Since its launch in 2011, Twitch has had an unparalleled impact on the internet. Within two years after surfacing, the platform acquired 45 million visitors. In 2014, Twitch was responsible for 1.8% of all internet traffic with a whopping 55 million active users every month. Their number of broadcasters as of 2015 was 1.5 million. This figure shot up to 2.2 million only three years later. This number currently stands at 3.8 million. As if that was not enough, the number of views peaked in March 2020 to 533 million.
The Twitch platform, in 2019, generated 1.54 billion dollars and had about 5.5 million broadcasts per month and over 2 million broadcasters. As of the time of this writing, there are 9.7million active streamers.
On average, a small-time streamer makes a few hundred dollars monthly whereas a successful one could earn 3 to 5 thousand dollars monthly from subscription fees alone. Outside of that, there are other avenues that could make streamers millions and tens of millions of dollars.
How Streamers Can Make Money Through Twitch
Monetizing your work on Twitch is not the hardest of things to do. This is because there is more than one way to make money on Twitch however, you need to become a Twitch affiliate to access some of these income streams.
To become a Twitch affiliate, you need to have at least:
- 50 followers,
- 8 hours of streaming within the last 30 days,
- At least seven streaming days.
- An average of 3 or more viewers within the last 30 days
Ways Twitch Streamers can Make Money
- Bits
- Subscriptions
- Twitch Partnership program
- Receiving donations.
1. Bits:
Firstly, we can talk of bits: a mode of payment that is pretty straightforward. Bits are animated emojis used by viewers to cheer the broadcasters. If a viewer uses a bit during a stream, a portion of the money spent on the bit is granted to the streamer.
2. Subscriptions:
Another way Twitch streamers make money is through subscriptions. Even though streams are open to all for viewing, there are certain perks that come with subscription as ad-free streams. Payments to streamers range between 5 to 25 dollars. However, the fee is split 50-50 between the streamer and the Twitch platform.
3. Twitch Partnership Program:
Currently, the biggest portal of income on the site is becoming a Twitch partner- this requires a good amount of work overtime. After reaching a few hundred viewers, Twitch allows you to apply to be a partner. If this access is granted, your streams are pushed by the platform through recommendations-this gives you exposure, which makes it easy to make more money since you are open to getting sponsorships and brand endorsement deals.
More exposure also makes you prominent enough to be paid to make appearances at programs and conferences. In addition to these, partners also receive a share of the ad revenue generated from their page and have access to the monetization benefits that all affiliates have, but on a much larger scale.
4. Making Money from Donations:
Donations are probably the goldmine for most Twitch users since they get to keep 100% of the revenue they make from this method, especially when they set it up with a platform like CheckYa. The great thing about this method is, you do not have to be a Twitch affiliate to make money in this way. Hence, this stream of income is accessible to all. This method, unfortunately, is unstable because it’s based on the impulse of viewers and not a steady criterion.
To encourage viewers to donate:
- Create great rapport with your fanbase and make them feel as though they are a part of your growth process.
- Make the donation process very simple for them. They don’t have to climb mountains to get you money. Show them how to use the payment platforms.
- You should give them a good reason to donate – it could be a personal goal you are trying to achieve or a problem you want to solve in society.
- You can also do a shout-out of all donors on the channel as a comment, so they get recognition.
Show your next donation with CheckYa Overlay!
Add a donation alert to your stream to incentivize more donations using CheckYa Overlay
CheckYa overlay works seamlessly with Twitch, Youtube, Facebook for Creators, and many more, and it is free to use.
Here’s how you can enable CheckYa Overlay.
Step 1: Find the new Overlay banner on top of your CheckYa profile page and switch it On.
Step 2: Choose the Overlay type you want, transparent or Peachy.
Step 3: See how your Overlay looks like. Copy the URL, and paste the link in your OBS. That’s it.
Add a donation Overlay and make your Livestream to create an eye-catching and more interactive streaming experience for your viewers.
Finally, always be grateful to your audience and show them that their donations are put to good use.
If you want to learn how to properly set up your donations, check out this article. Live-stream gaming is clearly here to stay. And to all Twitch users out there, we at CheckYa wish you the very best in your endeavors.
Cheers!
