We’ve tried to resolve this with Twitch support and gotten nowhere, so I’m trying here.
My region runs a stream of all local Smash Bros tournaments with a professional streaming crew, and we’ve been trying to figure out why we’re having trouble getting viewers. I don’t run the stream (the host, Ben, goes by the tag Jamnt0ast) but I work closely with the host and frequently commentate on the stream and support it. I noticed that third party apps and websites never showed us streaming (including one I wrote), so I looked in to more details.
The stream is called BreadNButterGames. We usually stream Super Smash Bros for Wii U, Super Smash Bros Melee, and Project M.
When our tournaments are live, if you make a request to the Twitch API for that game at this URL:
https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/streams?game=Super+Smash+Bros.+for+Wii+U
(or at the one for Melee or Project M)
Our stream does not appear in the list for the game we are streaming.
HOWEVER: If you open the Twitch website, and look under the game, you can find the stream (so we are configured right!). But, in the external API, you will not see the stream show up. On websites that use the external API, and apps that use the external API, our stream does not show up. This significantly impacts our viewer base since people can’t find us as easily.
We’ve done some pretty extensive testing at our last four tournaments, No matter what we did, we couldn’t get the stream to consistently appear in the list. One time, after we’d been streaming for about four hours, we stopped and restarted the stream a few times and then it briefly appeared in the JSON output, but was gone later. It’s strange that we’ve gotten it to show up a couple times, but 80%+ of the times we are live and check the external API, we don’t show up.
Twitch support basically suggested deleting our account (losing all our followers, branding, etc) and creating a new one. I’m hoping someone will actually be able to help us fix a Twitch bug here.