How Do Twitch Streamers Make Money?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2018-05-06
·
1,103 words · ~5 min read
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thanks for watching tech wiki click the subscribe button then enable
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notifications with the Bell icon so you won't miss any future videos wouldn't it
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be nice if instead of working for the man you could just sit at home and play
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video games all day and get paid to do it I'm sure many of you have had this
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thought especially since some of the most popular game streamers out there are making very comfortable six-figure
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incomes or perhaps even more to go along with the worldwide stardom but let's
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bring it back down to earth for a minute here if you the average gamer was
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willing to put in the time and effort to stream how much could you reasonably
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expect to make and just where does all this money come from anyway so here we
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go you're a smaller time twitch streamer will focus on twitch since they're a
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market leader right now you're just getting started and through a
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combination of good gameplay entrancing charisma and devilishly good looks you
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built up a small base of viewers congratulations if you've got up to 50
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followers you can become a twitch affiliate which at some point will give
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you a share of the pre-roll ads that twitch runs against your stream but that
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typically isn't much money in the grand scheme of things much more important is
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that it gives you additional monetization options with one of the most significant ones being
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subscriptions on twitch subscriptions work a little differently than they do
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on sites like YouTube although streams are free to view some fans choose to
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subscribe to streamers that they like which not only supports the streamer
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financially but gives the subscriber perks like special emoji and badges for
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use in the chatroom as well as the ability to watch streams without any
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twitch advertisements so at the time of writing twitch subscriptions cost
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between five and twenty five US dollars per month depending on how much the
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viewer wants to pay with that money being split half half between the
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streamer and the twitch platform and viewers can also purchase what are
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called bits which are essentially animated emoji that appear in the chat
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window when your fans cheer with their bits you will receive a cut of that
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money they spent on those bits viewers additionally have the option of simply
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donating their contribution directly to you without subscribing the benefit of
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this method is that there's no revenue share with twitch so for some streamers
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this can be a big deal but this comes
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with a drawback that there's no Auto renewal so it can be a little
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unpredictable affiliate programs not to
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be confused of being a twitch affiliate our yet another popular source of income
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this is why many twitch streamers have the links to the streaming gear they use
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the games they play products and feature on their stream or just a box to buy
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random crap on Amazon every time a viewer clicks on one of these links and
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buy something the streamer will get a small kickback now to be clear if you're
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just an affiliate running a smaller channel you won't be looking at any
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life-changing sums of money from anything I mentioned so far however if
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your stream becomes popular enough let's say you regularly have 100 or even a
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couple hundred people watching your stream at once you can apply to become a
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twitch partner which has a potential to give you much more exposure if your
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application is approved you'll get the monetization features we just talked
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about but because twitch will start recommending your stream to viewers
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actively putting your content in front of more people you'll not only make more
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money from subscriptions and donations but you might also get offers for
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sponsorships that you can run on your stream such as a banner product
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placement opportunities like a specific brand a gaming chair merch stores that
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will help your fans buy hoodies with your face on it and give you a cut or
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even invitations to conventions like pax where you could get paid for making an
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appearance but the road to becoming a streamer this caliber can be hard long
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and hard because the competition is fierce and even if you're genuinely
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really talented building up a loyal base of fans doesn't happen overnight many
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pro streamers have cautioned against trying to break into the professional
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streaming scene if your primary motivation is money let's ignore that
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for a moment though and finally answer the $64,000 question if you do make it as a
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pro what kind of income can you be looking at funnily enough sixty four
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thousand bucks might not be too far off the mark as many full-time streamers who
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have found sustainable employment in playing video games for an audience
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might make between three and five thousand bucks per month not exactly
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baller money but certainly enough to think about doing it full-time rather
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than as a hobby as for the very successful streamers they can use their
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popularity on Twitch to land deals with outside sponsors and sell even more
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merch meaning six and even seven-figure incomes aren't unheard of but if you
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want to dream of reaching that level make sure that in addition to your gaming skill you have something to offer
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your viewers whether it's a quirky sense of humor a silver radio voice or even
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slash Linus so guys thank you for watching tech quicky make sure to LIKE
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