How "when should I go live" works

What it answers

Which hours of the week work for your channel, given what you already do. It looks at each hour of the week separately, 168 in all, over the last 56 days.

The score

Each hour gets a score from three parts: 60 % how your own viewers do in that hour compared with your usual number, 30 % how many viewers per live channel your category has in that hour, compared with its other hours, and 10 % whether you already stream at that time or right next to it.

An hour you have streamed on fewer than three days has no own number yet. Its score then rests on the category and on how close it is to your usual times.

When there is no result yet

Under 20 hours of observed streaming in 56 days we show the map of your category only, without a verdict: there is too little to compare.

A category with fewer than 5 tracked channels has no market part, and the page says so.

Keep, try, review

Keep: hours you use whose score is in the top third of your own hours. Try: hours you do not use yet, right next to ones you do, where your category does well. Review: hours you use whose score is in the bottom quarter of your own hours and whose viewers are below your usual number.

What we measured

We scored about 340 channels on one four-week period and looked at what happened in the following four. In hours that came out as Keep, channels then had 11 % more viewers than their usual number. In hours that came out as Review they had 49 % fewer. In hours they tried for the first time and we would have suggested, they had 6 % more than their usual number before.

How many other channels are live at that hour does not move the score. We tested it, and it predicted nothing: viewers per channel already takes it into account. You still see who is usually live, because it is useful to know.

What it cannot tell you

The score says something about viewers. It did not predict follower growth in our test, so we do not promise any.

It is a connection we measured across channels, not proof that moving your stream will do the same for you. A slot can be strong because of what you do in it, and that would move with you or not at all. Our viewer numbers come from one measurement per hour on Twitch, and the market numbers cover only the channels we track, which lean towards established ones.