AI vs. the Algorithm: Measuring Success on Twitch

Games livestreaming has become an invaluable tool for game studios, supporting game discoverability, community building, and community management. Understanding the different forms of success on livestreaming platforms such as Twitch, along with the relevant metrics and target benchmarks, is crucial for maximising engagement. Similarly, gaining insight into how short-term success influences long-term performance can empower studios to strategically plan, design, and implement future content or game releases. However, the diverse ways in which games perform on Twitch present challenges for detailed analysis. To address this, this paper applies unsupervised machine learning techniques to identify and present seven archetypes of success, enabling studios to gain deeper insights into their game's performance.