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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facefullabugs commented
Honestly this entire condescending letter makes me want to campaign for 80/20 at this point.
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carbongaming23 commented
over 22k votes and twitch basically says "we wont give you more money cus it costs us money to use our own services and we like money" this right here is proof that twitch does not care about creators who keep twitch alive and give them something to sell. we honestly arent asking for nearly as much as we deserve but what we feel is a fair compromise.
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NefasQS commented
A higher split would benefit both Twitch and creators in both the short and long-term.
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DjTPK commented
.... den prozentuellen abzug bei den affiliates reduziert! Die Abzüge schmälern die einnahmen gewaltig !
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DaveSkywalker commented
Over 22k votes and nothing changing in regards to revenue split. Clearly Twitch is not going to change anything when it comes to sharing revenue (except to share less of it). I already stopped supporting streamers through Twitch - I pay them directly. So Twitch is losing money from me and many others like me. I also stopped streaming except for charity events and I ask everyone to donate to the charity rather than subscribe or give bits.
More people should get on board with this. As long as you keep spending your money on bits and subs, Twitch has no incentive to give creators more. So tip them via Paypal, Zelle, Venmo, Cash, etc. If you're a streamer, encourage your supporters to give money outside of Twitch - it's more money for you (and/or less money for your fans.)
Or just go to other platforms and support streamers there and encourage your favorites on Twitch to switch too.
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twitch.tv/MonicaElleRose commented
So nice to see that 1/2 of this uservoice has been acted on! Nice to see lower payout minimums coming, Ideally I would would like to see them a lot lower. Hopefully Canada, America and many other countries will be added to that list soon!
Would also like to see increased payout frequency be added.Thanks twitch https://twitch.uservoice.com/forums/924712-creator-dashboard/suggestions/44301474-lower-payout-requirements
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JoRoSaR commented
Provide All Partners with Improved Revenue Split, Not Just Ad Incentive Program
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So our Twitch options for increased Partner payouts appear to be:
1. Lose control over when we run ads (and risk ads playing in the middle of a game or a quiz round etc.)
2. Run them diligently and manually but lose any increased payout
This is not helpful to Partners who run specific pieces of content and then have specified periods where ad breaks should be. In order for me to continue to do this, I have to avoid the ads incentive program altogether, and accept that I will not get an improved revenue split.
This feels disingenous on the part of Twitch, who should really roll out the improved revenue split across all Partners, regardless of whether they run their ads manually or not.
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KittyKatVamp commented
can someone help me understand why i am only getting 98.99 on my check this time??? i am so confused if the payout doesnt happen till it hits $100.00 then why am i missing money on this check. i dont have a job this is all i have for income two bucks may not seem important to some but for me its very important
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Zee_RP commented
This would be amazing for not just the creator's that are trying to turn dreams to reality but this will be very good for Twitch as well it is a no brainer!
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Tw1gby commented
This would be a great change, currently, the revenue split is honestly absurd considering the streamers are the fundamental basis for the platform. While 100% to streamers would be fantastic, I understand that Twitch as a company wants to make all the money they can, so I think a 70%/80% split is more than fair. The recent talks of lowering the Partnered split down to 50% is definitely an unwelcomed change as it's just saddening that they'd like the money creators make to be split even fewer and far between? Disappointing.
And the payout limit as well! It would be life-changing to me as a small creator to be able to have the money I made soon after I made it. Having to wait 3 or 4 months for it all to build up is a instability that I feel is unnecessary to need to deal with. While I do think the concept of a payout limit isn't awful, I do believe there should be some filter so that people aren't just getting paid a dollar or two, especially if your payment method is by check, but as you said, 100 is certainly too high.
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funforfunssake commented
Big streamers who have crossed that threshold decided by creators - should take 50/50 in subscription payments. Those who are smaller streamers, should take 70/30. That would be a more appropriate way of doing things.
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InventorBLADES commented
ALWAYS use the #subsplit hashtag when sharing this suggestion on social media. Keep spreading the word! Let your voices be heard.
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imptris commented
This would be lifechanging for me as a small creator on the platform that wants to eventually go full-time. Having a higher revenue split in favor of streamers, in my opinion, would greatly benefit Twitch. More people would WANT to stream and become affiliated, for starters. I also believe this would greatly improve the motivation for people to start streaming long-term and grow their platforms more, thus raking in more money for themselves AND the platform.
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FissionPhoenix commented
The hope and expectation for amazon is that there would be more support to offset the change in revenue split... but also they can afford to reward their creators more.
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AmericanNidiot commented
All we're asking for is lower payout amount (so instead of $100 minimum it's like $25/$50 instead), a 70/30 split on subs/bits/etc., and maybe instead of once a month payment, maybe make it twice a month?? Like keep mid-month payout but also add one for the beginning or end of the month! Like, seriously, how is it that hard to understand? And with inflation going around, the price of living is ridiculous. Like ffs, I can't even commit to my streams like I want (or afford a better setup for that matter), cause I have to work a normal af job working retail, which harms my mental health to the point I don't even want to stream...
Add on to the fact that Twitch hates small streamers, so it's hard for new affiliates to even gain a smidge of an audience and constant subscribers to even make it worth it is just gut wrenching... Please, ******* do better.
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YukiHoshikawa commented
The recent proposal by Twitch to put their profit above their creators has made it crystal clear to me what they're interested in, and it greatly disappoints and angers me. By doing the exact opposite of this suggestion, I'm now seriously considering leaving the platform in favor of YouTube, where there's a 70/30 split for ALL creators (you just have to get 1,000 subscribers first).
It's clear now the only way this is going to get fixed is if Twitch loses money, and the easiest way that's gonna happen is if streamers - BIG streamers - leave the platform. YouTube's managed to ****** some of them up, but I fear that's likely the only way the top 0.1% will leave the platform, and actually cause Twitch some damage.
For those unaware, such as perhaps NoRezervationz, there were articles posted yesterday that Twitch is interested in lowering the sub split of top partners from 70% to 50%, and incentivizing more ads, and that these changes could come as soon as this summer.
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NoRezervationz commented
@seepo1456 What are you talking about? This is about Affiliates, not Partners. No one said anything about lowering Partner pay. smh
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seepo1456 commented
People have switched their full time livelyhoods to streaming. Lowering their pay will be catastrophic for most of those partners. Partners that brought people to twitch who wouldn't otherwise be here. You can't do that to those people!
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tim_tom__ commented
This 70/30 split would honestly be life changing for me. Currently putting in 60hrs a week into the stream and having to get another job.
With the rest of the country getting increased wages we should as well!
The grind doesn’t stop however! We’re going live tonight! -
NoRezervationz commented
@chemi_chemi Not every streamer makes the big bucks. It's a very very small percentage. Before I had to stop streaming, I had a few subs for several months and thousands of bits, but never broke the minimum for payout, so Twitch just kept all of the money.
Twitch makes tons of money screwing small streamers with their payout policies. They need to do better.