Twitch is looking at some potential changes to its partner program, including lowering subscription revenue giving to streamers and increasing the rewards for running ads, reports Bloomberg. The changes, which are currently in a discussion phase according to their sources, have potential to go live as early as this Summer, but could also be scrapped entirely.
Currently, top-tier streamers earn as much as 70% of revenue from those that subscribe – $3.50 on every $5. These plans are looking at reducing that to 50% and increasing the rewards for running ads. Other possibilities including a sliding scale of rewards based on popularity and, presumably, profit generated.
Ads on Twitch have become more common and harder to avoid in recent years, with most major ad-blockers failing completely or being countered by Twitch’s own measures. The ‘purple screen of death‘ that blocks content for 30 seconds every so often when an ad-blocker or other outside-influence is detected is infamous. The idea of even more of them being shown will not be palatable to most viewers, especially after recent statements by various streamers that they are forced to run ads or Twitch will run them on top of gameplay.
In addition, it’s the latest in a very long line of stories of Twitch trying to get more revenue out of the superstars they’ve helped to create. Many streamers receive a massive amount of revenue from donations, which Twitch receives minimal or zero cut of. Subscriptions is by far the largest piece of split revenue, even if we discount the Amazon Prime free subscription that doesn’t give any additional money to Twitch or its parent company, but does give some to the streamer.
Another potential change mentioned by Bloomberg is of removing the exclusivity requested by Twitch of their biggest stars. Given Twitch’s market share is around 90% and the failure of platforms like Mixer, that doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice on their part – if you’re big on Twitch, you’re as big as you’re going to be anywhere else. Then again, some might say the money earned by streamers, particularly the largest and most successful, is ludicrous given the realities of the job.
As is usual in Hellworld 2022, this would mostly impact the smallest among those affected. The most successful folks on the platform have a litany of other revenue streams from product placement sponsorship to paid in-game time, with costs to publishers wanting their services in the five figures easily. Those who focus on one game and are kept afloat with a relatively small number of subs would have bigger issues. That said, the smallest streamers on the platform likely aren’t affected by these changes whatsoever, given they’re not partners or certainly not high earners.
Twitch declined to comment to Bloomberg, and we’ll likely see the truth of these possibilities over the next few months.
Written by Ben Barrett on behalf of GLHF.
