twitch confirmed muting the stream doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is making sure the video player is actively playing. A lot of browsers stop videos for tabs that aren't currently showing, so when you lurk, make sure even a sliver of the stream video is showing on your screen so it doesn't stop playing like in the pic here. You can only lurk in two streams at a time per IP address to count as a viewer
shoutouts to all the lurkers out there, y'all are the goat
From what I am "hearing" - views do not count if...
- the tab is muted
- the tab is not the MAIN tab
- if the stream is muted
So any way that people usually "lurk" is no longer adding to viewer calculations. But this is what I have read / seen going around. It might be hearsay. So - if you tab out to another tab / screen - you are no longer considered an active viewer.