Being Raided by Larger Streamers Feels SO Good

So, of course, it’s obviously exciting when you get raided by another streamer, especially if they are quite a bit bigger than you. But what makes it SOOOO amazing isn’t just that it happened, but that there was a REASON they chose to raid you. They didn’t just pick some random stream, but they saw you, saw something they liked and chose you INSTEAD of other streamers they saw. If you are really committed to streaming, then you are constantly thinking about how to stand out and WHY people would want to watch you in the first place (instead of one of the other hundred or thousands of others they could choose). And then a raid comes in, and that’s VALIDATION that you are doing something right! Often times it can feel like you don’t know whether you’re doing the right things. You may think you are, and you hope that it’s working, but you don’t feel like you really know except in those times when the unusual happens.

Now, I’ve been streaming since July 2019, most days of the week. I’ve had a few occasional breaks, but I’ve been live on almost 400 days. Of those days, I’d guess I’ve been raided several dozen times, often by my fellow streamers in our small network where we are usually in eachother’s streams, playing together, etc. Excluding those, and just looking at completely unexpected raids from larger (and Partnered!) streamers, here’s been my experience.

Dakotaz raids with 3,736 viewers

Dakotaz (aka Dark aka DK) is BY FAR the biggest raid I’ve ever received, and I expect everyone knows who he is already. In case you don’t, here’s a few numbers. In 2018, he was the 6th most viewed channel on Twitch. He has over 4 million Twitch followers and is represented by Loaded, the same firm that represents Ninja.

On Saturday, Apirl 25, 2020, Dakotaz was looking through the Twitch directory to find someone to raid. He came across my channel and had this to say: “Okay. I found someone. Dude, this guy’s got a sick beard and my man look like George Clooney if like George Clooney was Tom Hanks in Cast Away. Like, my man, my man look like that. You’ll see soon.” And then he raided me, and suddenly my PC was lagging hard-core because of hundreds of new follows. Now, I had 10-min follower mode set on my chat, and I didn’t think about that, because I looked at chat, I hadn’t seen any new messages, and thought I must be getting follow-botted. Because of all the new followers, I missed the alert saying DK had raided and that he had gifted 20 subs. It took one of the viewers to donate to tell me that it wasn’t follow-botting and that I had actually been raided by Dakotaz.

I went back to his stream to catch how he chose me, put that together with my reaction and a thank you message, all of which you can see in the video below:

Clearly Dakotaz noticed my beard when he was browsing the directory and it was enough to get him to check out my channel and then choose to raid. While I have had my beard for several years prior to streaming, I always thought that it would be something to help me stand out and cause people to give me a chance if they came upon my stream.

Banned streamer, DrWitnesser raids with 509 viewers

DrWitnesser, who has since been banned by Twitch, is the second-highest raid I’ve ever received. This one is obviously a little weird, since he is very controversial and has been banned. But, I didn’t know anything about him when he raided, and I never supported him (though I am a Christian), so there’s no reason to exclude this event.

On Wednesday, July 1, 2020, DrWitnesser found me and raided. I didn’t go back and see how he came to choose to raid me. Because of this, I don’t really have any insight as to why he chose me. Maybe it was the beard, maybe it was because I am a family-friendly streamer. I don’t exactly know for this one.

Xundae raids with 129 viewers

Xundae, pronounced Sundae, is a Twitch partner now, but she wasn’t when she raided me. She also doesn’t really play Fortnite anymore, though that was her main game when she raided.

On Sunday, July 5, 2020, only a few days after the DrWitnesser raid, Xundae found me, also from the Twitch directory, and raided. I did go back (at the time) and see how she came about choosing me, but I can’t remember now exactly. I didn’t save a clip of it, but I think I recall her seeing my beard and that was the main reason she chose me.

Dheylo raids with 309 viewers

Dheylo, is a Spanish streamer and Twitch Partner. This is perhaps the most unexpected raid I’ve received, because he streams in Spanish and I stream in English.

On Thursday, September 3, 2020, Dheylo found me, I’m assuming from the Twitch directory, and raided. I remember trying to go look at how he chose me, but unfortunately I do not understand Spanish well enough to comprehend what was being said, so all I can do is assume it was the beard again. :)

Maddynf raids with 564 viewers

Maddynf (the nf is her initials and has nothing to do with the rapper NF) is the first Twitch Partner of whose community I’m a regular part of, to raid me. She’s also a content creator and Fortnite player that actively inspires me. Why? There’s a couple of reasons. One, her community is a joy to be a part of. It’s not sooo big that you get lost in all of the other viewers/chatters, it’s really positive and casual, what she has achieved (so far!) both in her growth as a content creator and her skills as a Fortnite player seem like something I can actually achieve. Often times, we think of the largest creators we enjoy (for me that would include TimTheTatman, DrLupo, NickEh30, etc.), but you can’t actually think through the concrete steps it would take to get from where you are now to where they are. With Maddynf, I watch her gameplay, and I can envision the steps it will take for me to reach something close to her level (and I think she’s pretty dang good!), whereas if I watch NickEh30, his mechanics are so crazy far ahead of me, I can’t even understand how he does it, let alone think of how I could get to that place. Also, with her content, she’s very down-to-earth, and so active with the vast majority of chatters in her stream. She’s really positive, honest, and down to earth. That’s exactly the kind of creator I want to be.

On Monday, January 11, 2021, Maddynf raided me, but NOT because she found me in the directory. In fact, she had followed my Twitch channel a couple months before and just saw that I was live when she was ending stream. She has had a bit of a rough time keeping the ideal sleep schedule and on this occurrence, she had streamed mostly overnight and happened to be ending stream not long after my normal start time. So this is probably the first instance where it wasn’t my beard that caused someone to raid me, but instead it was because I was often in her streams, at some point she followed my channel, and she was looking through the channels she follows to find someone that was live when she was ending stream.

Fun fact, I was able to play Among Us with Maddynf randomly back in October, 2020 when she put out a call for people with good mics that could help fill a lobby. I threw my name in and got to play. I wasn’t live at the time, but I did record it and later made a YouTube video, which you can see below.

Maddynf raids a second time with 291 viewers

On Sunday, April 25, 2021, exactly one year after Dakotaz raided me, Maddynf raided a second time. Similar to the first time, she was looking to see who she follows that was live when she was ready to end her stream and chose me.

This was just yesterday, and it was actually PERFECT timing because the vibes were high, I was really enjoying the games and had just made an EXCELLENT play in Fortnite. I was emoting, mimicking the emote on stream and explaining the play when the raid came in. It was SUCH a good vibe!

Takeaways

Reviewing these different times that I’ve been raided by larger streamers, what I want to remind myself, and maybe what you want to know, is that you want to try and ALWAYS have the mindset that at any point, someone could be looking through the Twitch directory, or seeing you pop up in their recommended list, to find someone to raid. What vibes are you giving off that’s going to cause them to choose you? Is there something visually appealing that will make you stand out? If they pop up your stream to consider it, are they going to find something that makes them want to choose you?

It’s obviously hard to be “on” 100% of the time that you’re live, but you also don’t want to find out after the fact that you would/might have been chosen if you were at your best at that particular moment. Keep this in mind, because it’s also completely applicable to gaining new viewers and entertaining your existing viewers, and hopefully over time you’ll find it easier and easier to keep the kind of vibe that will encourage raids and with a little luck, it will pay off!