It's not just for gamers anymore
Live streaming has become an incredibly popular form of entertainment, and a lot of this can be credited to the rise of the streaming site Twitch. If you’re thinking about starting your live stream or are already streaming casually, you may be wondering how you can take this hobby to the next level and make a profit off of it.
Many questions may arise from this, though. For example, how much can you make from streaming? How difficult is it to make money on Twitch? These are certainly some things you’ll want to ponder. This article will hopefully answer some of these questions and help you start.
Table of Contents
How Twitch Streamers Make Money?
There are a few ways you can make money streaming on Twitch. However, most of them involve becoming an Affiliate or Partner with Twitch. These titles grant you special resources to make money through the service.
Once you become an Affiliate, you can make money through subscriptions, ads, and Bits. Subscriptions are different from Followers, as subscribers will pay each month to get access to your streams. Ads can get you money depending on how many views you have. With Bits, viewers can send them during your stream, and each Bit is equal to 1 cent.
You can also advance to becoming a Twitch Partner, which has more strict criteria. However, you’ll have access to many more features and more specialized help from Twitch to take your streams further and make more money.
To become an Affiliate with Twitch, you must meet the following criteria within the same month:
- Have 50 followers
- Stream for at least 8 hours
- Stream on 7 different days
- Have an average of 3 viewers
To become a Partner, you need to meet these requirements, also within the same month:
- Stream for 25 hours
- Stream on 12 different days
- Have an average of 75 viewers
Keep in mind that even if you meet all the requirements to become a Partner, Twitch may still not accept your application.
How Much Do Twitch Streamers Make?
So, how much can you expect to make through each stage of your Twitch channel? The answer can be complex and depends a lot on how many views you get.
The average Twitch streamer makes about $2.50 per follower, so you’d need 200 followers to make $500. If you eventually become a partner, you can also make extra money by doing sponsorships and subscriptions.
If you’re looking to make thousands of dollars, you’ll need many followers to achieve this. However, you can do it over time with a lot of hard work. So don’t quit your day job to stream, at least not until you have a few thousand viewers/followers.
How to Make Money With Ads
If you’re an Affiliate or Partner, you’ll get the ability to run ad breaks during your streams. This can make you money depending on how many people are watching your stream. The best way to do this is to run multiple short ad breaks over a stream, beginning at a rate of 1 minute per hour and slowly building up to 3 minutes per hour to get your viewership used to the ads.
Also, make sure to tell viewers before an ad break is coming up so they are prepared. You can automate your ad breaks, so you don’t need to worry about running them yourself. The best time to run ads is in the middle of your stream, as this is when you’ll have the most viewers and thus make the most money.
How to Make Money With Bits
Viewers can buy Bits and use them to Cheer during your streams, which gives you 1 cent per Bit used. Viewers can send multiple Bits at once, which means more money.
You can see who sends you Bits during your streams, so it’s a good practice to thank your viewers who send Bits, as this can give other viewers incentive to send Bits as well. Making custom Cheer emotes for your streams can also help, as it makes the experience of giving Bits to you feel unique to the viewer.
How to Make Money With Subscriptions
Viewers can choose to subscribe to your channel if you’re an Affiliate or Partner. Subscriptions can range from $4.99 to $24.99 a month. You’ll get half the amount of the subscription, splitting it with Twitch.
Subscribers can get ad-free viewing and other perks, and it can be a great source of income, especially if you get a lot of viewers to subscribe. Whether you’re a Twitch Affiliate or Partner, the subscriptions for your channel work the same.
How to Make Money When You’re Not a Partner or Affiliate
While you’re working towards becoming an Affiliate or Partner, there’s another way you can make money during your Twitch streams. This is by setting up a donation box on your channel.
You can do this through services like Donorbox or PayPal. You’ll set up a link on your channel that viewers can go to and donate to you. You can motivate people to donate to you by setting up a goal by using the donation money for new equipment, a game, etc.
It can also help set up alerts during your stream whenever someone donates so that you can thank them.
Making Money on Twitch
If you have some time to invest in your Twitch channel, it can become a good side source of income. Once you gain traction on the service and become an Affiliate, making money will get easier from there on out. And who knows, you might even be able to become a Partner one day.
If you have any experiences with making money on Twitch, tell us about it in the comments below.
