Streaming is free and easy to get into. Spend some time trying it out to see if it’s something you want to do. Will you have a ton of viewers? Probably not. But if you have a schedule and stick to it decently, you can build a community. It may never grow to something huge, but you’ll get a few folks who will check in regularly.

Make sure you stream with the “linux” tag so thag people who follow that tag around like me can find you!

I’ve been steaming with my friends about twice a week for a couple years. It’s their channel, I just join in more often than not. They’ve got like, 30 followers, usually 0-1 viewers, but I think it’s more important that it’s a scheduled time to play games and hang out.

My advice would be give it a shot, and don’t worry about the algorithm, viewers, or content optimization, because getting to be a big streamer is like being a rock star, highly unlikely. Just play games and turn on the stream.

Why do you want to? If it’s to be ‘famous’ or ‘make money,’ absolutely not. If it’s to just have some company while you game, a community might be better but it probably won’t be bad for that. If it’s because you like to entertain, maybe. It can be practice for public performance. Just beware audience capture.

You need one of two things, either an incredibly interesting personality with a magnetism that draws people in, or you need to be hot. Otherwise yeah, probably gonna peak around 10 viewers or so. The algorithms of all the platforms, not just Twitch seem to be setup so building a new following is almost impossible

Yeah it’s way too late to be a popular streamer,

But if you want to stream then do it. :3

do it for fun, for yourself and your friends. anything else is bonus.

and use Owncast. don’t be an ad-mule for Bezos.

Hey! If you want something a bit less intimidating and you want an open source platform, you could join us on Owncast! It’s a self hosted fediverse-connected streaming platform!

https://owncast.directory/

https://github.com/owncast/owncast

We’re a small group of streamers, but I can get 10-20 viewers on a stream. Happy to talk more about it if you’re interested!

I would only stream if it’s something you will enjoy doing regardless of success. I have some friends who have treated streaming like a job for years and their viewercounts are still pretty low (~20-50). Something like a youtube channel would be a helpful addition/alternative as well, so at least your content doesn’t continuously disappear into the void.

If by “too late” you mean “too late to get popular, rich or famous”, well sure, it’s going to be a lot harder now that there are enormous channels that got there first and where people are used to going for content, but if you have something that people want, there’s a chance people will find you eventually.

But that’s still not to say you’ll be big and famous. There are streamers who have been streaming for years who get only a handful of viewers every time they do. And yet they still do it because they love it.

On the other hand, there are many, many people who started streaming but quit because they had to make a living and their time was better spent elsewhere. Streaming only works as a career for, I want to say, the top few percent. (I don’t actually know the figures, but I’d be surprised to learn it was a big number.)

As for equipment, I’ve looked in on smaller channels streaming on Twitch. Not all of them have good stuff. No transitions. No Vtuber avatar. No mic. No webcam. Just raw, live game footage and maybe a little interacting in the chat. Upgrades can happen later.

But if by “too late” you mean that no-one should even think about starting doing streams ever because it’s all been done, or someone’s already doing it, then no, of course not. The day it’ll be too late will be the day all the streaming services shut down.

i want to stream games

Awesome, do it. Have fun. No reason to overthink it. I think that’s really cool.

How would it be too late? To develop a huge following? Idk, buy if you just want to stream for the hell of it, I don’t see how that matters. I’ve not gamed much the last few years, but I started again recently, upgraded my computer, and my ISP bumped my upload speed (finally), so I can stream without it impacting my game play.

I turn it on if I remember, but since I’m streaming just because why not (maybe I’ll find someone new to game with or maybe someone will be amused by my shitty skills), I don’t do it regularly and have no regular followers, as such, I forget to check the chat and have often had people join and type and then leave, presumably because I ignored them (or I’m just not worth watching).

OK a lot of rambling, I guess the summary is, stream because you want to, not because you want a following/make money and then it’s definitely not too late, but also don’t ignore the people who join your stream.

I did some vague streaming stuff for some friends and really enjoyed playing around with OBS to get some overlays and stuff. As long as you’re getting into it cause you find it fun, I see no reason to not try it. Just keep in mind you’ll probably not make it big and this will remain what it starts as: a hobby. Don’t let others deter you from trying atuff out. Even If it’s not your thing you learned some skills and what you like/don’t like.

Why are you asking on Linux gaming? That being said when questions like this are being asked here, Linux gaming has gotten quite a bit easier.