Twitch Algorithm:

• Top signals: Chat velocity + retention past 30 seconds. These two carry roughly 50% of total ranking weight.
• Secondary: Category consistency, external traffic, follower-to-sub conversion.
• Penalizes: Ghost viewers, bot raids, view-bot patterns, hour-hunting (long broadcasts with low engagement).

Twitch-specific quirks:

• Browse pages favor mid-tier streamers with strong engagement over either tiny streams or top streams. The platform deliberately surfaces growth-stage creators to viewers.
• The "Recommended Channels" sidebar uses follow-graph proximity heavily. If you're collab-active and your followers also follow similar streamers, you appear in their recommendations.
• Tags matter for category-page sub-filtering. Specific niche tags (more than 5 specific ones) outperform generic tags for discovery.

Twitch optimization priority: chat velocity (highest leverage) → retention past 30 seconds (hook craft) → category discipline → external traffic engine. Build these four in order.