Fairly new to streaming myself but long time lurker, mod and general nuisance on social media.
1) Don't try to force lurkers into chatting.
Some of us just want to be there, I'm cool with you saying hi or a thank you for the follow etc. But please don't do what a streamer did recently and start doing things like <NAME> "You can use the chat feature you know"
Lurkers want to lurk, it's nothing you're doing wrong or something you need to fix. Let lurkers be. We'll sometimes start chatting eventually but it'll be because we hear something we want to chat about, not be pressured in. Pressuring usually means I go find another channel to lurk in.
2) Get friends to support you.
Some streamers' discords let you promote if you're an active member, in my first few weeks streaming my 'work time' has been 70% networking & promo, 20% assets & support content creation, 10% streaming. Getting people who will come sit on your stream and chat a little is a huge help and breaks the silence.
3) Indie devs often love even small streamers, network!
I only had 30 followers on Twitch and ~500 on Bluesky when I started getting indie devs reaching out. Be friendly, let them know when you're streaming (a few of their devs came to join a few of my streams) and our interactions on Bluesky gained us both followers. Plus I found some awesome games I otherwise would have missed! Go like indie dev's posts, repost them, announce you're planning to play their game on stream and @ them (don't spam though). You might find you get a repost.
4) Stream what you love
Avoid getting and playing games you don't enjoy just because they're popular. One of my biggest early streams (6 viewers rather than 1!) was a very niche game but because I was just having fun and that came across in stream it was one of my most engaging ones. Viewers can tell when you're doing something for the views vs. sharing something you like.
