What Are Twitch Hype Trains? (2024)

Minimum System Requirements

It’s no secret that we love encouraging streamers of all sizes to monetize their Twitch content—you don’t necessarily have to wait until you reach Partner or Affiliate status to start. However, there are so many features built into the Twitch platform that makes supporting streamers easy and super engaging. One feature we would like to talk about today are Hype Trains—a way to bring monetary support to a streamer while coming together as a community to cheer them on or “hype them up,” as the name suggests.

How Do Hype Trains Work?

If you’re a Twitch Partner or Affiliate, you have the ability to set parameters to determine how much support is needed in a 5-minute period to kick off a Hype Train right from your settings on your Twitch Dashboard. This can range anywhere from 3-25 events (events being bits, Prime subscriptions, gifting subs, etc.)

Once a Hype Train is kicked off, a Hype-o-Meter will appear at the top of the chat for viewers to join in and track the train levels. Once a level is complete, viewers are given an emote as a way to thank them for their support before moving on to the next level. Streamers also have the ability to switch from the default emotes to custom ones under Customization on the Hype Train settings screen on their Affiliate or Partner dashboard. Here is a guide to creating custom Twitch emotes, just in case you need some guidance.

With each level achieved, reaching the goal becomes harder and harder, but if you have a supportive community like Kai Cenat, the variety streamer who currently holds the Twitch Hype Train record for reaching level 47 and gaining 10,000 subscribers in a 4-hour span, then they’ll work hard as a team to get the Hype Train moving.

How Do You Customize Settings For A Hype Train?

Although Hype Trains are only available to Twitch Partners and Affiliates, we encourage you to participate when you get a chance to get a feel for it. One day you’ll achieve your Partner or Affiliate goal, and it’s going to feel amazing when the love you gave to other creators is reciprocated. What goes around comes, after all.

If you have achieved either one of these statuses and would like to customize your Hype Train settings, simply go to your Partner or Affiliate Settings, then the Hype Train section. Here, you can make all of the desired customizations, from the kickoff threshold to custom emotes.

How Do You Start a Twitch Hype Train as a Viewer?

The simple answer is to start supporting the streamer with bits, subscriptions, etc. You can also feel free to ask in the chat what it takes to kick off a Hype Train (which, of course, may entice other viewers) since streamers literally select what can kick off the hype train. Hype Trains are another way to create a true sense of community while spending time on Twitch.

Have you ever participated in a Hype Train? Let's chat about it on Twitter or Discord.

Get Streamlabs Desktop — go live in minutes!

Enabling creators to do more