Professional gaming might sound like the ultimate job that a hardcore gamer wants to do for the rest of his life. Whether it comes in the form of being a professional eSports player or a gaming streamer, the dream of getting money out of playing games is surely tempting. Looking at the life of a streamer, they have it a bit easier compared to the rigorous lifestyle of training and scrimming almost every day to compete in the highest stage. Let’s take a look at the Twitch Streamer Salary graph to figure out how much exactly do these people earn from the gaming industry.
Twitch – The Platform
Twitch.tv is a live video-streaming platform used by people to share their gameplay with other people. Most recently, Twitch has also incorporated other genres aside from gaming such as more conversational topics and music. Twitch is the most widely used streaming platform preferred by most streamers because of its popularity and huge audience base. Unfortunately, this is also a double-edged sword since there will be quite a number of competition on the platform as well.
Explaining Twitch Streamer Salary
Twitch Streamer Salary is based on a number of things such as donations, Twitch Affiliate promos, and sponsorships. Because of this, Twitch Streamer Salary counts don’t have a specific monthly base but instead depend on their performance and viewership. Streamers with a larger following will almost always earn more money since the likelihood of donations increases, not to mention sponsors prefer those with consistently large viewerships.
1. Donations
Donations are the most common source of income for Twitch Streamers, especially those with viewerships that don’t exceed 10,000 daily viewers. Since they aren’t large enough to attract company sponsors or product ads, donations are the biggest source of income a small streaming channel will most likely have. Donations don’t have a fixed amount and depends on the demographic of your viewers. Streamers living in richer countries will definitely earn more.
2. Twitch Affiliate Promo
Twitch Affiliates earn money through subscriptions, advertisements, and Twitch Bits. To become a Twitch Affiliate, they must qualify for the Twitch Partnership Program selected by the staff depending on the channel’s performance. This is one of the bigger ways to earn money from Twitch because of its consistency and reliability no matter where you are in the globe. This will take a bit of hard work, but it’s definitely worth the reward.
Subscription
Viewers in your channel have two options to follow your content – Follow or Subscribe. Subscription is generally paid, and subscribers have more benefits compared to followers like limitations in chat, availability of emotes, or exclusive content. There are three Subscription Tiers which are:
- Tier 1 Subscription: $4.99
- Tier 2 Subscription: $9.99
- Tier 3 Subscription: $24.99
Another Subscription Type is the Amazon Prime Subscription which counts as half the subscription price of a Tier 1 sub which is $2.49.
Advertisements
Advertisements are videos player when you open a Twitch Stream or in-between live-streams. This is automatically assigned by the Twitch system depending on the number of viewers you have. Advertisements are paid depending on the length of the ad and how many people viewed it.
Twitch Bits
Twitch Bits are purchasable points that viewers can use to select exclusive emojis in the chat. The Streamer has the option on what functions he wants to be purchasable through Twitch Bits. Streamers earn 1 cent per Twitch Bit used in the chat box.
3. Sponsorship
Sponsorship is similar to advertisement in a sense that you are paid by a company outside Twitch to represent them during your streams. Depending on the agreement with the company, you may be bound to show their merchandise off during your streams and talk about it once in a while. Some sponsors are less pushy, and simply having their name added to your list of sponsors is usually enough. Sponsorship often gives the highest amount of money since the price is fixed and negotiable.
Twitch Streamer Average Salaries
Now that you know how a Twitch Streamers get paid. Let’s take a look at the average Twitch Streamer Salary a channel can get per month depending on their viewership. These numbers aren’t exact amounts since the factors surrounding the payments are uncertain.
Newbie Streamer (0-100 Daily Viewers)
- Average Followers: 0-80
- Average Subscribers: 0
- Twitch Partnership: No
- Average Salary: $0-$100/month
- Peak Income Source: Donation
Small Streamer (101-1,000 Daily Viewers)
- Average Followers: 81-900
- Average Subscribers: 1-80
- Twitch Partnership: Yes
- Average Salary: $50-300/month
- Peak Income Source: Donation
Locally Prominent Streamer (1,001-9,999 Daily Viewers)
- Average Followers: 901-15,000
- Average Subscribers: 81-5,000
- Twitch Partnership: Yes
- Average Salary: $80-$1000/month
- Peak Income Source: Subscriptions
Prominent Streamer (3,000-100,000 Daily Viewers)
- Average Followers: 15,000-500,000
- Average Subscribers: 5,000-50,000
- Twitch Partnership: Yes
- Average Salary: $500-$20,000/month
- Peak Income Source: Subscriptions
Twitch Superstar (50,000-10,000,000 Daily Viewers)
- Average Followers: 100,000-20,000,000
- Average Subscribers: 10,000-100,000
- Twitch Partnership: Yes
- Average Salary: $5,000-$100,000/month
- Peak Income Source: Sponsorship
How Hard Do Twitch Streamers Work
Compared to an eSports professional, Twitch Streamers have a relatively easier time. That is not to say that being a Twitch Streamer doesn’t take a lot of hard work as well. Twitch Streamers usually dedicate 10 hours a day for 7 days a week streaming, which is similar to standard office hours. More prominent Twitch Streamers have the liberty to cut those hours significantly shorter but risk losing a lot of money in the process through donations and ads.
Playing a game for 10 hours everyday might seem like a dream for most people, but for professional Twitch Streamers, this might drain the passion of gaming from them. Every kind of job requires dedication, this is the same with Twitch Streamers. A high Twitch Streamer Salary won’t just come to you as soon as you start streaming, the road to becoming a famous streamer will require a lot of time, patience, and understanding for months or even years to achieve.
Who is the highest paid Twitch Streamer?
Ninja was the highest-paid Twitch Streamer before he signed with Microsoft’s Mixer, earning almost $500,000 per month on Twitch.
How can you earn money from Twitch?
You can earn money from Twitch through Donations, the Twitch Affiliate benefits, and Sponsorships, which are exclusive to streamers with large followings.