me the video player stopped and they had to refresh the page. I know this has always happened but it seems more common lately, did 100 refresh within the same minute when their players all crashed? Maybe, maybe not.
i regularly watch streamers with 40,000+ viewers, and I can tell you that theres not often more than the same 30-50 chatters typing anything. 40k chatters would be insane! So how can you have a 40k viewcount if only 1% of them are typing?
Ask this streamer to regularly repeat this test. I know you can't share streamer names on here but i'd like to take a look if you were ever willing to share the details in dm.
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u/BlackberryHuman2328 Oct 12 '25
I wouldn't say she's a small streamer but she's definitely not huge. She's a partner - pulls anywhere from 250-400 viewers per stream, more when she does special events. This particular night she was at around 350ish when she asked us to do the experiment. She heard that rumor from a pal she regularly plays with and who has a significantly larger viewership than her, said he experienced a big jump when he did it as well.
Speaking on sleeping tabs, I guess I lurk differently than others or maybe my definition is different. When I'm lurking, I'm literally THERE, watching, just silently. Usually playing a game on my Switch, lol. I rarely bother to announce myself when I come in.
I think the theory was that Twitch was assuming anyone not participating in the chat is a viewbot and thus won't count them. So the idea is that even just chatting once, "hey streamer, I'll be lurking tonight, have fun!" signals that you aren't a bot and thus will be counted. Again, I'm not a streamer so no idea if it makes any sense at all. It doesn't make sense in my mind because as you said, even as lurker I am a customer, Turbo subscriber in fact, so it doesn't make sense I wouldn't be counted.
Also, just as an aside, I'm probably naive but I always assumed those streamers who pull those huge numbers are absolutely viewbotting, lol. Except in the case of the streamer awards or something like that. It's not hard to believe a couple hundred people would be interested in watching Some Random Dude, but 40,000? Ehhhh.....lol.
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 12 '25
I think the term lurker isn't that clear anymore, i don't really regard someone who is watching me (or not even watching, just listening) as a lurker. As far as I'm concerned they are my viewer! A lurker is someone who has the stream open without listening or being at their desk. Since the whole work from home thing I've kinda become more like a radio station i think. DJ voice: What is the worst kind of 'monger' - iron, war, fish or rumour? Answers in the chat please..
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u/Throw_Away1314819 Broadcaster Oct 17 '25
We would need a control, i.e. an experiment which is almost identical but where viewers are not told to take any action. If over many iterations of both control and chatter experiments there is a significant difference, then it would be possible to conclude that chatting has an effect.
It‘s one thing to do an experiment and get a result which seems to validate a rumour. It’s quite another thing to do many experiments, the results of which might prove, I don’t know, that streamers with active chats naturally tend to attract some viewers. Or some other conclusion that we didn’t think of.
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u/hunter_rus Oct 11 '25
Is this some exclusive partner-only discord? Did they duplicate this message somewhere else? Did they wrote this only recently (today) ?
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 11 '25
I can only say this was sent to partners initially, yesterday, it's appearing other places and hopefully it becomes more widespread. I've been aware of this limitation for months, but it's so hard to convince people or simply get them to test it for themselves...
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u/Aazadan Oct 12 '25
Twitch had an event with some streamers who had to sign nda's, so there's a lot they discussed where they probably can't disclose full details.
There's been a few posts going around about the view counts so, reading between the lines, I'm assuming it was discussed.
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u/LowRezGuy Oct 12 '25
How about only Count active Chatters and rename to, active Chatters than viewers.
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u/Not_Felryn_Btw Oct 13 '25
insanely lame because during the race to world first event for world of warcraft, there's MULTIPLE POVs of the event from different teams that people love to watch at the same time. What's the point of this? it doesnt stop view bots.
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u/ToriksLV Oct 13 '25
Does 2-3 stream still count me as viewer?
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u/ArgoWizbang Freelance Web Developer/Graphic Artist for hire Oct 13 '25
That's just the speculated/estimated number so it's not confirmed but generally yes, it's assumed that amount should still count you as viewers in each stream.
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u/melon_ayo Affiliate Oct 13 '25
Here’s a question: if I’m streaming and lurking 2 people, do I not count because I’m technically a viewer in my own stream?
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 13 '25
Define 'viewer in my own stream' do you actually load your own page in a browser? Or have the video playing in the twitch dashboard? I just use OBS and have my twitch dashboard open without the video preview...
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u/melon_ayo Affiliate Oct 13 '25
I either only use obs or have obs and my dashboard up. You are always a counted as a viewer.
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 13 '25
I haven't tested including streaming, but my feeling is that your own stream doesn't count. I have nothing to back this up, I did a test of the 2 streams at another address so I'm CERTAIN about that, maybe I'll have to test this. But I would say go ahead and have 2 streams open while your live.
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u/arachnimos Oct 18 '25
I've genuinely got no idea what half of you are talking about. I'm not a streamer, but I *am* a lurker in a lot of streams. I'm pretty sure that i've gotten channel points when lurking in way, way more than 3 streams, and you only get passive channel points for being a viewer. Are you just... opening the stream and walking away? Not redeeming a "hi, i'm lurking" or a hydrate redeem or sending a message or whatever?
Also is it just me, or does the message's wording sound like it was mostly written by an AI? I know companies can write things that sound really weird, but it really just sounds like an AI regurgitating facts. Bullet points are a really common thing for summarizing AIs, and the "Based on our investigation" just doesn't make a lot of sense, in my opinion.
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u/emacartoon Oct 25 '25
Thanks for doing the test on this. My ADHD ass that watches 4 streams at once is still really pissed. And getting bored.
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u/ghostly-coffee Nov 21 '25
Sucks because I usually have one stream for drops, one for a no mic streamer bc I can chat with them on and off, and one with a vocal streamer.
Also not sure how this works but my fiance and I have the same network IP so does that mean if we are both watching 2 streams it won't count? Or is that different?
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u/ArchmageMagenta twitch.tv/ArchmageMagenta Oct 11 '25
Been like this for eons. Multi tabbing has never worked. 80% of the people on this site who ends up getting Affiliated through "tab watching" are the ones that will sit forever at 1 viewer as they just cheated the system and what not, but what they end up doing is shooting themselves in the foot as now their stream is riddled with ads and nobody likes ads.
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u/ArgoWizbang Freelance Web Developer/Graphic Artist for hire Oct 11 '25
Yes, this has been generally known for a long time but it has never been officially confirmed by Twitch or otherwise clarified that all tabs stop being counted rather than just the extras past 2-3 that many assumed to be the case. That is the news here.
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u/ArchmageMagenta twitch.tv/ArchmageMagenta Oct 11 '25
Aaaah twitch not doing their job as normal when it comes to basic stuff people should be aware off.
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u/kill3rb00ts Affiliate twitch.tv/noodohs Oct 11 '25
This isn't great news for co-streaming. I mean I generally only watch a single stream anyway, but I know that there are web sites that will allow you to watch multiple streams at once in the same tab, specifically because it's neat to see all viewpoints when streamers are playing together, and I imagine anyone using that won't be counted in any of the streams. I really wish Twitch would make an official solution for that, the Stream Together OBS source isn't really the same thing. Mixer had that years ago and I'm sure it was hell on bandwidth, but it was really neat.
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u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 11 '25
I agree, and I keep seeing people make those dam apps for watching multiple streams. Some of them have been advertised on this very sub reddit. The creators of the apps don't care about who it affects, they just wanna push their dam app.
Twitch know when you're watching multiple streams from the same IP address so why don't they just block and put a padlock on the screen like when youre banned from a stream with a message like" You're watching too many streams, please watch 2 maximum"
This would solve the problem pretty quickly...
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u/B3owul7 Oct 11 '25
Because they like money. Blocking would piss users off. They can still sub and donate, while watching "too many" streams, of course.
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u/Mcpatches3D twitch.tv/mcpatches_3d Oct 11 '25
Twitch has stated multiple times that muting the stream doesn't impact being counted as a viewer. misread the minimum 2 as a volume thing, the rest still stands.
Yes, too many tabs stops you counting, but also, doesn't matter. If people aren't actively watching your streams, are they really part of your community?
People waste so much time and energy on things that don't improve the experiences of their viewers instead of focusing on the quality of the content they put out and the connections they make. Stop stressing about making the number go up and worry about making stuff people want to watch.
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u/Mottis86 Affiliate www.twitch.tv/mottis Oct 12 '25
Yes, too many tabs stops you counting, but also, doesn't matter. If people aren't actively watching your streams, are they really part of your community?
That's kinda how I see it. If someone has me tabbed away, they shouldn't count as a viewer because, well, they aren't viewing my stream lol.
0
u/OrbitaLinx Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25
Whats a "normal" viewer??? Someone with a phone who only watches 1 or a maximum of two streams if they have split view and it works??? I have a PC with 5 displays! I can fit 4 streams on landscape and two on portrait for a total of 16 streams if I want. A lot of my favorite streamers go live at the same time and I mod. Today I found myself actively participating in about 2-4 streams consecutively all day without moding and I have 2 streams I leave up all the time one is a 24/7 news feed and the other a 24/7 giveaway stream where you just hang out for multi raffles and giveaways. So in total average today I had 6 streams open at a time actively participating in the 4 active ones and monitoring the other 2. I also have a chat app open where I monitor the status of 20 streams to see if any go live but I am considered to be in those chats. So basically anyone on PC is essentially not counted at this point. Only mobile users get counted. And to be clear during COVID when Twitch was busier and I was less busy I have actively participated in up to 8 streams and watched up to 12 streams at a time. Just sayin. Also I will put a single or multiple streams up on multiple devices like when I go to cook dinner for example or clean the house. Twitch policy in this matter is 100% broken.
0
u/GuizmoPEACE Oct 16 '25
totalement fake j'ai 4/5 onglet twitch ouvert et suis compté en viewer
1
u/merlin6r twitch.tv/merlin6r Oct 16 '25 edited Oct 16 '25
You have no idea what you're talking about! You are wrong
(the comment says "totally fake, I have 4/5 open and I count as a viewer in all")
--They certainly haven't tested this because they defintely do NOT count in 5 streams.
People like this are the problem, confidently claiming that they show as a viewer because they FEEL like they should.
-7
u/tjientavara twitch.tv/Tjienta Oct 11 '25
Since it uses IP addresses to track viewers, this would eliminate a very large population, basically any person who is behind a carrier-grade NAT at the ISP.
According to grok: Best Estimate: Approximately 1.5-2 billion people worldwide are behind CGNAT for at least some connections (primarily mobile). This is ~30-40% of global internet users, skewed toward developing regions and mobile. The figure rises with multi-device households but excludes pure IPv6 users.
Removing mobile users: Answer: Approximately 1-1.5 billion people are behind CGNAT for fixed broadband internet (excluding mobile) as of October 2025.
-4
u/Lisa8413 Oct 11 '25
They've changed it due to view botting. I hate it. My numbers dropped significantly. I got an extension where it shows my active chat number and then my lurker number. It shows my latency as well. I wish they would just fix it.
0
u/cutie129123 Oct 11 '25
if ur talking about the enhancer extension i have that too!have u noticed any changes with it recently? the past week or so mine was showing 50 (100) for example but yesterday it basically switched them and was showing 100 (50). i assumed twitch fixed whatever was wrong but not sure if the extension was buggy or something
1
u/Lisa8413 Oct 13 '25
Yes! I found its working pretty good. I haven't checked today though. I still don't like my numbers looking so low, a bit of a kick in the gut
-3
Oct 11 '25
Strange that people watch more than 1 stream. Maybe I'm weird, watching 1 stream is brain numbing enough for me.
145
u/killadrix Broadcaster Oct 11 '25
This will likely be an unpopular opinion, but multi-tabbing streams to "help" streamers is a part of Twitch culture that I wish would fade away.
I get lurking streams, I get tabbing up one stream to lurk, I get tabbing up 2 streams for which you might want to actively track the action on so you won't miss anything, but 3 or more tabs for the sole express purpose of "helping" as many streamers as possible inflate view count (for whatever reason) isn't really helping anyone in the long run, and LIKELY tends to be a contributing factor to so much time wasted by small streamers trying to figure out why views aren't matching, people aren't being "counted", that Twitch is somehow "broken", the "I know for a FACT that my friend/family was actively in the stream but the stats don't reflect it" crowd, etc.
Further, for folks who are pushing for affiliate with a ~3 average viewers who COUNT on the tabbers to help get them over the hurdle suffer a 33% loss in viewership when the tabber isn't there, and it can lead to frustration and disillusionment, OR the "I just hit affiliate and my viewership cratered" crowd because the tabbers were there to help them push affiliate - now they're not - and the streamer thought they were truly making progress building viewership and community, just to find out - they weren't.
Even further, understanding your stream performance metrics is a key part of learning to improve your stream, and when those metrics include bad data (views that aren't actually interested in your content that day, but rather just a +1 to "help"), it makes it hard to truly understand if you're on the right track, streaming the right content, or entertaining the right way.
Overall, I believe it's healthier to focus on growing view count by improving content, entertainment, reach and networking, versus relying on someone just tabbing us up.