How Much Do Twitch Streamers Make?

How much do Twitch streamers make playing video games? Well, years ago, getting paid to play video games was a pipe dream for dedicated gamers.

Even if you were one of the very best, maintaining a stable source of income from gaming was unattainable. However, things couldn’t be more different now.

Some of the top streamers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars streaming their content on Twitch. Many of them catapulted their career by buying Twitch followers.

If you’re just getting started on Twitch, your dream of getting paid to play video games may not be as far off as you think.

Let’s dive into how much money Twitch streamers can earn.

How Much Do Streamers Make?

While it’s possible for anyone to make money from their streams on Twitch, it’s not enough to just start streaming then kick back and relax.

With some effort on your part, you can start earning money on Twitch through merchandise, affiliate links, game sales, and ad revenue.

Creating and Selling Merch

Selling your merch is one of the easiest ways to make money on Twitch. If you have a logo or catchphrase for your channel, why not sell it to your fans?

They’ll love being able to support their favorite streamers, and the merchandise will double as free advertising for your channel.

To sell your merchandise, find a third party website willing to create and sell your merchandise. Then, include a link on your page to send your fans directly to your online store.

However, simply posting the link isn’t enough. Use your social media accounts to tell your followers that you offer merchandise, and let them know where to find it.

Affiliate Links

Another way to earn money on the Twitch streaming platform is to take advantage of affiliate marketing programs.

As a gamer, your followers are probably interested in the products you use. They’ll want to know about which computer, mouse, or graphics card that you use and recommend. When this happens, partnering with brands that you know and love can help you earn cash when your followers make purchases.

Determine what products your viewers are more interested in, and provide them with product solutions to their problems.

You can do this by either reaching out to brands you wish to partner with or link to companies that you can sign up for on your own.

During your Twitch streams, \you can remind your viewers and followers about which products you love, and encourage them to visit the links you have posted on your channel.

Donations

Donations are when viewers directly give money to Twitch streamers.

These donations are typically made through third-party applications for 100% of the money to go to the streamer.

Most applications will only charge a fee for what it costs to process the charge. Streamlabs is a platform that doesn’t charge any fees on donations made to Twitch streamers, but you could also use Paypal or Stripe.

If you choose to go this route, make sure to put your link in your profile and let your followers know that you have a donation arrangement set up. You may be surprised at a fan’s very generous response.

Twitch Streamer Income

As your channel grows and attracts a following, you are privy to a wider scope of ways to make money on Twitch. Becoming a Twitch Affiliate and Partner opens up several doors for you to start earning money on the Twitch Platform.

Become A Twitch Affiliate

To start earning a stable income on Twitch, you need to become a Twitch Affiliate. Once you reach this, Twitch offers users the chance to become a Twitch Partner. Each of these programs requires the Twitch streamer to meet certain qualifications to join.

To qualify as an Affiliate, you will need to meet the following requirements:

• Obtain 50 followers
• Stream on 7 unique broadcast days
• Stream for 500 total minutes
• Average 3+ concurrent views
• All of these criteria should be met in 30 days

Land A Twitch Partnership

Once you’ve qualified as an Affiliate, you’ll want to reach toward becoming a Twitch Partner to start using other monetization methods.

To qualify for a Twitch Partnership, you need to meet the following criteria:

• Stream for 25 hours
• Stream on 12 unique days
• Accumulate 75 viewers
• Complete the above criteria within 30 days

Once you have met the qualifications, you can send in your application to be reviewed. They may take up to 7 days to review and approve your application.

Get Approval Through Twitch Bits

Twitch Bits are another way that viewers can show their appreciation while donating money to their favorite Twitch streamer.

Twitch Bits are a form of currency on the Twitch platform. Viewers use this currency to show their approval of your channel. These Bits look like emojis, but each Bit has a monetary value attached to it.  Every Bit donation you receive from your viewers translates into money for you.

Every time a follower uses a Twitch Bit on your channel, you receive a monetary donation “thanking you” for your streaming service.

Viewer Subscriptions

Approved Twitch Affiliates and Partners have the option to earn money from viewer subscriptions. Although anyone can follow a channel for free, Affiliates and Partners feature a special subscribe button on their channel.

The subscribes will pay streamers a monthly subscription to their channel that includes a variety of benefits related to their subscription level.

There are three levels of monthly subscriptions on Twitch:

• $4.99
• $9.99
• $24.99

Depending on their subscription level, subscribers receive perks like ad-free viewing, channel-specific emotes, or exclusive streams and chats.

How Much Do Twitch Streamers Make

How Much do Twitch Streamers Make Per Sub?

With every monthly subscription they get to their channels, Twitch streamers earn  50% of the revenue. Twitch takes the remaining 50%.

Let’s take the second level of monthly subscription as an example. If a Twitch streamer were to have 1000 monthly subscriptions of $9.99, they would be taking home almost $5K a month, or 60K a year.

Not bad, right?

How Much do Twitch Streamers Make Per ad?

Once a Twitch streamer qualifies to become a Twitch Partner, they can enable ads on their stream.

You get paid every time a viewer clicks on these ads and makes a purchase.  On average, a Twitch streamer can make up to $250 per 100 subscribers. Twitch pays streamers by following the Cost Per Impression model, which means that streamers get paid for every 1000 views an ad gets.

How Much Can a Small Twitch Streamer Make?

If you’re starting as a small Twitch streamer, the amount of money you earn is heavily dependent on your viewers and donations made to your channel. Small streamers who are affiliated will also receive money from subscriptions and Bits, although this number isn’t high.

Some small Twitch streamers report earning around $200-$300 when they are first starting. If small streamers have sizable donations being made to their channel, they may earn up to $2k a month.

How Much Do the Biggest Twitch Streamers Make?

It's rare for the top Twitch streamers to disclose the exact amount of money they make per year. However, estimates can be made based on their subscriber counts, viewers, or the number of ads featured on their streams.

These are three of the biggest Twitch streamers and their estimated earnings:

• T Fue - $600k to $1 million a year
• TSM Myth - $600k a year
• TimtheTatMan - $600k to $1.2 million a year

As you can see, your dream of getting paid thousands to play your favorite games isn’t so far fetched after all. 

How You Can Start Making Money as a Twitch Streamer

To start making money as a Twitch streamer, you’ll need to get views on your channel. Growing your channel and building up your audience takes time, which can be frustrating as a new streamer.

If you’ve been combing through Twitch forums for help, you’ll find that many streamers recommend buying Twitch bots. These are computer-generated viewers masquerading as real viewers to help boost your view count.

While this may seem like an answer to your prayers, these will quickly put you on the wrong side of the Twitch policies. If a Twitch streamer is caught using bots, you could be hit with serious penalties, or banned from the platform altogether.

Fortunately for you, there is a way to legally fast-track this process. Instead of risking your Twitch reputation, use TwitchGainz.com to grow your channel instead. You will have access to free and paid services that can help you boost your view count and help you start making real money.

Although you always have the option to grow your viewers the old-fashioned way, why wait? TwitchGainz.com can help you get your channel out there, and help you get paid for it too.