Guide

Twitch chat voting, without a bot

Twitch chat voting lets your viewers decide or predict something by typing in chat. You can run it three ways: Twitch's built-in Polls, a chat bot with a poll command, or a chat-native game like TierContest — where viewers vote by typing a single tier letter (S, A, B…) and no bot, OAuth grant, or viewer sign-up is needed.

By the TierContest teamUpdated August 26, 2026

What is Twitch chat voting?

Chat voting is any format where your viewers influence the stream by sending a chat message: choosing your next game, rating a clip, or — the format this guide focuses on — predicting where you'll place an item on a tier list. It works because it meets viewers where they already are. Nobody has to open a second website, and the act of voting is itself visible activity in your chat, which feeds back into more engagement.

The difference between a poll and a game is scoring. A poll asks "what do you think?" and shows percentages. A game gives every voter a stake: with TierContest, viewers earn points when their prediction matches your placement, and a leaderboard ranks the chat over the whole session. The same viewers who lurk through a poll will fight for a top-10 spot.

Three ways to run a vote on Twitch

Twitch's built-in Polls. Native, trusted UI, but tied to your channel's access to the feature, limited to simple either/or questions, and there's no cumulative scoring across rounds — every poll is an island.
A chat bot (Nightbot, StreamElements, and similar). Flexible commands, but the bot needs to join your channel — often with elevated permissions — and viewers must learn command syntax like !vote 2. You also become the moderator of the bot itself.
A chat-native game (TierContest). Viewers type a bare tier letter — "S", "A", "B" — as a normal message. No bot joins your chat, you grant no OAuth scopes, and scoring, deduplication, and the leaderboard are handled for you.

If your goal is a one-off "which boss next?" question, the native poll is fine. If you want a repeatable show format where chat plays with you for an hour, you want per-round scoring — and that's the part you shouldn't build out of bot commands by hand.

How to set it up (about 5 minutes)

Build or pick a tier list. Create a tier list in the TierContest drag-and-drop editor: add items with images, name your tiers (S, A, B, C…), and reorder rows. This happens before you go live.
Enter your Twitch channel name. Type your Twitch channel name into TierContest. No OAuth grant and no bot joins your chat — the public chat is read anonymously, the same messages any viewer sees.
Start the live session. Go live. Each tier-list item becomes a voting round shown on stream with a countdown timer.
Viewers vote by typing a tier letter. Viewers type the letter of the tier they predict you will pick — "S", "A", "B" — directly in Twitch chat. They can change their vote until the round locks; the last vote counts.
Place the item and score the round. You drag the item into a tier on stream. Every viewer who matched your placement earns points, and the live leaderboard updates instantly.

That's the whole setup. There is no step where you add a bot as a moderator, connect your Twitch account through OAuth, or ask viewers to register — which is also why it works on any channel, from your first stream to a partner channel taking a 10,000-viewer raid.

Why votes stay fair

A voter is one unique chatter per session, not one message. If the same viewer votes every round — or spams the same letter twenty times — they still count once per round, and only their last vote before the round locks is scored. Tallies are sharded server-side, so the on-stream numbers stay live even when chat is moving too fast to read. The free plan counts up to 500 unique voters per session; the Creator plan ($12/month) raises that to 20,000. Past the cap your session never stops — extra viewers can still chat and watch, their votes just aren't scored.

Putting the vote on stream

Chat voting only lands if viewers can see the tally move. TierContest ships OBS Browser Source widgets — the current item, live vote bars, the round timer, the tier board, and the leaderboard — each a separate, positionable overlay with a transparent background. If you'd rather not arrange widgets, window-capture the stream-clean console view instead. Full walkthrough in the OBS overlay guide.

Streaming on Kick instead? The same format works there — see Kick chat voting.

Frequently asked questions

Can I run chat voting on Twitch without being an affiliate?

Yes. Chat-native voting tools like TierContest only read public chat messages, so they work on any Twitch channel regardless of affiliate or partner status. Twitch’s built-in Polls feature, by contrast, is tied to your channel’s access to that feature.

Do viewers need to redeem channel points or click anything to vote?

No. Viewers vote by typing a tier letter (S, A, B…) as a normal chat message. There is nothing to click, redeem, install, or sign up for — if someone can type in your chat, they can vote.

How does TierContest read my Twitch chat without a bot?

Twitch chat is public: anyone can read the messages in a channel. TierContest connects to your channel’s public chat anonymously after you type your channel name — no OAuth grant, no moderator role, and no bot account appearing in your viewer list.

What happens if two viewers vote differently or someone spams votes?

Each unique chatter counts once per round — the last vote before the round locks is the one that counts. Spamming letters doesn’t multiply anyone’s vote, and vote tallies are sharded to handle raid-sized chats of up to 20,000 voters per session.

How much does Twitch chat voting cost with TierContest?

The free plan includes unlimited live sessions with up to 500 unique voters per session. The Creator plan at $12/month (or $99/year) raises the cap to 20,000 voters and adds session analytics.