Our Algorithm

The player shows the live stream with the highest momentum score, refreshed every minute. Momentum comes from how many people are watching, how fast new viewers are arriving, recent chat, and recent tips and bounties from viewers. Chat, tips and bounties are each capped, so no single signal can run away with it. A stream nobody is watching drifts down quickly.

Camp windows. During scheduled Camp windows, a director runs the player like a TV channel. It looks at the last 90 seconds of chat, reactions, tips, viewer growth and moment marks. A stream stays on for at least 20 seconds, and a challenger has to be clearly hotter (well ahead, or a bit ahead with a marked moment) before the player cuts. You get a 4-second heads-up before each cut. When things are quiet, it rotates through every eligible stream, ones that haven't been on yet first, and it gives a stream with zero viewers a turn so new creators get seen. Streams that just started (under 2 minutes) or that two or more people have reported and are awaiting review are left out. If you tap the player, it stops moving you.

Live Now row. Signed in, creators you follow come first, then the rest by how many people are watching.

Nobody live. Public highlights play first, newest first, then recent public replays. Replays only appear if the creator chose to make them public.

• ✕Payments to WildFeed. There is no way to buy the main player: no promoted slots, no paid boosts.
• ✕Sponsors. Sponsor deals never touch who gets picked.
• ✕Paid slots. Booking or being paid for a scheduled slot doesn't move you up the player.
• ✕Follower count, account age, or who you know at WildFeed.
• ✕Your own views. During Rut Live a creator's own sessions, and sessions from their network, are thrown out.

To be straight with you: tips and bounties from viewers do count toward everyday momentum, capped, because they're a real sign people are into a stream. That money comes from the audience, not from the creator or a sponsor paying us.

Coming for Rut Live. It's built but switched off, and it only runs during the event. Until then, everything above applies.

During an event, each board (overall, hunting, fishing, outdoor cooking) has a stage. Every 5 minutes each eligible stream gets a heat score from unique viewers, retention, watch time, discipline and wildlife on camera. Early in a day, before there's a real crowd anywhere, heat is based on skill only (discipline and wildlife), so a small creator isn't locked out by a big following.

The switching rule. A stream on stage stays at least 10 minutes. A challenger takes over when it beats the current stream's heat by 25% or more in two 5-minute checks in a row, or right away if the challenger has game on camera and the current stream doesn't. If the current stream ends or stops qualifying, the next best takes over immediately. If nobody qualifies, the stage plays a replay.

Who qualifies. Native WildFeed streams from approved entrants who confirmed their license, landowner permission, safety harness and fair chase, and posted setup proof the night before. Streams have to be within legal shooting light where they are, follow bow-only rules where those apply, and not sit on a static shot for 10+ minutes in an hour. A failed staff spot-check disqualifies the stream.

During Rut Live, a view only counts toward heat when it's a real person:

• Bots, crawlers and scripted browsers are dropped.
• A session has to watch at least a minute before it counts.
• The creator's own views, and views from their network, are thrown out.
• Only a couple of sessions per network count, so one person with ten tabs is still one or two viewers.
• People who arrive by way of the main player count at half weight, so being on stage doesn't snowball by itself.
• We store a one-way scrambled fingerprint of the network, never your IP address.

Everyday momentum counts distinct viewer sessions from the player.

WildFeed staff can put a stream on the main player by hand, for example a hunt that's about to get good or a creator worth meeting. In a Camp window that pin holds until staff release it or the stream ends. During Rut Live a staff pick holds for a set time (10 minutes by default) and then the heat score takes back over. Staff picks are logged with who made them and why, and if a picked stream stops qualifying, the stage moves on without waiting.

Legal field dressing and butchering are welcome on WildFeed, but they have to be flagged. While a stream is flagged, viewers see a blurred “Heads up” screen and tap to watch, everywhere the stream appears. The main player won't autoplay a flagged stream if there's another one live; if every live stream is flagged, it stays put behind the heads-up. You can turn the warning off for yourself. Staff can flag a stream if a creator forgets. See the community guidelines.

We publish every factor and every rule above. We don't publish the exact weight each factor gets during events. If the numbers were public, the easiest way to win would be to game them instead of running a great stream. We'll update this page whenever a factor or rule changes.

1. October 12, 2026
   • Published this page.
   • Added the graphic-content heads-up: flagged streams are skipped for autoplay on the main player unless you've turned warnings off.
   • Built the Rut Live stage and heat score. It's switched off and will only run during the event.