trying to see what a new streamer I've never seen before is offering and I'm bombarded with seven 30 second ads before even seeing their stream. Lmao I'm clicking off

This would be great!

Agree.

I got annoyed by these ads many times when joining some streams out of curiosity. You know what? I quit their stream straight, without them having a chance to show themselves to me, because I'm already annoyed!

It’s f'in ridiculous to get an Ad right after clicking a stream holy S, how is people supposed to see if they are interested in the stream if they can’t see. Who’s the genius that made that decision.

I have the same issue as kefetor, I load up a random stream -> see a pre-roll, I instantly click to another stream that I follow as I cannot be bothered to sit there and first watch 2-3 minutes of some ****** ad, but then that next stream also loads up a pre-roll, at which point I click the little X in the top corner and I open up youtube which has also pre-roll ads but atleast those are a bit more managable.

All you have done twitch, with these pre-roll **** is fend people away from your platform, people that have donated and bought multiple subs in the past. People that cannot be bothered anymore in spending another dime until you fix your atrocious pre-roll ads system.

ps. to anybody reading this, if you use a vpn you won't get any ads, also if you load up a VOD from a streamer, no ads.

pps. there are addons that allow you to watch VODS without a subcription, even if they are some money grabbing joke of a streamer, you can bypass this with a simple extension (google it).

I stopped watching new streamers on my small free times. Just because of pre-rolls

I have no issues with ads, I support them. However there should never been an ad as soon as you get into a stream, you should always be able to see what the streamer is up to, especially if you're a new viewer.

How is this idea already 3 years old with no implementation?

Because of my day job I have a lot of idle time where having a video open allows me to fill the dead space. I used to watch streams to fill this gap, but during a transition between companies I fell off. I am more solidified in my new roll and wanted to regain my old viewing habits.

Unfortunately the streamers I used to watch are no longer playing games that I am interested in. This leads me to want to discover new communities. However every time I've opened twitch over the last few weeks I've found myself just slammed with ads! I will watch a few minutes of a new streamer to see if I'm interested, then go to hop to a different stream and get hit with a 30 second ad. This just happens in a vicious cycle.

It is near impossible to find new streamers to watch, I find myself just defaulting to watching more long form content like netflix or youtube. Until something changes on this front I'm going to stop wasting my time trying to find new streamers on this platform, its ridiculous.

Pre-rolls are really just a waste of bandwidth for all parties involved at this stage.

At this point the only way to discover new streams without disruption is to open every mildly interesting one on a separate tabs muting each pre-roll as you go along. Then go back over them to assess the streamers content afterwards.

Your ad rolls are not viewed for longer then it takes one to mute them and move on.

If I like the streamer I'm MORE then happy to sit through a mid-roll after mid-roll. If I don't like the mid-roll and I like them enough I sub to them. Subs are the best scenario for all first-party parties. You should be driving content TOWARDS this.

I used to watch 4+ hours of streams a day minimum (I work in software engineering). However as I stopped being interested in specific streamers I've stopped watching streams as much. I keep finding myself desiring streams but it is actually exhausting trying to find a new streamer to invest in when I get hit with a 30 seconds pre-roll every time I hop streams. It's absolutely killed my desire to find new streamers.

I know my opinion doesn't matter, but a pre-roll ad is the same is closing the tab for me. I will -never- sit through an ad before deciding if I want to spend my time there.

Remove or delay ads for first time users.
It is horrible for the user to have to watch ads when they change the channel.
It is horrible for the streamer to have to hope each user sits through the ads and makes it to the content.

Yup, the pre-rolls is what is stopping me from watching twitch all together lately.

I don't mind watching 2 or 3 ads per hour on a stream, but being blasted with a pre-roll NEARLY EVERYTIME when just trying to explore and browse new channels is just obnoxious up to the point of intrusive.

please please please do something about force pre-roll adverts. even if it's as little as checking to see if someones' watched a pre-roll advert in the last 10 minutes.
it makes discovering new streams to actually watch and follow basically impossible.

you browse. you find a thumbnail that looks interesting. you have to sit though a 30-60 second advert for something i'm going to make a note of never ever buying. the stream loads. it's not what you're looking for. you browse. you watch an ad, you discover again that's not whatyou're looking for. you see another advert, 5 minutes of browsing later, you've seen 4 or maybe 5 streams and are still browsing.
then i give up and go back to youtuube.

I came here with this exact idea. As a non streamer I can say that discoverability has taken a nose dive for me. I'm not going to watch 5 ads just to check out someone new. It's an instant c'ya.

This should be extremely easy to fix. Ask the minutes watched API if this is a discovery session (some mix of a new game, new streamer for the user) and if it's deemed a discovery session postpone the ads by 15min.

This would be amazing. I like clicking around until I find someone that seems interesting. But due to the forced pre-roll ads that I encounter so often I usually just end up LEAVING THE SITE ENTIRELY and going to YouTube or something.

Twitch needs retention. They do not have my retention, and are missing many others as well.

Partners should be the only streamers with pre-rolls. They have the established audience that will tolerate them and not affect "growth". Whereas smaller streamers like MANY of us, its a deterrent to growth.

Solid idea Zach!

There really is no reason to not implement this, you would have people at least stay long enough they would be willing to consider watching the ad.