Twitch is one of the best place where gamers can gather around and watch their favorite game streaming. The top players are using this plaform, most of them we can view streaming daily. They can do it, because you can earn a good amount of money through Twitch streaming.
The interesting fact, that we are more into follow and watch, the streamer itself, how playing, than, when we are playing with the game. Of course, It’s playing a big role, that nowadays streaming does not mean only playing with the game, but make a show. Every streamer wants to make their streaming more colorful, and more fun.
The platform is growing, we can’t deny that, and more and more gamer want to be a streamer. More precisely in 2022, there are more than 8 million streaming account. This is because under the pandemic, Twitch gained more than 1.5 million streamers, as you can see on the diagram below.
Therefore the question, we need to ask, how much money does a Twitch streamer make? And also with what tools, and how you can reach this? If you’re currently thinking about streaming, you should read our guide about how to start streaming. Let’s see the numbers.
How Much Money Earns a Top Streamer?
Once Disguised Toast made a video about how much money does he make, and take it apart by source. Jeremy Wang, who has about 800.000 followers on Twitch, and on average 10.000 viewers have, when streaming. (He is now currently on Facebook Gaming.)
In the video, he says, that on average, the monthly income is $20.000, only from Twitch. But this amount of money does not include the different sponsorships, or merchandise income.
On 2021.10.06 a massive Twitch data leak happened, so now we know, how much the exactly income for the Twitch streamers. When you’re in the top 10% of the streamers, you can make a different deals with Twitch, so the default percentage can be lower, what Twitch takes from you, for example from subscription. What are the numbers?
| Twitch Streamer | 2021 September Payout ($) |
| xQcOW | $752,467 |
| Hasanabi | $210,946 |
| Central_Committee | $14,258 |
| Destiny | $10,606 |
| sykkuno | $113,896 |
| shroud | $96,359 |
| moistcr1tikal | $117,959 |
| Ludwig | $114,257 |
| mizkif | $120,177 |
| Amouranth | $92,949 |
| Pokimane | $38,217 |
| Forsen | $32,567 |
| summit1g | $362,987 |
| loltyler1 | $213,372 |
However, it is a big wow, to see the exact numbers, but you can see the donations and bits by the stream alerts and you can calculate. But let be clear, that these numbers does not includes sponsorships, the own merch sales, donations, and other source of incomes.
How you can be a Twitch partner?
As of YouTube, in also Twitch you need to reach the requirements to be able to earn income through the platform.
The first thing you need to do is to apply for Twitch Affiliate program, so the viewers can subscribe for your channel, you can receive donations, or sell in-game items or merch. If you’re doing good, and more and more viewer watching your stream, then also you can apply to be a Twitch Partner. And you can enjoy the benefits of the partnership.
If you want to apply for the Affiliate program, then you should comply with the following requirements:
- 50 Follower,
- 500 minute of streaming, in the last 30 days,
- 7 different viewer in the last 30 days,
- On average 3+ different viewer in the last 30 days,
After that, you are alligible to the different source of income what we mentioned above. Of course, this requirement, is not in vain. These numbers basically enough to just start to watch your streaming, so not only your friends clicks on your stream, but viewers on Twitch or some of your follower through social. Personally, we recommend to double these numbers, because those will be the numbers, where you can calculate with some dollar.
The next level is the Partnership, for that, these are the requirements:
- 25 hour streaming, in the last 30 days,
- streaming on 12 different day, in the last 30 days,
- On average 75 viewer in the last 30 days.
After you applied for program, in under 7 days they manually inspects your channel, your statistics and authorize your channel for the program. Keep in mind, that If you’re in the program, than you can only stream to Twitch, and can’t use YouTube, or Facebook for streaming.
We need to say, that those numbers above is the top numbers for streamers. So you may won’t be a millionaire with streaming at the start. But as you can see, there’s a huge opportunity and clear numbers what you can reach with streaming, If you build your community smartly, and carefully.
What are the sources of income for a Streamer?
As in YouTube, there are many different way you can earn money in Twitch. Let’s see what are the main points, then we going into details:
- Subscription
- Bits
- Selling Games – Affiliate
- Competition rewards,
- YouTube
- Affiliate links
- Sponsorships
- Own products, Merchandise
- Events
The above points are available for all of the streamers, but in real, you need to have a huge follower base (or you need to be a professional gamer), to earn money with them.
Subscription
Your viewers can subscribe to your channel, not a deal breaker, we know how it works. Besides, they can express their support to you, they can use different emojis, use colors in chat, or they can get a notation or status as donators.
There are three different subscription on Twitch, $4.99, $9.99 and $24.99. This is divided 50-50 between Twitch and you. As we mentioned the top streamers can reach a better percentage, but there is a rumor, that you can get the 100% of the subscription.
The biggest advantage of the subscription, that you het a monthly revenue. This is important because you can calculate with it, and purchase new streamer tools, softwares or maybe quit your job. This source of income is available until the subscriber does not resign the subscription.
The successful streamers can reach a monthly $3000 – $5000 income. In other countries, when you don’t speak english, based on the country also you can reach half of this amount.
Bits
Bits are the virtual currency of Twitch. The viewers can purchase Bits, then they can send you through the chat. As for subscription alerts, here you can set different notification, when they donate you. Also the viewer can set emojis and texts with sending the Bits.
When you receive one Bit, it is 1 cent.
Games and Selling In-game Items
If you’re successfully applied for Affiliate partnership, then you can advertise games, or you can recommend purchasable in-game items, like skins, weapons, etc. This is automatically shows up, when you’re streaming the exact game as a link. When a viewer purchase the game through out your link, you get 5% of the purchase.
Competition Awards
If you’re a professional gamer, then you should consider getting into the competition, because there’s money. E-sport is living it’s golden age, and more players starting to race. There’s many events, and competitions for most of the games.
Currently, the most played games, with games where you can earn millions of dollars, are Dota 2, CS:GO and Fortnite. Currently the player who earned the most is coming from Denmark, called N0tail. In 2019 he earned about $3.000.000 with competitions, but in 2022, until know, he earned more than 7 million dollar. Under three years he may tripled the income from competitions. Isn’t it great?
YouTube
If you’re streaming, then you need to have a YouTube channel as well. From the different streams, you need to create compilations, best scenes, with these you can have a massive source of income, besides Twitch.
Sponsorships
This is one of the most wanted partnership of all, in the circle of influencer. But we as streamers, can calculate with it. Nowadays mostly the top streamers getting it, but we also have the option to participate or earn one.
When we talk about sponsorships you can think about Red Bull, Monster, Logitech, or any other brands, that will give you many shirts, or led logos, to setup or wear, while you’re streaming. You participate in ther brand awareness, and you can earn much money, based on your follower base and your community.
Do you want to start?
If this article convinced, that you want to start streaming, you should start with our beginner article for streamers. After that you should setup Streamlabs OBS or OBS Studio, and basically you’re ready to start streaming!
