If you’re a gamer, you’re likely familiar with Twitch.tv.
You’re also probably clued into the fact that overtly adult content on Twitch is banned. The closest you’ll ever get to something worth squeezing your hog over would be from the Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches section. Admittedly, Just Chatting can also have a few unbelievably perfect Korean goddesses dancing in sexy outfits when the time zone is right.
Now, as you can probably imagine, there’s a market for an adult version of Twitch – not quite pure live sex camming, but a happy medium between it and, say, Chaturbate. Well, there’s a platform that aims to offer this hybrid product – it’s called Joystick.tv.
Joystick.tv is pitched around the “NSFW Streaming of Video Games, Vtubers and Art“. How does it stack up as a Twitch alternative for adult streaming? Let’s take a look.
Joystick.TV Review: Our Initial Thoughts
We’re always willing to be critical from the get-go: we’re not thrilled at the size of Joystick’s banner when you land here for the first time. So much of the screen is taken up by this pitch. Our best guess is that due to the small number of live streamers present at certain times, it would look a lot worse without this.
That’s okay for now, but long-term, it has to go.
The site functions well and has good responsiveness. When you click on a stream, you’ll have to wait around the same time for it to load as you would on Twitch or Kick.
If you’re new here, though, you’ll get a few seconds of free viewing before being prompted to sign up. Joystick is very insistent on you creating an account as soon as possible.
The Stream Experience
Adult streamers at Joystick have quite a few embedded features they can take advantage of – so what’s it like here when you’re watching someone perform? Although there were limited numbers, we did a lot of our testing on a camgirl who was playing Valorant with a dildo in her pussy. Plenty of interactivity here – let’s look at what features were available.
Toy Menu
Interactive toys are popular for camgirls and most major platforms have some type of accessibility. We’ve reviewed the biggest names in live sex: most of them miss the mark when it comes to decent toy integration.
The opposite is the case with Joystick.tv: we were blown away at how simple but effective their system was. Take a look at the menu:
Here are the things we love about this: a straightforward interface with indications of prices and results, model-controlled rates and levels, and plenty of variety across a range of price points. Other cam platforms require models to use automatic chat messages to show rates (Chaturbate), only offer a few options (CamSoda), require a high cost for activation (Streamate) and so on.
We’re serious when we say that thus far, Joystick.tv’s approach to toy activation is the best we’ve seen.
Tip Menus
We were equally impressed with Joystick’s tip menu system. It’s quite similar to the above screenshot, where streamers can have options for things such as showing their asses, spanking themselves, riding a dildo and so on.
Most platforms have this type of thing, but Joystick has an additional element that we really like. Check it out:
Most girls are going to have a fairly typical menu, but having cooldown and single-use tip options is a pretty awesome concept. It reduces micromanagement and gives more flexibility to the shows they can put on.
Other streamers can also use these for a whole host of different purposes – sexual or otherwise. For instance, Quin69 has a channel point IRL flashbang system on Twitch that could easily translate to Joystick’s cooldown system.
Wheel Spin
If you want to gamble, you can. The streamer we watched had full lush control for a period of time as one of her options. Imagine varying the intensity of a toy for a whole 10-minute period while a chick is gaming— hot stuff.
Performers can choose what options they have on their wheel, as well as the price to spin it. Some might be more forgiving than others.
Token Goals
Similar to other platforms, Joystick has a token goal system. It also has a milestone feature though, which isn’t something we typically come across in the live streaming space.
Other Features
You’ve got a pretty standard chat setup on Joystick – they don’t need to reinvent anything here for us to be happy, though. We appreciate emoji support and the lack of GIF spam. Sites like MyFreeCams can be an eyesore at times when users get extra horny and start posting shitty GIFs. You can also fiddle with the chat settings to enable text-to-speech, chat notifications, timestamps and font sizes.
Below each stream, you can find a schedule with start times for performers, as well as social links and a small ‘about me’ section. Similar to Twitch in this regard, so again – not doing anything magical, but keeping the features we expect it to have to be as functional as possible.
Stream Quality on Joystick vs Twitch
Quality is really, really important for live streaming – especially when your platform is going to have gaming from time to time. When you load up a Joystick show, it’ll pick ‘auto’ for the quality. Streams can go up to 1080p here, but lower-quality resolutions are also offered. Namely, 720p, 480p and 160p.
We had intermittent issues with changing stream quality on Joystick. It seemed to be stream-specific for some reason. The longer we used the platform, the less likely we encountered problems – it may have been temporary.
The good news is that 1080p support here is actually slightly better than it is at Twitch.tv. Let’s take a look:
On the left we have a Joystick stream; on the right we have a Twitch stream (Midbeast (did you know he beat Faker/Dopa?)).
Joystick was pushing through 6.6 Mb/s of data at 1080p, whereas Twitch was at 5.5 Mb/s. We’ll admit it’s pretty close, but a slight edge can be given to Joystick. Note that the left stream was 30 FPS, and the right stream was 60 FPS: Joystick does support 60 FPS.
The Streamers
Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room: Joystick.tv doesn’t have many performers, and this is obviously its biggest issue right now.
The platform has launched an aggressive pitch towards streamers who might be fearful of getting banned on other larger platforms, but it’s not easy to build the network effects to attract both viewers and performers. That’s fine – platforms take time to grow, but we’d be silly not to talk a little about this.
We’ve visited Joystick several times over the last seven days and found anywhere from 1 to 15 streamers online. There’s plenty of streamer variety in those niches, though. Let’s give a breakdown of a few archetypes we came across.
The Camgirl
Likely the most prominent candidate for long-term platform success and growth. Girls playing video games (Valorant, Final Fantasy, League of Legends) and having a camera or two set up to show their pussies and bodies more generally.
They’ve got Lovenses in their pussies and you can tip them to get the party started. Chat interactivity is high and the action is slower paced than you might find on a service such as Chaturbate or StripChat.
Chaturbate has a growing number of adult game streamers, more than Joystick.tv, but it’s a different vibe. Joystick.tv feels much more intimate and inclusive.
Camgirls here typically stream for an extended period of time – several hours – and the squirting/toy shows will happen intermittently. They’re more common than other show types.
The Furry
Whether in an actual suit or using one of those Vtuber-style virtual emulation tools, some streamers at Joystick want to maximize the sexuality of the furry content – something that Twitch won’t allow them to do. We came across 4 streamers who fit this particular style of show and they were all gay. Furry content isn’t for the bulk of people, but they’ve got a space here.
The Libertarian
I use this term lightly, but a few people on Joystick.tv are principled free-speech advocates who might otherwise be banned or censored on other platforms. We’re not talking hardline racists or terrorists here – more just the type of person that has an ideological opposition to self-censorship and is willing to take a popularity hit.
Think Destiny (former C-tier Starcraft ‘gamer’, polycule enthusiast and Hasan hate watcher), but way cooler and more rational.
The Gaymer
Yes, men are awful, and we’re more than happy to whip our dicks out at a moment’s notice if it’s requested.
Some gay men stream on Joystick and fuse their sexuality with their gaming. It’s less erotically minded than the camgirl archetype, but it’s nowhere near as difficult to get them in the mood and see some sausage. Plenty of gay men stream on Joystick.tv and have a following of other gays that hang out, talk shop, jerk with one another and whatever else.
Our Verdict on the Future of Joystick.tv
The community level is where Joystick.tv struggles the most: to build a good live-streaming community, you need streamers. Our biggest criticism here is that it lacks those users. You’ll find far more gaming entertainment on Twitch, YouTube and Kick.
The platform level is where Joystick really shines, both in terms of gaming and adult camming. It’s an exciting niche hybrid, and we appreciate explicit NSFW support. The features offered are genuinely good and implemented well. We’re sure that if it got more users, we’d see even cooler things added to Joystick.
This platform could easily fall into obscurity, or attract steady growth and become a good NSFW alternative to Twitch. We’ll check back in a few months to see how things have developed.
Head over to Joystick.tv to see the latest NSFW streamers in action.
