It can be a pretty dangerous business these days to be a popular Twitch streamer.
The vast majority of your viewers might support you and love your streams but it’s the ones who seriously disagree with you or see you as an obstacle to their success that you have to be on the lookout for.
Some have even gone as far as to report a streamer for some illegal activity and have a swat team boot down your door live on air.
Not an experience that any of us would like to go through.
So should you use a VPN to improve your privacy when streaming on Twitch?
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Should I Use a VPN When Streaming on Twitch?
Yes, you should so that you can hide your location and IP address behind an extra layer of security, especially against those who are sore losers or don’t agree with everything you say. However, you can’t just go with any old VPN based on cost and whatever tickles your fancy.
The biggest hurdle that VPNs toss in the way of Twitch Streamers is a lack of speed and if you know anything about Twitch streaming, speed is essential.
ExpressVPN is frequently mentioned as one of the fastest out there, along with Private Internet ACCESS.
A VPN can also help you to connect to Twitch if you get banned, or if your country, workplace, or school does not allow access to twitch.
VPNs can help you get around your ISP throttling your internet connection, which is usually done by IP address.
Connecting to a VPN server and then connecting to Twitch helps to keep your real IP address concealed from malicious individuals who could attempt to have you SWATTED or attacked via DDoS.
The Dangers of not having a VPN while Streaming On Twitch
If the other player can’t handle the loss or doesn’t like something that a streamer has to say, they may take steps to expose the streamer’s IP address, and facilitate a DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service), or engage in SWATTING.
SWATTING is like the old days when kids used to call a bunch of pizza deliveries to a house to aggravate the neighbor, except SWATTING involves law enforcement.
The antagonist may contact local emergency services and report a crime at the Twitch Streamer’s location, which could potentially cause a whole host of problems.
The antagonist in this scenario only needs a little bit of technical knowledge and some decent hardware to make life a living hell for a Twitch Streamer who is not protected by a VPN.
According to Twitch, your IP Address is safe with them, and it will never be released. However, let’s be honest and ask ourselves how many times major companies have said the same thing about our personal information before getting hacked.
How many times have you had to change your website password after being alerted by the company that you once trusted with your privacy?
When Should I Consider a VPN for Twitch Streaming
You should honestly do so the moment you set up your account and start streaming. Getting a VPN is not difficult to do, it’s just a matter of doing your homework.
The main obstacle is cost as VPN services cost on average about $10 per month if you’re not willing to pay for months or years in advance.
This is mostly due to preferring a monthly payment rather than paying a large chunk for an entire year’s worth of service.
However, many VPN offers come with a free trial, especially if you purchase a new computer.
Suppose you want a level of certainty about protecting your privacy when you are streaming online. In that case, the best way to go about that, unless you’re a software engineer and know different ways to mask your presence online, is to purchase a VPN subscription and use it.
A VPN Can Help With Connection Issues
If your connection seems to be dropping frames, a VPN can sometimes help by rerouting your internet traffic to and from your twitch servers.
When you connect to Twitch through your ISP it isn’t a direct connection and there can be several different hops along the way.
If one or more of those hops are dead and packets are being dropped, it can make it look as though your stream is lagging.
With a VPN, You can choose different server locations to connect to, to avoid those servers that are dropping packets.
Related Article: Can My VPN Be Blocked By My ISP? (What You Need To Know)
When Should I Not Consider a VPN for Twitch?
Speed is essential, especially when you are Twitch Streaming. The one detriment that sticks out like a sore thumb—when it comes to VPNs—is a drop in speed.
But if you use a reputable VPN like NordVPN or Surfshark, you shouldn’t notice any drops in speed
VPNs are also known for dropping the connection and while it may be rare with better known and more effective VPNs, it still happens.
Even the best VPN services are going to make specific games nearly impossible to play. This is where speed becomes crucial and if you are a Twitch Streamer who plays games where speed is essential, it may make the game nearly unplayable.
The last, major disadvantage of VPNs is that they can be easy to purchase and quite difficult to set up.
Since a VPN is an encrypted passage through which all of your information flows, it’s not like jumping on a web browser and enjoying a casual experience on the internet.
If speed is essential and the idea of getting your connection dropped is a deal killer for you, then a VPN is probably something that you shouldn’t consider.
Do Famous Twitch Streamers Use VPNs?
Several famous Twitch Streamers use VPNs. In fact, it’s often the subject of complaints from other players since popular streamers will spoof their IP and get into gaming lobbies that they shouldn’t be able to get into.
There are a few, popular Twitch streamers that show up in VPN lobbies in-game, such as JoeWo, Bbreadman, and WarsZ.
That’s not to say that they always use a VPN, just that they show up in lobbies that are created for VPN users, whether that is on Twitch or other venues.
The three listed Twitch Streamers above are primarily involved with Call of Duty: Warzone, or, at least they are right now. CoD: Warzone is a game that requires plenty of speed, considering the fact that it is an FPS and requires extreme “twitch-speed” reflexes.
Not only do these Twitch Streamers use a VPN, but they also happen to use it while playing games that require a serious amount of speed.
It just goes to show that even though speed is an issue that is frequently brought up as a negative for VPN use, these Twitch Streamers prove that it can be done.
Final Thoughts
While Twitch is generally considered to be safe, in terms of protecting your privacy and IP address, nothing is foolproof and most Twitch streamers that use well-rated VPNs like NordVPN or Surfshark will tell you that they use them because of their connectivity advantages, not only to protect themselves on Twitch.
It is often a contentious subject matter, full of heated debate, however, VPNs are often used by Twitch streamers right alongside others who stream on different platforms, whether they are gaming or otherwise and you should consider a VPN if you are going to use Twitch for your gaming commentary and sessions.
I’m sure the Twitch streamers who have been SWATTED wish they were using a VPN at that time.
