As a streamer, one of the things you must do to get people to stick around is to be entertaining. Now there are several different things you can do to be entertaining and how you entertain your viewers will vary from streamer to streamer and community to community. Let me explain.

How to be Entertaining While Streaming

Here are 12 tips to help you be entertaining while you stream:

1. No Dead Air or Radio Silence
2. Use Twitch Extensions
3. Talk to Your Chat
4. Have Quality Gameplay
5. Create Awesome Alerts
6. Use Bots in Your Chat
7. Be Energetic
8. Narrate Your Gameplay
9. Learn to be a Good Story Teller
10. Enable Text to Speech (TTS)   
11. Stream With Other People
12. Be Unique

Now that you have the twelve tips, I want to go into greater detail for each tip below so read on for even more information on how to be entertaining while you stream. 

1. No Dead Air or Radio Silence

This one is key. In fact, it might be the most important tip on this list. What I mean by no “dead air” or no “radio silence” is that you have to constantly have something going on in your stream in order to keep people around. 

If people pop in your stream and it is a ghost town with nothing going on, they will more than likely leave.

As a streamer you only have a few seconds to hook someone in before they leave your stream and so if you are not constantly doing something, you will lose a lot of people. 

I know it is hard to be constantly talking, but you never know when someone will pop in to check you out.

And not to mention the fact that the viewer counts on most streaming platforms are delayed so you really don’t ever know how many viewers you actually have. 

Best practice is to just be super chatty and talkative. Three things that help me to stay chatty are narrating my gameplay, singing or streaming with another person.

I’ll go into more details on this further down, but just make sure you have no “dead air” or “radio silence” so that way new comers are more likely to stick around. 

2. Use Twitch Extensions

Twitch extensions are a super underutilized when it comes to keeping your viewers entertained on stream.

There are so many cool Twitch Extensions that do things like make polls, choose music and they even have Twitch Extensions that serve as games for your viewers to play.

If you want to see some of my favorite Twitch Extensions then you can check out my article on Best Twitch Extensions by clicking here.

And the best part of Twitch Extensions is that once you set them up they pretty much run on their own. Oh, and they’re free.

3. Talk to Your Chat

This is something I am sure you have heard a million times and so I won’t dive too deep into this one.

Basically, you need to be talking to your chat. You can’t just ignore the people who take the time to visit your stream and expect them to come back. 

This is especially true if you are a small streamer. You should be trying to build up a community. A place where people can come and hang out and a big part of that is talking to people who talk in your chats.

So make people feel welcome and like they belong in your community. It will go a long way.

4. Have Quality Gameplay

You do not have to be the best at the game you play in order to be an entertaining streamer. One of the best examples of this is TimTheTatman.

He is not really that great at any game he plays, but he is at least decent and extremely funny.  

So by quality I mean that you can’t be a complete bum at every game you play, but you don’t have to be the best either.

As long as your gameplay is good, people will stick around. If you are playing a game and dying instantly every game, viewers don’t want to see that.

But like I said if you are able to be decent at a game, and do a could job of commenting on a game then you will be fine.

I wouldn’t stress super hard about being the best at a certain game. You can be a successful and entertaining streamer without being a beast.  

5. Create Awesome Alerts

One thing that you can use to make your streams more interesting is exciting alerts. You have probably seen streams that get all flashy, and sounds start going off when someone subs or donates.

You can do this too to make it more exciting for those who support your stream. Also, responding to these different subs and donations is important as well.

You have certainly seen streamers get all crazy and excited when someone subs or donates and that just creates good energy all around in your stream. 

Now you don’t have to jump around or start screaming anytime someone subs or donates.

That may not be your style, but you should at least make any contributions to your stream memorable with something like a cool overlay or a shoutout whenever someone contributes. 

Having unique alerts or ways to acknowledge those who support you is something that will make your streams more entertaining and helps to break up some of your gameplay.

People like the excitement that alerts can bring to a stream. 

And if you are looking for great overlays and sweet alerts, then check out OWN3D.TV. They have so many custom overlays for you to choose from and their prices are super reasonable.

It is what I use for my overlays and alerts and I love them. I recommend you check them out.

6. Use Bots in Your Chat

Something else that can be done to make your streams more entertaining is using bots in your stream. If you want to know what exactly bots are then make sure to check out the article I linked.

Bots can do a ton of things in your stream from reminding people to sub or follow to allowing people to create quotes of things that you say.

Bots are a great way to increase viewer engagement, therefore making your streams more entertaining. 

And similar to Twitch Extensions, bots are super simple to setup, especially if you are using Streamlabs as your streaming software.

7. Be Energetic

This is something that I think many small streamers struggle with. As a small streamer you probably won’t have a lot of chatting going on and so it may be difficult to get super hyped on things happening in your stream. But you HAVE to. 

Just like Youtube, people are tuning into your streams to be entertained. If you are low energy, people will click away and forget all about you.

So find things to get energetic or excited about. Maybe something in the game you are playing? Maybe the food you just ate? Something!

I don’t know but you have to show that you are stoked to be streaming. And again, you don’t have to be jumping around your room screaming, but do things to show your viewers that you are passionate and that you are hyped to stream. 

Look at some of the big name streamers and you will see; they bring tons of positive energy to their streams and that energy permeates through the channel. 

8. Narrate Your Gameplay

I touched on this earlier, and this goes back to removing “dead air” from your channel. Narrating my gameplay is something that has helped me to always be talking and engaged on my streams and therefore removing any “radio silence” that could happen. 

It is weird at first, but if you are streaming all by yourself then I have noticed that it is one of the best ways to assure that there is always dialogue happening in your streams. 

And by always talking about what I am doing in a game it makes it so that if someone were to stop by my stream, there is already someone (me) talking and it is not a total snoozer.

If you are struggling with what to talk about during your stream, start trying to narrate your gameplay and see what happens.

9. Learn to be a Good Story Teller

The best story teller in all of streaming, and it is not even close in my opinion, is Nickmercs. Some of the stories that he tells have me absolutely ROLLING.

He tells all kinds of stories about his life or funny observations that he has made. 

If you have interesting stories to tell, or are good at telling stories, then use this strength to your advantage.

Many people tune into streams to form connections with streams and telling someone a personal story is something that helps strengthen this bond. 

And of course, listening to a good story is also super entertaining. Especially if it has a funny ending. 

10. Enable Text to Speech (TTS)

Text to Speech is something you will have to decide if it fits your stream or not. If you are streaming more of a competitive game then it probably won’t make sense to have a bot constantly reading chats, donations or other things on your stream. 

But if you are playing a more casual game, or if you are a “Just Chatting” streamer, then enabling Text to Speech can be a great way to make your stream more entertaining. 

Some viewers like the Text to Speech feature because it makes them feel as though they are actually talking to the streamer. They also like having their messages read aloud for the whole stream to hear. 

The whole Text to Speech feature is unique and like I said at the beginning, it may not be right for your stream; however, it is an option and can be something that makes your stream more entertaining to watch since it won’t just be your voice talking the whole time. 

11. Stream With Other People

Streams with multiple people in them tend to be more entertaining than streams with just a single streamer.

In my own experience I feel like my streams are much more entertaining when I stream with other people, especially people I am friends with.

Streaming with other people means you are able to have a more fluid convo going during your streams rather than you just rambling the whole time.

And if you stream with friends, you guys can tease each other or talk about personal stories and viewers love that. 

A great example of this is the Nuke Squad which consist of Swagg, JSmoothHD, TheBoiSantana and GD Booya. These are just four friends who get on and game and they are super entertaining to watch. 

Watching them makes you feel like you are part of the friend group and helps you to better connect with them. It is never a dull moment with these guys and so you will always be entertained. 

So if possible, have a few of your friends hop on and game with you. Trust me, your streams will be much more entertaining and people will be more likely to stick around. 

12. Be Unique

Last of all, just be yourself. Be unique. Don’t try to copy other streamers. I see so many small streamers who try to steal catch phrases or other things from bigger streamers and it just looks fake.

You will never be as good as the original so don’t waste your time. Remember that everyone has something unique to offer and so find what special thing you have to offer and then stick with it.

If you just do what everyone else is doing then you won’t stand out. You are just another drop in the sea of streamers.

There is nothing special about copying another streamer. Find something that will make you different and use that to pull people in. 

As always, if you have any questions or just want to hang with me, stop by my Twitch channel here and say what’s up!

In the end it is important to do things to make your stream entertaining. People won’t just come in and stay unless they are entertained. Use the tips above and decide for yourself what you need to do to make your streams entertaining. It’s Hollywood Baby!

Good luck out there my friends!