How important do you think a channel name is to the success of a streamer? If two people made the exact same content, would the channel name play a significant role in either of their success?
Is Your Twitch Channel Name Important?
Yes, it is pretty important.
Coming up with a new brand name that isn’t taken, catches interest, and isn’t some creative misspelling… is pretty hard. It’s the “first impression” anyone sees of you. A catchy channel name can also be the “hook” to get viewers to click on your stream. Making it a good one improves your odds of success dramatically.
You can get by with almost any name, but if people are trying to find you, you don’t want to be buried under 100 pages of search results for similar names including ‘ninja’ or have to know to spell the name creatively like “It’s ninja but with a one for the i and a four for the a (n1nj4). Your discoverability via search will be hurt as almost no one will be able to find you through a search engine easily.
If you are reading this thinking “oh no, I already have my channel started with this name though…” don’t worry, you can easily change your channel name to something else you like more.
Twitch Channel Name Criteria
Something short, easy to pronounce, and rolls off the tongue well. Pick a simple name so it’s easy to remember.
A great channel name helps in success, but more so it becomes your identity for representing what kind of person you are or what your channel is all about.
For example, don’t name yourself “noobslayerx” and only plan to play Animal Crossing. Your channel name does not accurately reflect the vibe and type of content your channel is about. Animal Crossing does not have any PvP and is more chill and laid back than what the name of “noobslayerx” appears to portray as a viewer would think you specialize in player-versus-player content.
If you need some brainstorming ideas, there are many username generators available to help kickstart ideas.
Twitch Channel Name and Sponsorships
Another thing to keep in mind when choosing your channel name is that it will be brand friendly for sponsors.
Think about it, sponsors want to protect their own image as much as possible. They are not going to reach out to you or accept your offer for sponsorship if your channel name is immature or discriminating in nature. Don’t set yourself up to be a brand risk!
Keep it clean and easy to say. Develop a brand image through icons, banners, and overlays that follow an umbrella color scheme or graphic so it all flows together nicely. Your online image needs to look professional and that you are serious about streaming.
Having something short, catchy, and family-friendly will certainly set you up for being perceived positively and can be in front of a mass audience without displeasing or insulting anybody.
Twitch Channel Name is not Everything Though
Having a recognizable username is nice, but if your content isn’t fun to watch, it doesn’t matter. No viewership will come and stay.
To be truly successful on Twitch or Youtube, you need a strong content plan that follows the overall theme of your channel or image.
Some examples of a content plan could be:
- Let’s Play: playthrough of a game from start to end
- Challenges: stream something difficult to accomplish and not move on until you do (speedruns, no deaths, etc.)
- Series/Episodes: roleplaying (GTA), art/building IRL, reaction videos
- Niche Variety: play various games within a specific niche (RPG, MMO, Strategy, Fighting games)
The goal is to provide your viewership content that they find entertaining, interesting, and will want to keep coming back to when you go live. You’ll want to come up with a long-term content plan that will provide you with weeks’/months’ worth of content to tackle so that you aren’t going live and stumbling over what to do next.