After Next Fest: turn your demo's streams into a fix list
Published · Numbers as of
9 Novis when the last 14-day Twitch VODs from the October 2026 Next Fest expire, two weeks after its final day
Start the day the fest ends, because the first streams are already expiring. A stream of your demo from Monday 19 October on a channel that keeps VODs for 7 days is gone on 26 October, the last day of the fest. On a 14-day channel it goes on 2 November.
Watch in the order the VODs expire, write down the minute of every problem, then group your notes by problem, not by stream. Fix crashes and what came up in more than one stream first.
The deadlines for October 2026
Twitch keeps a past broadcast for 7, 14 or 60 days, depending on the streamer's account. Of 257 VODs of indie game streams we checked, 77% were on the 14-day clock and 15% on the 7-day one, so for most streams of your demo you have two weeks at most (how long Twitch VODs from Next Fest stay online).
| Day | Gone that day | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 26 Oct | 7-day VODs from the first day, 19 October | The fest ends. |
| Mon 2 Nov | 14-day VODs from 19 October, and 7-day VODs from the last day | |
| Mon 9 Nov | 14-day VODs from the last day, 26 October | Most fest streams are gone by now. |
| Fri 25 Dec | 60-day VODs from the last day | Partner, Prime and Turbo channels only. |
The first week, step by step
- On the last day of the fest, finish your list of streams: channel, day, link, the day it expires. If you didn't keep one, your game's Twitch category shows past broadcasts under Videos (how to find Twitch streams of your game).
- Watch the streams from the first two days of the fest first. They expire first.
- For every moment that matters, write one line: the minute, what happened, and whether it was a bug, confusion, frustration, quitting or fun (what to note while you watch).
- Clip the minutes you want to keep or show your team. A clip stays on Twitch after the VOD is gone (how to save streams of your game).
- Then read the reviews of your demo and your Discord, and compare.
From notes to a fix list
Merge the lines from all streams into one table, one row per problem:
- the problem, in your words, and where in the game it happens;
- how many streams it came up in, out of how many you watched;
- the minutes in each VOD, so anyone on the team can check it.
Then sort it:
- Crashes, lost saves and anything that stops the game. One stream is enough for these.
- Problems seen in two or more streams. In our data these are a minority: 15% of 906 problems came up in more than one stream of the same game, so the ones that do are worth your time first.
- Everything seen once. Watch the minute yourself before you change anything.
Expect many rows to be about things the game didn't explain. In the streams we analysed, the largest group of problems (23%) was unclear rules, controls and item effects, and the largest source of frustration was economy, rewards and grind (what streamers struggle with most).
Check the list against your other feedback
Streams show a few players in depth. Reviews of your demo and your Discord show more players in less detail, and playtime in Steamworks tells you how many stopped early. After crashes and lost saves, a problem that turns up in more than one of these is the safest thing to fix first (how to get feedback on your Steam demo).
How we counted
The deadlines are the fest dates from Steamworks plus Twitch's 7, 14 and 60 days. The VOD clock shares are from 257 VODs behind our game pages, with the retention estimated from the channel type through the Twitch API. The problem numbers come from 259 Twitch streams of 46 indie games analysed in the week of 21 Sept 2026, sorted into categories by a language model and checked by hand on a sample.
What this doesn't tell you
- The VODs we checked are from September, not from a fest. We will recount fest streams after 26 October.
- Twitch doesn't show which streamers have Prime or Turbo, which keeps VODs for 60 days, so some VODs last longer than their channel type suggests. A streamer can also delete a VOD at any time.
Demo in the October Next Fest?
Overheard finds the Twitch streams of your Steam game or demo and tells you where streamers got stuck, what broke and what they liked, each with a link to the minute in the VOD. Send us the Steam page: we email you when enough streamers have played it, and you decide then whether the $49 report is worth it.