Change revenue split between streamers and lower payout minimums
I believe these recommendations combined would positively make a huge impact for every streamer and supporter.
Change the payout split between streamers and Twitch. Right now affiliates and most partners only get a 50% split from a Twitch subscriptions ($2.50 USD). I would like to see all streamers get a minimum 70% revenue split from subscriptions with a higher revenue split for all partners 80%. Currently both Facebook and YouTube streamers get a 70% split from subscriptions (and they have the option to create custom subscriber tiers with Youtube).
In addition, I would like to see Twitch lower its payout minimum which is currently $100 USD to $10 - $20 USD. A $100 USD payout is the equivalent to 40 subscriptions not including bits or ad revenue. For the smaller streamers to benefit from that financial support a viewer gives them, they need to be able to actually receive it in a reasonable amount of time.
To put this in perspective: Amazon Affiliates monthly payout minimum is 10 USD (they also give the option to pay out with gift cards) and Patreon's monthly payout minimum is only 3 USD.
Hey everyone -
Firstly, we want to thank SaltyWyvern for posting this request, and the 22k+ of you who have supported it with your votes, comments, and shares. We have been blown away by the response to this post, and have been carefully considering it for the better part of the last year. As there are actually two asks in this post, we will address them individually.
For the primary request of increasing the revenue share split to 70/30, the standard revenue share for subscriptions is 50/50, and we do not have plans to change the standard revenue share. We understand that this is disappointing for many of you, but we’d like to provide some reasoning behind the decision. To quote our President, Dan Clancy, from the blog we posted today:
“When we first established a 50/50 revenue share split, it was to signal that we’re in this together. You all do the amazing work you do to create great content, engage with your audience, and grow communities. On our side of the partnership, it’s our responsibility to make continuous investments in the products and people that make your growth possible.
As you probably heard by now, we’re in the middle of rolling out the largest change to payouts in years by cutting the payout threshold in half to $50. This is an important middle step that will help streamers put money in their pockets now, while getting us closer to our goal of same day payouts and lower thresholds.
Investments like these are paying off for streamers. Products like Prime Subs, Community Gifting, Hype Train, and the Ads Incentive Program, to name a few, have driven an increase of 27% more streamer revenue per viewer hour every year over the last five years. This means the same viewer hour now earns you three times more money than it did five years ago, on average. Our investments into your monetization options have already and continue to put more money into streamers’ pockets than 20% more subs revenue share would have.
Prime Subs often get lost in the conversation when it comes to revenue share. For Prime Subs, we pay streamers the same amount they’d receive for a regular subscription even though it is included as an added benefit of their Prime subscription. Combined with other monetization products, Prime Subs increase your effective revenue share by approximately 15%, to about 65% total. This number varies by streamer size and location, but subscription revenue share is not the full picture on revenue share for streamers.
Lastly, we have to talk about the cost of our service. Delivering high definition, low latency, always available live video to nearly every corner of the world is expensive. Using the published rates from Amazon Web Services’ Interactive Video Service (IVS) — which is essentially Twitch video — live video costs for a 100 CCU streamer who streams 200 hours a month are more than $1000 per month. We don’t typically talk about this because, frankly, you shouldn’t have to think about it. We’d rather you focus on doing what you do best. But to fully answer the question of “why not 70/30,” ignoring the high cost of delivering the Twitch service would have meant giving you an incomplete answer.“
As mentioned above, we recently started a rollout for reducing the minimum payout threshold to $50. Although this does not fully meet the request of $10-20 today, we will continue exploring ways to bring your hard-earned money to you faster, and more efficiently and aim to continue to lower the payout threshold in the future.
While we are declining this request, it’s still crucial to know that the primary value of sharing your feedback on UserVoice is to have your voices heard and suggestions considered. We will not always be able to provide the desired outcome, but it’s important to us to be transparent and open when we can, and we will be focusing on providing more consistent updates on UserVoice as time goes on.
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ZerdathsGamerTherapy commented
Alternatively, give us more for what you're taking. Full time transcoding (like Youtube), pay our taxes out of that 50%, other things, etc. I wouldn't mind paying the 50% split if I got more out of it.
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the_nicktorious commented
100% needs changed in favour of the streamer. Keep the prime subs 50/50 but the paid subs should be 90/10 to the streamer.
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cl0udbear commented
50% is a truly awful amount to take merely for hosting streams. It puts me off subscribing, knowing that half the money goes into Twitch's pocket.
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MooseKnocker commented
Twitch should always be improving every aspect as much as possible.
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roksikofficial commented
yes
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TakoyakiGamma commented
I'm a really small streamer and in the current system it took me a year to see any payment. Twitch taking such a huge chunk of the money your viewers give you and making you wait til $100 to pay out is a joke. Plus I'd like them to allow you to choose your payout currency. $100 payout means about £75 to me I'd rather set my thresholds to my own currency, especially in an age where subscription costs are localised, there's no reason for payouts to be dollar-locked
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FluffyballMimi commented
50% is way too much to take away, Twitch should definitely give us a better revenue split, which would also make it easier to hit the payout minimum. But who knows if Twitch will listen~
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PreacherGuy commented
Really grateful for the service Twitch provides. Absolutely believe a change is needed on payout structure and percentages especially given the changing marketplace.
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gonknass commented
drifty deserve more money :)
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norwegianfeller commented
yep seems legit
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JonIsHexed commented
I always thought 50% was a BOLD amount to take from someone's work just for hosting it
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rattymagic6 commented
Still not made my first payout life as an affiliate a but we should get at lease min 70 by the time we hit conversation rates were losing out more
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RmanX commented
This would be great! Please implement!
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InventorBLADES commented
This is viraling. Everyone check me out on Twitter @inventorblades. Make your profile name and bio identical to mine on twitter to band together and tag me for a RT. Also all tweets on this matter are to include the hashtag #subsplit . Your voices need to be heard.
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MommyLucifer_ commented
Woke up to this. 100 percent agree! Twitch needs to see if us smaller streamers actually could make enough money streaming we could actually afford to do this as full time jobs and that equals more streams, more ad revenue, just be more generous and we will both make more money Twitch.
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DriftyWingss commented
I personally do agree the revenue split needs to be slightly more fair. Currently 50/50 is very difficult for some streamers to keep producing the content they produce, and the current revenue share will likely allow competitors to have a chance to pull streamers away or will just force streamers off of the platform due to it being unsustainable as time progresses.
Personally, 70/30 would allow many affiliates to produce more content and 80/20 for partners would allow for more partners to keep up the content they make. By having fairer subscription revenue split, you will likely have more streamers as they can keep producing content, and by having more streamers/streams, you have more subscriptions, it is a win/win for twitch long term.
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JoshcvLIVE commented
Twitch doesn't exist without its creators. 100% of the content is produced by Partners, Affiliates, and aspiring creators. The split needs to favor all creators across the board.
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JackStrider commented
I've been asking for this for years. A much needed change
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SilkieParadise_ commented
I already gave up on twitch lol
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Gmundy commented
Nothing within this request is unreasonable, and would work to show creators that it pays to make new content and grow on Twitch. 100% support.