How much does a twitch streamer make a year

The video game industry has experienced massive growth, in part thanks to the heavy influence of popular streamers.

Although Twitch isn’t just for gaming, the truth is that Twitch Affiliates and Twitch Partners can earn money by providing quality content to their audience.

It is clear that not everyone will make money on Twitch, but Rome wasn’t built in one day.

If you want to start a new journey with your Twitch channel, there’s probably a question wandering around in your head: how much money does Twitch Streamer makes?

In today’s blog post, we are going to carefully answer that and other questions related to the following topics:

• How much do Twitch streamers make?;
• Making money on Twitch: how does it work?;
• Average viewers, subscribers, and other factors that influence the way Twitch streamers make money.

Table Of Contents

• Becoming a Twitch Streamer
  • Twitch Affiliate and Twitch Partner
• Twitch Streams - Main Sources of Income
  • 1. Twitch Subscriptions Income
  • 2. Twitch Bits Revenue
  • 3. Twitch Ad Revenue
  • 4. Sponsorships Revenue
  • 5. Branded Merchandise
  • 6. Tournament Winnings
• How Much Do Twitch Streamers Make?
  • Small Twitch Streamers vs. Top Twitch Streamers
• FAQ
  • Do Popular Twitch Streamers Earn More Money by Follower Count?
  • Do YouTube Videos Impact Twitch Streamers Revenue?

Becoming a Twitch Streamer

Streaming is not easy. For some people, maybe newcomers to this world, it seems like many streamers just turn on their webcam and start playing a video game.

The truth is that, in order to make good money on Twitch, you need to take care of an audience that wants to experience unique content.

It’s not about playing the latest video games, or thinking only about earning money.

It’s about being a recognizable voice in a sector that it’s rapidly growing.

Fortunately, Twitch makes it easy for creators to start making extra cash (and eventually, good cash), by being constant and unique inside the platform.

Yes, Twitch pays money to a streamer, but only if they first meet previously set criteria.

Learn more about this in Twitch Creator’s Camp.

Twitch Affiliate and Twitch Partner

In order to earn money on Twitch, streamers must become Twitch Affiliates or Twitch Partners.

There are clearly two different programs, but they work alike, and they are your only way to make money on Twitch.

The Twitch Affiliate Program is aimed at small Twitch streamers that are just getting started on the platform.

In order to reach the Affiliate Status, small streamers must have:

• 500 minutes of broadcast in one month;
• At least 3 regular viewers over the last month;
• At least 7 streams during 30 days;
• 50 followers.

Then, when smaller streamers start growing and reach Affiliate Status, they can opt for the Twitch Partner Program. A Partnered Streamer needs:

• 25 hours on overall Twitch Stream during 30 days;
• 12 unique broadcasts;
• 75 concurrent viewers during one month.

The programs pay streamers depending on many factors that we will soon mention in this blog post.

Read Also: Do you want to know more about Twitch Partner and Affiliate?

Besides average viewers and the number of streams, a Twitch channel needs to go further in order to start making money. Learn more about this matter by reading our related post: Twitch Affiliate vs. Partner.

Twitch Streams - Main Sources of Income

So, do Twitch streamers make money through viewers, or through subscribers only?

The truth is that it depends. In order to understand how much streamers make, we first need to take a look at the way Twitch channels make money.

Whether you are a big or a small streamer, keep in mind that most streamers start the same way.

Firstly, making your channel page appealing to your viewers is a must. Then, things will come in addition.

That being said, the money Twitch streamers make isn’t linked just to a single source of income.

There are plenty of ways to make money on Twitch, but, at the end of the day, they all come down to providing quality and value to their Internet content.

Pro Tip: YouTube has also ranked itself as the biggest platform for uploading videos and sharing content.

Among YouTube’s monetization methods, we have Pay-per-View, where creators make money depending on the number of people that watch their videos.

Check out YouTube Earnings Per View by reading our related article.

1. Twitch Subscriptions Income

One of the main ways to make money on Twitch is by having subscribers.

Subscribers are viewers that decide to pay to support your channel.

Unlike other platforms where people pay for content, such as Patreon, subscribers often don’t experience exclusive content all around.

Instead, subscribers enjoy ad-free viewing without using an ad-block.

Nonetheless, subscribers are quite aware that they are supporting a Twitch Streamer, even if they don’t get much in return.

Likewise, a Twitch streamer has the option to activate the subscribers-only chat mode, where only people who paid for subscriptions can participate.

The subscription income is divided this way:

• $4,99 subscriptions;
• $9,99 subscriptions;
• $24,99 subscriptions.

They all offer the same, what changes is the subscription fees. These fees are shared with the platform in a 50/50 split, meaning that streamers only earn half, but this can go as high as 100% for top streamers.

So, let’s say that you have 10,000 followers, and 2,000 of them are subscribed to your channel at $4,99 per month. In this example, you will earn a total of $5,000 from subscribers only. It’s a decent amount, isn’t it?

Naturally, this heavily varies depending on the number of followers and average viewers on your channel.

2. Twitch Bits Revenue

Bits are the closest thing we have to a Twitch currency. They are usually worth $0.01 each, but streamers can change their value on their channel settings.

Bit donations are a way for your viewers to interact with your channel. Most times, when someone donates Bits, a message will appear on the streamer’s screen.

That way, the streamer can read the message and send their greetings to the donator. This motivates others to donate money and to continue interacting with the channel.

Since donations depend on many factors, there isn’t a way to exactly calculate the amount of money that someone can make out of bits. Remember that only a Twitch streamer with the affiliate or partner status can implement bits on their channel.

3. Twitch Ad Revenue

Twitch ads are not available for affiliates, only for partners. They work similarly to YouTube, and they allow streamers to earn more money through ad revenue.

Nonetheless, we can safely say that it is very lucrative for big streamers. On average, Twitch pays $250 in revenue from ads for every 100 subscribers.

But in reality, this is really hard to predict because Twitch has individual contracts with most major streamers. So, they might as well pay Ninja, a really successful Twitch streamer, up to $400 in ad revenue for every 100 subscribers, but this won’t be the same for a small streamer.

Since subscribers aren’t the same thing as viewers, the average revenue from ads when it comes to viewers is from $2 to $10 for every 1,000 viewers.

4. Sponsorships Revenue

We all know that companies look for influential Twitch streamers to power their campaigns. You might have seen a streamer promoting a product on their channel, so that isn’t weird.

But sponsorships are usually private deals between the streamer and a brand. Thus, this heavily variates depending on the size of the channel and the product being promoted there.

5. Branded Merchandise

Some streamers started selling merchandise, such as t-shirts and clothing, directly on their channels.

For instance, the highest-paid streamer in the world, XQC (check XQC Net Worth), has his own store of XQC Gifts that he directly promotes on Twitch.

This way, there are no intermediaries - streamers send their audience to their stores, and they directly make revenue by selling their own products. Nevertheless, it is pretty clear that this only applies to successful streamers.

Small and medium-sized streamers will probably have problems selling their own merch. It’s a process that requires a loyal fanbase willing to spend their money on your own products. It isn’t easy, but it isn’t impossible either.

6. Tournament Winnings

Some streamers are professional players that participate in renowned tournaments. For instance, recently, a Twitch streamer named ChowH1 won $100,000 from a Call of Duty tournament, while his channel was live!

It was an astonishing precedent that changed the way how companies see streamers. On the other hand, not all streamers play on a professional level.

Consequently, tournament winnings are a factor that only affects a bunch of streamers and not all of them.

How Much Do Twitch Streamers Make?

Now, based on our previous analysis, let’s figure out how much Twitch streamers make. Twitch Pages maintains a list of top earners on Twitch, based on Twitch Leaks information.

Clearly, this shows a list of very successful individuals that don’t reflect the complete reality of the platform.

That’s why if we want to make estimations, we need to make comparisons between small, medium, and big streamers.

Small Twitch Streamers vs. Top Twitch Streamers

So, let’s make a fair comparison here. Instead of analyzing just how many subscribers a streamer will need to make subs money, we’ll take different factors into account.

• Small Streamers with 100 followers and at least 20 subscribers can make up to $100 per month, if we add donations and ads. This can go as low as $50, though, so it highly depends;
• Medium Streamers with 1000 followers and at least 100 subscribers can make from $400 to $1000 per month, if we take into account donations and advertising revenue as well;
• Big and enormous streamers, such as Ninja, can make up to $3,000,000 every month. Insane, isn’t it? Check out Ninja Net Worth to get more information about this creator.

There you go - that’s the information you were looking for! We get that calculating the total income of streamers isn’t possible, but this approximation is as good as it gets.

For more amazing Twitch insights, you can always count on Launch Kit as your number one source of information!

FAQ

Do Popular Twitch Streamers Earn More Money by Follower Count?

Having more followers doesn’t necessarily mean having a higher income.

However, it does impact the ad revenue generated on streams.

So, follower count is important indeed, but viewers and subscribers are way more important.

Do YouTube Videos Impact Twitch Streamers Revenue?

Of course it does, but outside Twitch. For instance, Karls Jacobs often puts parts of his stream on YouTube.

This generates a double-sourced income: he makes streams, earns revenue by streaming on Twitch, and then posts them on YouTube for other users to see them. It’s a win-win situation!

How much do Twitch streamers make?

Who is the highest paid twitch streamer?