Do you enjoy playing video games? – Well, most of us have fun playing video games.
In fact, the number of players has been continuously growing in recent years, reaching 2.6 billion gamers in 2020.
The gaming world has evolved in the past couple of years, and now it is considered as a career of choice rather than a hobby.
Nowadays, people can make serious money (north of 6-figure) by streaming while they play their favorite game.
This is a gamer’s dream come true.
One of the biggest streaming platforms Twitch is a great way to start your streaming career.
In the past year, Twitch had, on average, 3.64 million broadcasters every month and 2.3 billion hours watched on the platform only in Q4 2019.
In the same period, the YouTube Gaming section had 0.9 billion hours watched, and Mixer had 0.1 million, so Twitch offers the best chance for starting your streaming career.
Become a Twitch Affiliate and Partner
First things first, before you start making money on Twitch, you have to become a Twitch Affiliate.
This streaming platform will allow you to join their partnership program, where you will start as an Affiliate, and as you build your viewership statistics up, you will be promoted to become a Twitch Partner.
Obviously, you cannot apply to become a Twitch Affiliate with the first appearance on the platform.
To qualify as an Affiliate, you need to fulfill these requirements:
- Minimum 500 minutes of total broadcast in the last 30 days;
- Minimum 50 followers;
- Get 7 Unique broadcast days over the last 30 days;
- Average of more than three concurrent viewers over the last 30 days;
However, you will start earning money when you reach the level of Twitch partner. When this happens, Twitch will allow you to monetize your content using various methods.
To become a Twitch Partner, you need to:
- Stream for at least 12 unique days in the last 30 days;
- Reach at least 85 average viewers in the last 30 days;
- Stream for at least 25 hours in the last 30 days;
When you reach this level, you can apply for a partnership, and your request will be reviewed manually within seven business days.
It is essential to understand that Twitch streamers make money using various methods. Let’s jump on the make-money section and review all the ways you can make money by streaming.
Remember: Not everyone makes these eye-watering figures that you will see below.
Ways to Make Money on Twitch
As we mentioned before, streamers have a variety of different ways to make money while they stream, such as:
- Advertisements;
- Donations;
- Subscriptions;
- Sponsorships;
Advertisements
If you watch streams, you probably already know that when you start a stream, it is common to see a thirty-second advertisement.
Sometimes when Twitch is doing big promotional pushes, you might even encounter two ads before you start watching the stream.
Additionally, streamers can put an Ad button that will deliver a 30-second advertisement. Twitch streamers use this option in order to pause their video to get something to eat or go to the bathroom.
However, too many ads will only push people away from your stream, so you have to be careful.
When it comes to how much streamers make off the ads, it is usually measured by cost per mile (CPM) or cost per thousand views.
However, Twitch streamers have strict rules and aren’t allowed to share such information due to disclosure reasons.
Generally, you should expect to get around $0.002 from each 30-second ad view.
However, you should not calculate all of your viewers since most of them have ad-block in their region.
On average, streamers with 10K viewers can get around $40 for a 3-minute ad-block.
Donations
As we all know, donations are one of the oldest ways to support streamers. This is when viewers decide to give money to the streamer to support their channel.
When we talk about Twitch, donations are known as “bits.” The worth of each bit is close to a penny, and it all depends on the price at a specific time.
Viewers can make donations of bits though cheering and other exciting and visible methods in the chat.
The amounts you earn from donations depend on the platform you use and the type of content you provide: more entertaining content = more bits from viewers.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are the best way to make money on Twitch. The subscription section takes up the bulk of the income for more successful streamers.
People can open your profile on Twitch and hit the heart and notification bell to be notified when you are going live. However, they can also hit “Subscribe,” which will put money into your pocket.
On Twitch there are three tires of subscriptions:
- $4.99 per month (1 Subscriber Point)
- $9.99 per month (2 Subscriber Points)
- $24.99 per month (6 Subscriber Points)
Of course, you have to offer something premium to viewers that subscribed, such as ad-free videos, subscribers chat, and more.
Twitch streamers will receive 50% of the subscription fees, and if you become “top tier partners,” you can get 70% of the subscription fees.
Just to have a better idea, we will show an estimate on how much money do top Twitch streamers earn per month.
- SHROUD ~ $36,000
- CRITICALROLE ~ $37,000
- NINJA ~ $19,000
- MOONMOON_OW ~ $43,000
You can also use a twitch earnings calculator to get a better idea on how much Twitch streamers make.
Sponsorships
Once you become more popular, there will be a lot of third-party sponsorships that will pay you to promote their product. For instance, EA paid Ninja $1 million to play Apex Legends when it was released.
The usual rate for sponsorships ranges from 1 cent to $1 per viewer per hour so, if you have 5,000 viewers, that’s $500 to $5,000 for an hour of gameplay.
You can expect a lot of gaming equipment companies to hit you up, but that will happen later on in your streaming career.
Final Words
Streaming is a great way to earn extra money if you like playing games or even become a full-time job.
To sum it up, 1000 monthly subscribers roughly equates to $2.5k per month, which is very achievable. There are also off-Twitch ways you can make money from your videos, such as uploading them on YouTube, creating merchandise of your brand, or live appearances.
If you still think about starting your streaming career, now it is time to do it. You will definitely not regret your decision.