Some people assume that “female streamers have it easier on Twitch” is true, but this is definitely something up for debate.
Both male and females start out on the platform with a very common goal, however these experiences can vary greatly.
As a male you’ve probably wondered how much easier things would be if you were female..
Or perhaps you’re a female gamer whose looking to get involved with the action, but have no idea what to expect.
By exploring the pros and cons, including real-life situations of a number of Twitch girls, it’s important we get to the bottom of it all..
The current stats on female and male Twitch streamers
○ Although there are many popular female streamers out there, the analysing data shows that they are not NECESSARILY more popular than guys on the platform.
○ Out of the top 500 streamers on Twitch, less than one-tenth of these are women. Although this fact could definitely be because gaming, in general, is usually a hobby that is popular amongst men rather than women.
○ The top ten streamers right now on Twitch are all male but the women who are popular on the platform have really made a name for themselves and get A LOT of tips (usually from male admirers).
○ Men stream on average 4-5 times more hours than women.
Source: www.opg.tv/
Why do men think female streamers have it easier?
Most men think female Twitch streamers have it easier because they put a lot of flesh on show.
It’s no secret that the majority of viewers (and therefore the people who tip on the platform) are male. Men can be easily manipulated when it comes to sexy ladies, and that means they are likely to part ways with their cash.
Are there some females out there who use this to their advantages by dressing provocatively and baring a little too much flesh?
Absolutely and I’m of the opinion of, why the hell not? If you are pretty, have a good body, a great personality and you enjoy gaming too – why not combine all of these and make money for it?
Most of the men who complain about this kind of thing do it through jealousy, knowing that these streamers are more popular than them.
Let’s be honest, if these guys knew they had something that could increase their donations and popularity as a channel on Twitch, they would definitely do it.
While a female Twitch streamer might have it easier in some ways, there are pros and cons to everything, and you can discover more about this later.
Why starting out on Twitch might be easier if you are female?
“Women get almost double the page views and triple the followers (for their size and hourly ratio) versus the average male streamer”.
Starting out on Twitch is probably going to be easier if you are female, but in a way females have to work extra hard to keep that attention and gain those followers as long term viewers.
When people come across a female streamer, they might automatically click on their channel purely because they are chicks, but if the content isn’t good, they are not going to stick around.
You should not assume that you are going to become an overnight success purely because you are an attractive girl on Twitch, you still have to provide good content and have something special that makes you stand out from the competition.
“On average, a woman’s concurrent viewership count is much lower than their male counter parts”.
With this in mind, if you are a girl and you want to start streaming on Twitch – make sure that you do your research and have a game plan in place.
Getting people to watch you will be fairly easy at first, but you need to use your personality and entertainment skills to keep them around.
The pros to being female on Twitch
Attention
I mean let’s face it, it’s lovely to get attention from guys when you are a female streamer – and this comes in abundance.
Whether this is in the form of compliments, or guys trying to help you on games .etc. it can be nice to feel like all eyes are on you on times.
High donations
There has famously been a few HUGE donations to women on Twitch, I mean life-changing huge. On the whole female streamers are renowned for making lots of money from primarily big tips.
In 2014 LegendaryLea received an impressive $22,000 in a single donation, although the largest Twitch donation ever was actually to a male streamer this year, for the generous amount of $75,000!
Patreon opportunities
This is another privilege that is more exclusively for women, and that many men often wish they could be a part off.
Although a female streamer doesn’t have to go down this route, there’s no denying that being offered anywhere close to $1000 for non-explicit photos and private webcam calls is anything but a pro.
A huge benefit to being on Twitch in general, and not just being a female, is that you can make money from doing something that you absolutely love!
The cons of being a female on Twitch
The constant assumption that your content is below par, or that you are simply getting attention for being a girl. This is the general consensus and you might even get called out on this if some chauvinistic guys decide to get on your channel.
You will face derogatory comments, things like “shouldn’t you be in the kitchen making me a sandwich?”, guys demanding you get nude and so on, and other sexist abuse. In some cases, this abuse can become downright dangerous.
People online know that they can’t be traced very easily, making it easy for them to say what they like, while being shielded behind their computer screens.
Examples:
A couple of streamers have faced their own unpleasant experiences:
DizzyKitten has experienced a number of stalkers during her time as a Twitch streamer, where one incident was particularly bad.
The guy would send her disgusting ‘sexual’ explicit messages about what he wanted to do to her, which included threats to kill. This took her a very long time to get over, and she even confessed to that it resulted in some mental issues. In this video.
ST Peach has also spoke out about her harassment as a full-time Twitch Streamer, having very similar issues.
She recently posted on Twitter:
I’ve had someone who has been harassing and stalking me for almost a year now, we were friends and I found out he was lying to me about his identity so I cut him off, he hacked my accounts and told me he was going to kill and rape me and my family, to this day he still tries.
?Peach (@STPeach)
Sends me threats, comments on all my photos, makes thousands of accounts trying to get my attention after I block them over and over, I have contacted the police about it, have been doing what I can activity but hearing stories like this.. so so scary, and so so sad..”
?Peach (@STPeach)
“There’s definitely days where I’m like, ‘I can’t even stream because there’s so much mean stuff”.
?Peach (@STPeach)
Like many other female streamers on the platform, ST Peach has also received a lot of negative attention for having a real-life partner.
It can be very difficult for Twitch girls to maintain close relationships outside of their channel as they known full-well that this is will fuel more abuse towards them.
Many girls decide to become streamers, but often quit soon after due to the on-going harassment and generally rude comments from men.
More about female Twitch streamers
You might be wondering as a woman, is it possible to make a full-time income streaming on Twitch? You might even be a guy and simply curious about the topic.
The top female Twitch Streamers definitely make enough to live off their earnings and have quite a bit extra for luxuries in their life.
Pokimane is the most successful female streamer on Twitch with almost 4 million followers. She is known to be making over $600,000 year from her streaming!
Although she gets a lot of obsessed fans, this fun venture has definitely been worth it for her.
Some other top female gamers include Arigameplays and Kittyplays, who have also made a lot of money from streaming on a daily basis.
Conclusion
On the whole, starting up a Twitch channel as a female does give you an advantage on the competition for a couple of reasons.
When a dude gamer sees a pretty girl on the thumbnail, they are going to click on her channel and there is no doubt about it.
Despite the fact we are in 2020 at this point, girls are still seen as quite a novelty in the gaming world and this is another reason why they get such attention.
You do need quite a thick skin to be able to stream as a female, and this definitely isn’t something for everyone.
Thinking of becoming a female streamer Twitch?
That’s awesome, just make sure you read up on the pros and cons above to make sure you know what you are letting yourself in for!
For more posts by us;
Click here for a list of Streaming Essentials to get you started on Twitch!
Click here for the Top 15 Female Streamers on Twitch!
Image sources:
Flickr by Kalvin Chan – See Origonal – License – (CC BY 2.0)
Web Sources:
opg.tv/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Gender_Infographic.pdf
https://twitter.com/STPeach/status/1150802048683667456
