Raids on twitch

Raid Guidelines & Resources

by Dayna Arnett

RAID! Such an exciting term in the world of twitch!

At first glance of the term and its connotation, a newbie to the twitchisphere would almost shy away from the idea of a raid as it seems at best intrusive, right?

Once you spend a bit of time researching the internet reading forums about etiquette on twitch you begin to realize that a raid is most desirable. It is a magical bus full of viewers brought over to you by another very capable and entertaining broadcaster! They are letting you know they want to tap out and pass the torch, that they have a hot bun in the oven or a soup on the back burner. “Here take this crowd that I just warmed up for you.”

Raids are glorious and what makes twitch so darn unique and special. They are a way to remain relevant in reciprocity. Yes twitch is fun and games but it's also hard work and most of the work comes in the marketing advertising and networking. Cause you see discoverability on twitch is not its strong suit. Most streamers need to fulfill many roles in their broadcasting career; why not share the load?

From the perspective of a viewer or audience member, raids are a one up or a solid that your streamer is doing you. As a viewer you are not only gifted with the content of one streamer, but then cascaded off to another all with the click of a button.

In the since that twitch is difficult to break through and gain enough traction to be visible against other mega streamers, raiding can be super advantageous to small or medium size streamers as it compounds viewers and communities! Below is the beginning of a thrown together list around raids on twitch, hopefully it will grow and please feel free to contribute by commenting.

(In no certain order of importance)

Raiding into a similar number of viewers that you are bringing: said to be proper etiquette as someone with a raid of 1 for example bringing in 1 viewers to a stream of 100 won't really affect it enough and in turn seems like a bit of self promotion from the ‘raidee’
On the twitch streams that offer raid services getting the rules and timing down can be essential for acquiring a raid. These streams often offer stream channel points that can be earned with viewership over time and also can be earned through subscriptions and bit contributions. Buying is not required however still rewarded.
Raiding despite its seemingly aggressive connotations is a friendly and wonderful way to share your community with another streamer
Similar to a festival show ending and a huge crowd traveling together to the next performers stage
Alternatively some larger streamers have unpopular opinions of raiding less or not at all as to keep their community their own. Some are fostering years of work ramping up their numbers.