Twitch has become the successful streaming platform after the flight of dozens of YouTubers to the service owned by Amazon. The reason for this is very simple. On the one hand, the platform is less restrictive when it comes to monetizing certain types of content. On the other, the financial compensation is much higher than that offered by YouTube, as it depends entirely on the number of subscribers to our channel. But not all that glitters is gold. And is that to start making money on Twitch you have to meet a series of conditions , which we will see and detail below.
How much money can a streamer make on Twitch?
First of all, what do I need to make money on Twitch?
As with YouTube, to monetize a Twitch channel we will have to meet a series of conditions set by the company. The Twitch affiliate program requires that our channel have a minimum of 50 followers and that we have emitted at least 500 minutes of total stream during 7 individual days and an average of 3 simultaneous viewers.
As specified by the platform in the conditions of the affiliation system, these criteria may vary over time as the system develops . Therefore, they could be different in a couple of months or a year, depending on what Twitch deems appropriate.
I meet the conditions, how can I monetize my Twitch channel in 2020?
To start monetizing our channel we will have to access the Twitch affiliate page through the following link. On this page, we will be shown a button at the end of the web that will take us to the control panel of our profile to request entry to the Twitch monetization program. We can also access this other page to send the request automatically.
In any case, the company indicates that the resolution process can vary from 2 to 4 weeks. If we comply with all the access requirements, it is most likely that we will get an answer within an average period of 7 days , as indicated by the platform itself on its website.
I have activated monetization, how can I earn money on Twitch?
We have already activated monetization on our profile. Now the question is, how can we start making money on the video platform?
There are currently four different income streams that depend entirely on the platform. The main and most direct route is the channel subscriptions and emoticons. Twitch's current subscription options are $ 4.99, $ 9.99, and $ 24.99 . Of this amount, Twitch will keep 50%. That is, if we get 10 subscriptions of 5 euros, Twitch will keep 25 euros, while we will receive the remaining 25 euros. Be careful, do not confuse followers with subscribers. The difference is that the former do not generate, a priori, any type of income on our channel, unlike subscribers. We will talk about this later.
The second source of income for Twitch is Bits. Twitch defines this channel as virtual items that viewers (subscribers or followers) can buy to send Cheers to the channel during the broadcast of a stream . Beyond these terms we have to keep that 100 Bits are equal to 1 euro, therefore, 1 Bit is equal to 1 cent . As content creators we can customize our Cheermotes and Bit badges to reward donations that viewers make live.
The third route to which we can resort is that of advertising. The creators get a part of the income generated by the ads included in the videos already stored in the profile . Like YouTube, we can select the amount, duration and frequency of all the advertising spaces included in the videos. The greater the number of ads, the more income our profile will receive.
Why has Mixer, the alternative to Twitch that paid streamers millions, failed?
The fourth and last way we can draw on is from the Twitch affiliate system. If we promote a game within our videos as an item available for purchase, we will receive 5% of the income generated from the purchase of the item in question . In other words, if a subscriber buys a game for 50 euros through our link on Twitch, the platform will "reward" us with 2.50 euros.
And remember, a subscriber is not the same as a follower.
We have said it in previous paragraphs and we repeat it again: a subscriber is not the same as a follower on Twitch. The financial success of our channel will depend on the former . In Christian, it is useless to have tens of thousands of followers if most of them do not pay a subscription. It is true that advertising embedded in videos generates income, but the percentage is much lower than the income generated from subscriptions. To this must be added that not all subscriptions generate the same profit margin.
Amazon, as the parent company of Twitch, offers all users of the Amazon Prime paid plan a free subscription to Twitch. Today it is not known how much Twitch pays to the creators of the Amazon Prime subscription platform, although a much smaller amount is assumed . Another aspect we must bear in mind is that the 50/50 proportion of subscription income is not always maintained. If we achieve a significant number of subscribers and followers, we can negotiate with the company to obtain a 70/30 ratio, just as it happened with Ninja in 2018.
This proportion is accessible only to creators with millions of followers behind their backs and can skyrocket revenue by approximately 20%. If we obtain 5 euros from a subscription of 10 euros, with the new ratio we could obtain up to 7 euros per subscription. There is nothing.