No matter how good your imagination is as a blogger, and no matter how unique your content is, you still have to be sure that someone will be watching it. After all, even if Elvis Presley were to resurrect and suddenly decide to notify his American fans about it via YouTube Live at 4 am, he would hardly be able to get a million viewers at once. So, don’t be like Elvis – try to act thoughtfully when planning your live streams.

Why the Timing of Streaming Matters

Nowadays, live streams can be considered the “icing on the cake” in any blogger's career: even if you are used to publishing only photos processed in a video editor, you will eventually need to go live to increase your audience's activity.

However, you will need more than a creative approach to your live stream to get the most out of this content format. As we know, any professional will be good at improvisation only with dozens of developed skills behind them. One of these skills is constantly analyzing the audience, particularly identifying its needs and preferences, such as the optimal time to interact with your content.

Indeed, the right choice of time for live streams affects the most obvious indicator of your streams—the number of views and reactions. If you want to monetize your live events, this will also affect your earnings for a certain period.

Thus, we have already explained why timing is essential, so let's not beat around the bush and move on to choosing the best timing for specific streaming platforms.

The Best Times to Stream on YouTube

Let's start by noting that no matter what platform you choose to go live on, you will still need to check the analytics section about your subscribers to find out the hours of their top activity.

Now, let’s return to YouTube. According to data collected from all users of this platform, the best time to live stream on YouTube is from 18:00 to 21:00 in your time zone (more precisely, in the time zone where most of your audience is located).

For your individual analytics, you have to do a little research right in your profile. To do this, click on the Manage Videos tab, then go to Analytics, and then to Audience. It is where the key aspects of your viewers' activity will be displayed, including the time periods of their maximum engagement with your video content.

The Best Times to Stream on Facebook

The stream good time on Facebook is from 13:00 to 16:00, although Tuesday is still considered a preferable day when people are still full of energy after the weekend.

At the same time, unquestioningly adapting to statistics collected from billions of platform users is short-sighted. Instead, it is much better to analyze data specifically about your audience.

To do this, open the Facebook Insights section (tab Page Statistics -> Subscribers). On the graph that opens, you will be able to find out when your subscribers interact with your content most actively. 

The Best Time To Stream on Instagram

According to statistics, the best time for live streaming on Instagram is from Monday to Friday (an extra level of engagement will be received on Friday), from 12:00 to 15:00 or from 19:00 to 21:00. This choice is explained by the fact that the vast majority of users either want to organize their leisure time in the evening or are trying to while away the time of their lunch break on social networks.

We recommend planning a live stream on Instagram since you can notify your subscribers about it, for example, in Stories, and use the preliminary notification option in your account's settings. However, even if you do not do this, those who have the application running in the background can still join you: the platform automatically notifies them that the stream has begun.

Best Times to Stream Other Social Media Platforms

Now, a few words about the two most popular gaming streaming platforms.    

Going Live On Twitch

Twitch, being a world-famous streaming platform, went beyond gaming many years ago: today, here, you can find art bloggers, ASMR bloggers, music bloggers, and bloggers engaged in any other activity for which their subscribers are ready to send them donations. In the context of the best time of day to stream on Twitch, you should consider the average statistics of local users' activity: going live here is best from 19:00 to 01:00 according to your audience's time zone.

At the same time, you should always pay attention to when million-plus bloggers start their streams: if it overlaps with yours, you would be better off scheduling your live performance for another day or time.     

Going Live On Kick

Since this one, like Twitch, is a gaming streaming platform, the best time to stream on Kick can also be considered any day of the week and any off-peak time (from 19:00 to 01:00 in your time zone or the same period in the evening).    

Conclusion

Choosing the best time to go live is a big deal, but if you don’t want to depend on the time preferences of your target audience, you can always resort to the help of Gyre. Thanks to this tool, you can stream to YouTube and Facebook simultaneously 24/7 (or cover even more platforms at once), use your pre-recorded videos, and not depend on exactly when your viewers are active.