You already know the basic ideas for streams - gameplay, Q&As, and reaction streams. Those have earned their place under the sun and, quite fairly so, are regarded highly on streaming platforms. However, if you want to pull more views, it’s time to branch out into more unique and niche ideas, something beyond the obvious. Here’s a list of 15 stream ideas that could take your channel to the next level.
1. “Not Stopping the Stream Until…” Challenge Streams
This one is not as complicated as it sounds. Pick a tough goal and try to accomplish it live and don’t stop the stream until you do. The goal itself can range from breaking a gaming record, finishing a game, reaction to the series, coding an app from scratch - possibilities are endless. The viewers stay hooked because they want to see if you’ll succeed, they feel invested in your progress and it’s a prime material to be repurposed into highlight clips.
Famous Examples
DJY is a streamer who does this type of content best. He constantly uploads interesting and complicated challenges using this format. And the viewers love him for it if his growing subscriber count is anything to judge from.
2. Competitive Gameplay
People love watching gaming championships. Competitive gameplay streams have earned their place under the sun and keep up being a constant source of entertainment. However, you don’t have to participate in professional tournaments to do this particular style of streams. Join in with friendly (or not so friendly) competitions among your friends and people from your niche!
Famous Examples
One of the best streamers who does this content effortlessly with fun in mind (instead of min-maxing competitiveness) is Ludwig. Why does it work for him? Because he has fun with the format! That’s all the secret to great content - to have fun and keep it lighthearted.
3. Themed Streams With Cosplay
Whether you are creating music, or have a debate, or watch a movie, or play a game on your stream - it all can be elevated by adding a little cosplay adjacent to the theme of your stream. It works because people appreciate you putting in the work of getting them more immersed in the setting.
Famous Examples
Cosplay streams are fairly popular, but just to name a few - JenEricLive, who commit to the bit of cosplaying as dwarves and playing a popular MMORPG World of Warcraft together as a couple.
It’s not only popular as a tactic to promote your gaming streams, it also works way beyond that niche. For example, people solely interested in creating cosplays do these sorts of streams to promote their work like Emiru VOD Archive does.
People tend to cosplay when they do ‘watch a movie with me’ streams. It usually varies from extremely beautiful and complicated to downright funny and both variations are a hit among the viewers if the numbers are anything to judge by.
4. Behind-the-Scenes Creative Work
Editing a video? Writing a script? Designing a thumbnail? Stream it. Creators think their audience only wants polished content, but many love seeing the raw process. It could be a serious and helpful stream, but it can also be a lighthearted joke-y type of stream. Either way, as long as you keep it fun, the audience will reward you with increased viewership. Such streams offer value while staying casual, encourage real-time feedback, and build deeper fan loyalty.
Famous Examples
There are a lot of streamers, who do such type of content to help the new blood find their footing in the scary world of Twitch and YouTube. It’s hard to say who does it best, but DougDougDougDoug seems to have the most fun with it, while finding creative ways to simplify the job of his team.
5. Fitness or Wellness Activities
Everyone can benefit from fitness or wellness streams. It doesn’t necessarily mean showing how to workout (which you can still do). There’s a bunch of ways you could branch with this idea. For example, you could do a 24/7 stream with workout music, or do motivational livestreams, perhaps sharing your own results over time.
Famous Examples
SHiNE DANCE FITNESS does great fun and educational fitness/wellness livestreams that promote health first and foremost. MAX OZAO constantly streams workout music on multiple platforms at the same time.
Whatever your goals are, you can always benefit from 24/7 streaming. Drop us a message and we could help you set everything up!
6. Live Unboxing and Reviews
Perhaps you’re at the point in your career where brands send you blind packages. Or you are a person who likes to spend money on foreign items and by the time they arrive you completely forget what you’ve ordered. That could be a great source of content! You could unbox and review the items live.
Famous Examples
The NICHE Lady is among the ones who does it best, because her content feels authentic and natural. She’s down-to-earth and entertaining with little effort by just being herself.
7. Cooking and Food-Related Content
Food-related content will never grow old, because people are hardwired to enjoy food in every and any form it takes, which includes cooking or eating streams! Both could be elevated even further if you have entertaining stories to tell during, making it a rather homey and comforting experience or put another creative twist into the overall idea.
Famous Examples
Depending on the vibe you’re trying to create within your stream, you can find that different people excel at different things. There is QuackityTwo, who sometimes delves into funny cooking videos. Of course, there’s Food Network, the channel which shares genuine recipes on their streams. And there are channels, who delve into the mukbangs (a trend of eating on camera originating from South Korea) such as HunniBee ASMR.
8. Speedrun Training
Take any speedrun video. It usually gathers an incredible amount of views. Why? Because people like it when brave souls put in work and time into making something incredible and seemingly unreal happen. But what if you push that idea further? What if you were to show the actual struggle of preparing to break that record during one of your livestreams?
Famous Examples
BetterThanStarlight’s channel usually delves deep into Resident Evil’s game universe. He does quite a bit of ‘speedrun prep’ streams and in them he comments on the strategies on how to better save time for an actual speedrun. It’s both educational and extremely entertaining.
9. Viewer-Led “Choose Your Own Adventure” Streams
Let viewers control the narrative—via polls, comments, or even donations. Example: “Every $5 Donation Changes the Game I Play.” That turns passive viewers into active participants, adds an element of unpredictability and encourages viewers to stick around because you will come around to try doing what they ask you to do.
Famous Examples
There are a lot of streamers who dabble in this specific idea, because it’s a fun and easy way to connect with your audience. However, today we will review Quinn Benet Live, who puts viewer interaction on a whole different level. His interactions feel almost playful, very energetic and witty, which in turn attracts more and more viewers every day.
10. “Exposing Scams & Myths” Streams
People build whole channels on debunking viral myths and exposing scams. Some even gain popularity overnight that way. It’s a formula that always excites the audience. Viewers love drama combined with education. It also positively impacts the trust between you and your viewers and generates massive community discussions that could further promote your channel.
Famous Examples
While there are a lot of channels on Twitch, who delve deep into debunking myths, it’s good to keep in mind that these sorts of streams aren’t the easiest to perform. They draw in tons of views, but they also require a lot of investigation and prepping beforehand.
11. Collaboration Streams
What can be better than several of your favorite streamers collaborating on something that holds your interest from beginning to end? It could be a collaboration in the same niche, or even between people from completely different niches, doing something new and unpredictable. The sky’s the limit!
Famous Examples
Back in 2019-2021 a lot of popular YouTubers and streamers collaborated to play Among Us together. It was a new niche that opened up a way to collaborative content. Even looking at some of the creators from back then, a lot of collabs were unexpected and entertaining to say the least.
If you’re testing different formats and don't see the results you want, request a channel audit and let's figure out what's wrong and how to do it right.
12. Attending Special Events
How about streaming special events live? It could be as simple as taking short clips from the big events such as Gamescom, for example, or livestreaming your reaction to the full official streams of such events. It's a great way to not only build up the hype for an event, but also boost your viewership with genuine excitement.
Famous Examples
Outsidexbox does such thing in a beautiful way, because their content is mostly collaborative. There’s friendly banter, there’s family-like closeness. It’s very fascinating to watch. But solo creators do such things in a great manner as well!
13. Live Audience Roast
Ask viewers to submit content (videos, art, projects) for a live critique. The balance of humor and helpfulness makes this format a hit. This boosts the audience involvement and, as a result, audience loyalty. Moreover, such formats offer high entertainment value.
Famous Examples
Caseoh does it in a way that earned him a great increase in popularity in a very short amount of time. He is effortlessly funny and his roast sessions with his audience is something to look forward to.
14. Roleplay Streams
Dungeons and Dragons is at its alltime popularity. Why? People love playing pretend, even as we grow older. But it’s not only about setting up difficult-to-plan DnD sets and streams, you could also create roleplay ASMR streams, for example, pretending to be a character from a show, movie, book, or a game.
Famous Examples
There are countless examples of people who do fullblown DnD livestreams (Dimension 20, Legends of Avantris, Critical Role, etc.) that captivate the dedicated audience easily. However, there are just as many great examples of roleplay streams that achieve just as big of a boost in viewership.
15. Music and Sound-Focused Streams
Setting up a 24/7 music stream isn’t as hard as it sounds. You could record natural sounds or some melodies and post it live as relaxing content for your audience. People would come back for more!
Famous Examples
Many YouTubers do this and it’s not as hard to set up as it sounds. Moreover, it drives a lot of people who crave relaxation.
The best streams create engagement loops—they keep viewers interacting, waiting for a payoff, or feeling like they’re part of something bigger. Try one of these formats, experiment, and watch what works for your audience.
Let’s make your next live stream one that people don’t just watch—but one they remember. ScaleLab helped more than 3000 channels of various niches find their hidden growth spots. Reach out to us, and we will help you grow, diversify your income streams, and to find a streaming strategy that suits you!
