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.
SaltyWyvern
shared this idea
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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AthenaBeesh
commented
At the very least, splits need to change to 70/30. Minimum payouts also need to change to 40-50 or even lower and once every two weeks if feasible. Get on it twitch, if it doesn't change more creators are going to leave or monetize their content in a different way.
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podgie
commented
And the fact we have to pay taxes on that so it's even less :)
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seasaltalchemist
commented
I think this is extremely fair. I'm an affiliate and am currently owed about $50, but because it doesn't meet Twitch's $100 pay out minimum they're basically holding my money *******. I've been owed this money for about 5 months now and it's not fair.
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reckonist
commented
Im a partner and I run a Patreon because the split is so bad. If the split was better, Id move off Patreon altogether and I know there are a lot of people in the same position.
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Raechuul
commented
I have a couple thoughts:
1) a 70% cut for affiliates, and 80% cut for partners seems super fair. Twitch IS providing their hosting services, as well as other conveniences. BUT, the streamer is producing the content and revenue.
And I do agree that there is a difference between affiliates and partners... it seems almost superfluous for me to even want to be a partner if I'm going to be making the same amount of money off my content anyway. A slight increase in income would motivate us more.
2) the $100 threshold doesn't bother me as an affiliate. Sometimes it takes me months to get to that point, but I would rather have a $100+ check than a $20/$40/etc. one. (Personally, I know some will disagree and a $20 check could change their finances dramatically. Maybe there should be an option?)
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GappyV
commented
I can understand keeping payouts at $100 - there is bureaucracy and fees associated with payouts on Twitch's end, and paying out every single small streamer would be a gargantuan task. But the sub cut seems really egregious in the current market - as a Partner, I still have the same cut that I received as an affiliate for Tier 1 subs. If I've made a substantial splash on the platform, why am I not entitled to a 55% or 60% sub cut for Tier 1s, or maybe a sub cut increase if I hit 500/1000/2000 total subs, kind of like how emotes are unlocked based on sub points?
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Pollyphemeus
commented
I mean I'm telling a thief to give me my money back, so I'm not expecting anything to happen. But 50%+ is insane. And I emphasis PLUS because when it comes to calculating Gift subs for foreign countries, they adjust the Streamers revenue, and eat the remainder. So if someone in a poorer nation gets a sub, We might barely get 1/3rd the revenue. And the payout scheme? Literally theft. like illegal level theft. If a streamer never hits $100 they never get paid. NEVER. They made you money, and they put in the work. Not paying a contractor is actually illegal. Bordering on ***** labor.
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NobodyReadsThisRight
commented
Why is it I have viewers that are in my country and prime sub me ad i get less than 50%? Also when someone gifts subs why is it I am not getting 1/2 of that. an example: I was gifted 10 subs from a person in the USA it cost them $50 you would think i would get $25. But the subs went to viewers in other country's like Turkey. So I was only paid 0.40cents for those. How is it I lose out when others gift to me? Its disheartening applying for Partner when you denied me and all I want is a fair split. I am playing your Ad game now and watching my views vs what I am making in Ad rev. How is it I make less on more users (NOT SUBBED) than on a day that I have more subs watching? It's like you're making it up as you go. You need to be more honest with things. I ran ads 10 mins per hour on a 12 hour stream. I was raided a few times and averaged 200 viewers. I got paid .04 cents for ads. WTF How is this fair. They raided to me so I don't get paid on that?
Twitch you don't seem to care and its concerning as others are starting to try and take over the streaming world. I would like to help and provide feedback but you need to act on it.
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Jaxerie
commented
I’ve been a partner since 2014 and streaming since 2013. Twitch is owned by Amazon…it’s time for change.
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keylimepixie_
commented
Yeah I only get $2.26 on a $5 sub. I'm not even getting 50% and that's been the WHOLE time I've been an affiliate (15 months)
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AKversus
commented
This split has gotten worse! I had someone sub to me today that was from the UK and they paid using their card on a laptop. Surely I should get £2 of the £4 they paid to sub, right? No. I got paid $1.77 which is £1.31. Where did the other 69p go? That means % wise from this subscription I got 34%, not 50.
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VHEROS
commented
Please do something for Turkish streamers. We dont deserve to earn 0,50$ from one sub. Not even that much. We are working so hard already. 7-8 hours in a day. Why we have to quit twitch and get a real job when you have chance to change your methods?
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VHEROS
commented
You are right. You should be really thankful. In Turkey 1 sub is 1 dollar and imagine how much we earning from 1 dollar. Its ridicilous!!!
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SirenHellVixen
commented
The split at 50/50 is horrific! Living in the UK as well that $100 gets nuked by Twitch fees, currency conversion fees and PayPal fees.
I am a disabled streamer who can't work and I am lucky to earn $5 a month streaming two or even three times a week. Would be nice if I could at least get a better cut rather than 50/50 which is dreadful!
I go hungry every single month and my income runs out. I can't work and live on £300 a month. I can't do any other kind of "work" and streaming is hard enough on my body, but when I do it, I am working HARD for pennies!
You take so much it is unreal.We should really get MUCH higher percentage!
I end up bedbound for 3 days from one stream showing how much I work and we get literally pennies!
WE do the work and WE DESERVE MORE!
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SantosVella
commented
50% split + 3% Paypal fees + X% exchange rate + 24% local taxes on what's left (that one is none of Twitch's business of course, but I'm factoring it in for the sake of completion in my specific case) turns a somewhat decent salary into merely a supplementary income.
Please let your streamers fully dedicate themselves to what they love, more streams = more subs and more ads, in the end everybody wins.
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SoyExtra
commented
I could potentially quit my full time job to stream full time if this happens. 50% is too much to take from us. We literally work so hard for Twitch to take half of our earnings.
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wafflequeenbek
commented
If I can stream on an 18+ platform who has a smaller account base than Twitch does and yet they do WEEKLY payouts to their creators, then why can't Twitch of their so big, high and mighty?
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bosssmaster
commented
Creators do all the work and bring in the viewers to support we should get more. When it’s a lot of us bring in the money.
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twitch.tv/MonicaElleRose
commented
lower payout minimums and increase payout frequency. you can do both of those with little to no cost for you
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AneLittleCat
commented
Concordo!