Twitch Slang You Need To Know In 2024

Becoming a live streamer can be overwhelming, especially if you have yet to gain experience on Twitch or in Twitch slang. The entry threshold for new users is pretty high, especially regarding language. Twitch is one of many streaming platforms; however, it is the most popular. Why? Because of its unique culture. While the chat feature is available on every other platform, like YouTube or Facebook Gaming, none developed such a distinctive community, culture, or slang, as Twitch.

The key to understanding other viewers is the knowledge of slang words they use to express their emotions on the chat. But fear not! To help you, we’ve prepared a complete dictionary of the Twitch slang you need to know in 2024!

Table of contents:
Technical terms
Chat slang
Emotes

Technical terms

Admins are Twitch employees who ensure Twitch users follow the service’s Terms of Use. In addition, they can decide on disciplinary actions when rules are broken.

Affiliates are streamers who reached Twitch Affiliate reached the first tier of the Twitch Partnership Program. Qualified streamers can monetise their content and grow to become Twitch Partners finally.

Alerts are special notifications for streamers that pop up on their streams. They usually inform streamers and viewers about new donations, subscribers, and other interactions made by viewers. Most of the time, they are operated by a 3rd party service.

Ban is the ultimate disciplinary action for breaking the Twitch law. Ban can be temporary or permanent. While banned, the user’s profile is inactive, and the message “Sorry. Unless you’ve got a time machine, that content is unavailable” appears instead. You can also encounter bans from other users. Once someone bans you, you won’t be able to enter their profile or see their messages in the chat. 

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred from one point to another within a network in a specific timeframe. For example, Twitch streaming uses between 5 and 7 Mbps of upload, meaning streaming for 1 hour uses about 3GB per hour of bandwidth.

Bits are Twitch’s internal currency. Viewers can buy Bits and send them as gifts for their favourite streamers. This activity is called Cheering. Every Bit is worth 0.01$.

Bitrate is the amount of data you send to Twitch during your stream. The higher your bitrate is, the more bandwidth it takes. If the bitrate is too low, your stream’s image quality will suffer.

Bots are autonomous programs that users can use to do automated things. There are good bots and evil bots. A good bot can moderate or enhance the chat, while an evil bot can even ban you.

Categories are used by Twitch to divide and group streams by content (like a particular game or activity). A viewer can browse categories to find the most interesting to watch. However, they cannot be applied directly to streams by creators. For example, The FPS tag is used for first-person shooter games.

Chatters are the number of people that are connected to the stream’s chat. This number is different from the number of viewers. Some people are checking it with the command: /chatters, and if it’s much different from the number of viewers, it can indicate that someone has viewbots or is watched on Twitch’s main site without entering the channel.

Cheers are the act of giving Bits to streamers. For example, if you want to donate 100 Bits, just type Cheer100 in the chat. You can change the number to support the streamer’s channel with a different amount.

Cheer Badges can be earned for the channel you are cheering for. This way, other viewers will know of your support. The badge appears only in the channel where you earned it.

Cheermotes are Twitch emotes powered by Bits. Twitch Partners can use them to customise their channel with their unique style and branding.

Clips are short snippets of an older live stream. Clips are usually taken by viewers and shared with others. They commonly express feelings towards a particular streamer or chosen moment.

Commands can be typed in the chat by users and streamers. They are listed in the profile section of the streamer’s channel. Typing the command starts a particular action. For example, you can find Twitch commands (that start with “/”) and custom commands of bots that most often start with “!”

Concurrent Viewers is the number of viewers watching the stream simultaneously. You can check the highest amount of streamer’s concurrent viewers on sites like TwitchTracker or SullyGnome.

Delays refer to the amount of time between when something happens and when it is broadcasted on a live stream. It’s an official term for lagging.

Discord is an external communicator used by streamers and their community. Most of the time, streamers create servers that are free to join by everyone. There, viewers can chat with them or with each other.

Donations are the act of supporting streamers by giving them money. You can donate via external services like PayPal or Bits – an internal currency.

Emotes are Twitch-specific illustrations or animations that are sent in chat. Streamers who reach an Affiliate or Partner status can upload their own emotes. The most common emotes are those from external sites like BBTV, FFZ, and 7tv. Streamer just adds them to their channel, and everybody with the plugin can use all added emotes.

Founder’s Badge is a subscriber badge available exclusively to the first 10 Prime or paid subscribers of Affiliate channels and the first 25 Prime or paid subscribers of Partner channels.

FPS (Frames per second)/Framerate measures the display device’s performance in video captures and video games. It is the frequency at which images are shown. Full HD resolution is typically at 60 FPS. It’s one of the 3 crucial settings in stream quality – the resolution, framerate and bitrate.

Highlights are a recorded part of the previous stream. They give viewers a quick preview of the channel they are currently checking out, even if the streamer is not live.

HUD stands for Heads Up Display. It usually refers to graphics that pop up to show notification alerts like subscribers, followers, hosts, raids, etc.

Low Latency is a mode that allows the streamer to reduce the delay between their broadcast and viewers. As a result, the streamer can respond more quickly and moderate their chat more effectively.

Midroll/Preroll are ads. Midroll ads will appear during the stream and preroll right before the user first selects the video.

Moobot is a bot that acts as a moderator. It removes SPAM and comments in your chat that break Twitch’s rules.

Nightbot is another moderator bot that allows automating the live stream’s chat with new features.

OBS is the most popular streaming/recording software. Short for Open Broadcast Software. When set, streamers can broadcast their screen through platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, or any platform available on the web.

Overlays are graphics or animations that appear natively on the stream. Overlays are usually located at the stream’s edges, so the centre stays unobstructed. The best overlays feature design elements exclusive to the channel, branding, or promotional materials.

Panels are those rectangular graphics that appear below the live video on the profile page. They usually present facts and information about the channel or the streamer themself.

Partner is the second and final tier of the Twitch Partnership Program. The benefits include the possibility of monetising their content, advanced channel customisation, and VOD features.

Prime is a monthly subscription service that is an offshoot of Amazon Prime. It allows users to access premium content, free games, subscriptions to their favourite channels, and in-game content (and all other Amazon Prime benefits).

Shadow ban occurs when someone is banned in almost every sense of the word, but they aren’t outright prevented from using the platform altogether. They can still stream there, but their account does not come up in searches.

Squad Mode or Squad Stream allows up to 4 Twitch creators to live and stream together in the same window. Users must open the Creator Dashboard > Stream Manager > Start Squad Stream in the Quick Actions section to turn on the squad mode.

Stream Directory is the destination on Twitch where channels are separated into categories. Users can browse and sort channels and categories however they like.

Subscription, aka Subs, allows viewers to pay a minimum monthly amount (which depends on the country) to support chosen channels. Those users become channel subscribers. They also access additional benefits like emotes, badges, or private chats.

Subathon is a relatively new word in Twitch slang. It started on March 14 2021, when American live streamer Ludwig Ahgren began his long live stream on Twitch. Viewers could lengthen it by giving donations. So, a subathon is a type of stream where viewer donations extend a descending timer that determines the length of the stream.

Teams are a way of uniting and connecting Twitch streamers. Streamers can create new teams or join an existing one.

Turbo (AdFree) is another monthly subscription offer. It allows viewers to remove all the ads on Twitch.

Verified is a channel with a purple check icon next to the streamer’s name. It shows all viewers that the channel reached all required metrics and adheres to Twitch’s general guidelines.

VoD is a short form of video on demand. VoDs are videos of past streams available on streaming platforms. On Twitch, they are being deleted after 14 days for affiliated and 7 days for non-affiliated users. However, Partners, Turbo, and Prime users can enjoy their VoDs for 60 days. Highlighted VoDs stay on the channel until streamers delete them. Some streamers allow access to their video on demand only to their subscribers.

Vstream is short for virtual stream. Vstream is simply live streaming your content, gameplay or anything else without showing your face and using a virtual avatar instead.

Vtuber or a vstreamer is a virtual streamer. Like any other streamer, they stream, build community, and work with other streamers. The only difference? They are not ‘real’ in a classic sense of the word – vstreamers and vtubers use animated characters (avatars) instead of their webcam picture feed.

Whisper is a feature that allows users privately message any other user. It opens a private chat between two people.

Chat Slang

7tv is similar to BTTV, 7TV is an emote service and extension for Twitch and YouTube.

Andy is a collective term for all stereotypical Twitch streamers and other streaming platforms. Tbh no one knows exactly what Andy means, and most of the time, it’s used randomly.

Botting, or Viewbotting, is the act of purchasing or creating bots to increase the number of viewers. It’s against Twitch’s rules and punished with bans. In some cases, other streamers buy bots to get their competitors banned.

Brigading happens when Twitch communities raid each other, enter various channels like discord, and troll each other. In most cases, brigading is for fun and not classified as bullying. However, some of the more toxic communities can brigade in a harmful way.

BTTV, also known as Better Twitch TV, is a browser extension that allows users to use emotes and animated spots in Twitch chat.

Collab is a short form derived from Collaboration.

Clip Chimp is a Twitch user who creates and shares out-of-context clips from a streamer’s channel. Clip chimps often share their clips on Reddit, Twitter, and other social media sites, hoping to embarrass streamers and gain karma.

F is a form of paying respect (in a sad way). The term originated after a feature in the 2014 release of Call of Duty asked players to press F on their keyboard to “pay respects” to virtually fallen soldiers.

FFZ (FrankerFaceZ) is a Twitch extension that allows broadcasters to add custom emotes, layouts, chat customisation, and more to their channel.

FPS (First Person Shooter) is a game genre where the player’s view is centred on a gun in the first-person perspective.

Hate Raid is an attack by anonymous users flooding someone’s chat with insults and harassment.

Hype/Hype Train is a big celebration when the community unite and supports their favourite streamer. Sometimes they get rewards for keeping the hype for a long time.

IRL is the short form of “in real life”. It occurs in the whole online community, not just in Twitch slang.

Mod means moderator in Twitch slang.

Raids occur when a streamer chooses the option to automatically redirect their current live audience to another streamer’s stream. They boost the other channel and flood it with new viewers.

Rerun is a recorded stream that is broadcasted again. They allow viewers to watch a stream they may have missed.

Stream Sniping refers to using someone else’s stream against them. For example, other streamers watch their opponent’s game and find out what’s behind the fog of war.

Staff at Twitch are often called Clowns due to not abiding by their Terms Of Service and clowning around.

Troll are pitiful cyberbullies who enter chosen channels and disturb/harass the streamer and their audience.

Twitch extensions are tools created by 3rd parties that add new features to enhance the viewing experience on Twitch.

Emotes

You can find a complete database of Twitch emotes here.

4Head depicts a smiling streamer called Catburry. It is used as a reaction to a joke.

Cmonbruh is used to express confusion or to react to racist comments in the chat.

COPIUM in Twitch slang refers to the use of this fictional drug to cope with loss or failure. Generally, it is depicted using a Pepe the Frog meme that shows the character hooked to a Copium tank.

DansGame features the image of the popular Twitch streamer DansGaming. It indicates anger, revulsion, or annoyance.

GachiGASM shows great satisfaction with what’s just happened. It can also be used to say that we find a man attractive. If we want to say that a woman is appealing to us, we will use the Kreygasm emote.

Jebaited means someone is trolling or was just tricked.

Kappa is one of the most popular emotes on Twitch. When someone uses Kappa, you should know they are being sarcastic, ironic, trolling, or playing around in some other way.

KEKW is a FrankerFaceZ emote designed to represent laughter whenever something funny happens during streams. It became the most popular emote of 2020 and is based on the El Risitas clip.

Kreygasm, like GachiGASM, is used to show joy and satisfaction. It’s one of the oldest emotes on Twitch.

LUL is used when joining chat or welcoming someone to a stream. :LUL: Laughter. The emote version of Laugh Out Loud.

MonkaS emote shows anxiety and distress.

MonkaGIGA are MonkaS with even bigger eyes. This is just pure horror, my dudes.

MonkaW is a zoomed in MonkaS. Even more intense.

Pepe the frog is probably the most known cartoon frog in the universe. As a result, several Pepe-based Twitch slang emotes have become quite popular over the last few years.

PepeHands is another Pepe the frog emote. It’s used on Twitch when a user is trying to signify sadness (or pretending to be sad) or when the streamer seems upset about something.

PJ Salt is used when someone is salty about something. It can mean that the user is upset, bitter, or frustrated with something that happened on the stream, in the chat, or even IRL.

Pog/Poggers is the world’s most widely recognised Twitch emote. It is based on Pepe, and it’s meant to express joy, happiness, or even hype. But, unfortunately, it’s common to spam chats with massive waves of poggers.

Pogchamp is a legendary Twitch emote removed from the platform in 2021. It was used to express shock, surprise, or excitement.

Sadge, also known as :SadFrogFace:. The meaning of Sadge is sadness or disappointment.

SourPls emote works only with the BTTV plugin. It’s used to show happiness or emotion before a specific event. For example, this emote spreads happiness and joy equally and shows a guy dancing in a supermarket.

Trihard means the user is hyped about something that’s about to happen. According to Streamelements data, it’s the most used emote in Twitch slang.

Final Words

The Twitch slang can sometimes be challenging and confusing. Like every niche, streaming has its own internal rules. Hopefully, with the help of this dictionary, you won’t have any problems when your viewers type kappa, BTTV, or LUL in your chat anymore. If you need more help, be sure to check out our other articles like the
Top 8 Worst Mistakes Small Streamers Better Stop Making or How to Attract and Get More Viewers on Twitch!