One of the most interesting questions for content creators around the world is to figure out just how big the streaming industry’s monetary potential is. How well are the biggest streamers doing for themselves and is there money to be made here?
Back around 2013, there was a lot more skepticism about this than there is today, with massive sponsorship deals and huge subscriber counts leading to a lot of revenue for the most popular players in the scene. Luckily, it’s also very much possible to make some money on the side (or even a comfortable living) as a smaller content creator – read on to learn more about the numbers and the money game of Twitch!
The biggest Twitch streamers – what we know about their income
Though there is no such thing as a “Twitch streamer salary”, and everyone makes different amounts of money depending on their specific situation, it can be safely said that the biggest content creators on Twitch are millionaires in their own right. These earnings are shrouded in secrecy, with the rare leak or estimate serving as our only guidance to their circumstances.
For smaller streamers, there are so many tiny factors at play that it can be still very difficult to pin down an exact income. However, there are still some educated guesses to be made. Read on for an estimation of potential earnings based on audience size! But first, let’s discuss how money can be made on Twitch and how do streamers make money to begin with.
Making money as a streamer – the revenue sources
Donations
Direct support through third-party platforms or build-in solutions.
Subscriptions
Users can subscribe to your channel. Both streamer and user have benefits!
Merch
You can offer t-shirts and more with your branding for your community.
Affiliate programs
You can get paid per conversion and promote brands you really like.
Just like in traditional media, the main way to make money from free content is by running advertisements. There are also direct donations, either through third-party platforms or built-in solutions like Twitch’s Bits or YouTube’s Super Chats. Paid subscriptions are also a popular way to make money as a streamer.
You can also make money selling merchandise goods if you have a large and loyal enough audience. Mugs, T-shirts and the like are easy to produce online with third-party websites dedicated to this sort of thing. Special sales and unique designs are a great way to get fans to support you.
Often, big content creators are outright sponsored to play a game or to promote a product for a set amount of time. There are also simple partner programs available even for smaller content creators where you are paid per conversion – for instance, this is how you can earn money with OWN3D.
No matter how many followers or viewers you have, you can become an Affiliate member of the big OWN3D streamer community as well! Anyone can join us with just a couple of clicks and instantly earn 30% of each sale made through your personalized Affiliate link, which is actually the highest percentage shared in the industry! Share your link with your community and let them know why they should use your OWN3D Affiliate link to buy their new stream setup and designs.
Use our Affiliate program and earn money!
Start for freeThe path to becoming a Twitch Affiliate
Making money while streaming on Twitch can come in many different forms, but the path to pro content creation will inevitably go along the lines of the progression goals set by Twitch themselves for broadcasters. As your channel grows, the more opportunities you get.
Back in the old days, small streamers received little to no support from the platform and only a select few partners had perks and subscription options. Nowadays, Twitch Affiliate offers a lower barrier to entry to those looking to enter the streaming game for the first set of benefits available to content creators on the platform.
These are the current requirements for joining the Affiliate program on Twitch:
At least 8 hours broadcast in the last 30 days
At least 7 unique broadcast days in the last 30 days
An average of 3 concurrent viewers or more over the last 30 days
At least 50 Followers
You can also track your progress via Twitch’s built-in achievements and the “Path to Affiliate” goal. Though it is technically possible to lose your Affiliate status, it takes some serious “dedication”, so to speak: in general, Twitch look at accounts that have not streamed for over a year or those who broke the terms of service and may remove their Affiliate status.
Affiliates gain access to subscriptions, emote slots, bits and a share of the advertising revenue earned on the platform. They also get some access to transcoding options, meaning the viewer can change their video quality instead of having to chug through a laggy 1080p experience no matter what. They get priority over non-affiliate content creators, but it still depends on service availability whether they get this option at any time.
For partners, this is permanently available, and it’s a great quality-of-life feature for viewers around the world. You can also see why it’s restricted, though: the server load associated with this is ridiculous to even think about.
Even as a Partner, you should also consider re-using your Twitch stream content on other platforms and diversifying your income streams, like creating short highlights for TikTok or a VOD archive on YouTube.
How are Twitch streamers paid out?
Streamers are generally paid out via PayPal or bank transfer. Twitch and other platforms make these payments on a periodic basis, either monthly or as soon as you reach the minimum payout threshold. In Twitch’s case, the minimum payout amount is $100. This means that small streamers will have to wait a long while to receive their first earnings as you have to build up a small community to reach this amount.
Depending on where you live and how much income you make per month from streaming, it may theoretically be necessary to register as a business and pay taxes on the income! This isn’t only true in the case of donations: the revenue you get from subs, Bits, advertisements and the like are earnings of a sort, and you should do your research about any local tax law that might be relevant to you!
Just like with any other sort of income, your Twitch revenue will be taxed - sometimes only if it goes above a certain threshold. Most smaller streamers can simply take care of this by becoming a sole proprietor or an official freelancer. If you want to earn money with Twitch, the best way to find out what you have to think about, is to contact the trade office or magistrate in your area.
The Twitch leak and some income estimates based on your stream audience size
Unfortunately, there is no exact figure to tell how much a Twitch streamer makes per follower (or per sub): the numbers are very different depending on where your audience is coming from, what kind of language you stream in, et cetera. Eastern European audiences will only bring in a fraction of the revenue offered up by their Western counterparts, for instance. However, there are still valuable estimates to be made based on your audience size.
Viewers | Income |
|---|---|
10-20 | ~ $50 - $250 |
20-100 | ~ $400 - $1000 |
100-1000 | ~ $1000 - $4000 |
1000+ | The sky's the limit! |
Frequently asked questions
How much does a streamer with 10-20 viewers make?
Videos from smaller creators averaging 10-20 viewers show earnings between $50 and $250 on a monthly basis, mostly from subscriptions and donations. It seems like once you get past the initial dreaded 0-viewer hurdle, your next step on your content creation journey is filled with a small but loyal crowd.
How much does a streamer with 20-100 viewers make?
As a ballpark figure, heading towards three-digit viewer counts can get you around $400 to $1000 per month as long as you have a generous enough following and a large subscriber-to-viewer ratio.
How much does a streamer with 100-1000 viewers make?
This is the audience size where smaller sponsorships and potential streamer org deals may come in. These are not really possible to quantify as these deals are highly individualized depending on the streamer, their audience and whoever they are negotiating with. For the raw income through Twitch from your viewers, $1000 to $4000 is a reasonable amount to estimate, though the range gets wider and wider the larger the viewer numbers get.
From here onwards, the sky is the limit.
How much do the biggest Twitch streamers make?
We also have some specific numbers to look at from the biggest streamers, courtesy of the October 2021 Twitch data breach and leak. Keep in mind that this only shows the creators’ Twitch earnings, meaning you’d still need to add any sponsorships, third-party donations and other revenues to this amount.
Based on this, the 25 biggest content creators on the platform received total payouts between August 2019 and October 2021 of $2 million (shroud) to $9.6 million (CriticalRole). These creators have much sweeter revenue share deals than regular partners, and we can see the biggest streaming platforms compete for them by giving them even more incentives and payments to secure their exclusive content.
Conclusion
Streaming on Twitch is a challenging vocation, and it takes a lot of time and effort to stand out from the crowd. However, once you make it past the first hurdles, you’ll find very reasonable dollar incomes available for what is essentially playing video games for fun. There are no definite figures and sure-fire estimates for Twitch streamer earnings because there are so many factors to consider (audience size, sponsorship deals, third-party donations), but the breakdown above should give you a baseline idea of how much your favorite content creators are making on the platform.
