Twitch is considering changing the revenue split for its highest-earning streamers in its partner program, from 70%, down to 50%, according to a Bloomberg article by Cecilia D’Anastasio.
The report also suggests Twitch is thinking about changing the advertising model with streamers, and possibly replacing its current fixed rate offering to a revenue share option.
While this could be good for bigger streamers, it’d arguably be balanced out by those top streamers taking a 50/50 share of subscriptions revenues, meaning they could actually be worse off overall. But there are further-reaching consequences across the whole ecosystem, not just at the top level with your Asmongolds and Pokimanes of the world.
Twitch has made other changes over the years, such as lowering Twitch subscription prices in the UK and elsewhere, and smaller creators are worried about their streaming work becoming unsustainable.
UK streamer Kolo Jones, who has 36,000 followers on Twitch, wrote an excellent Twitlonger post on the impact these changes are having.
“I know that the introduction of things like the localised sub pricing, ad incentive scheme, and front page features are intended to help balance out the income loss,” she wrote. “However I ask Twitch to please consider the effect of these changes, and future changes (like the recently leaked potential of a decrease in sub revenue for some creators) will have on the creators’ ability to continue creating.
“My average viewership is up by 20% compared to last year, yet my income from Twitch is down by nearly 40%. I am aware that there are many factors contributing to this, but a significant one is the changes Twitch has made and is making.”
Kolo also encouraged fellow streamers to diversify their income streams by pushing non-live content on other video and social platforms, and for Twitch to better engage with and listen to their streamers.
Vicksy is another UK streamer with a similar amount of followers who is fearful of the impact potential changes could have.
Jacksepticeye, a hugely popular Irish content creator with 7.6m followers on Twitter, said of the potential revenue split changes: “What a joke. Makes it worse for everyone except twitch themselves.”
Other content creators commented on the situation:
However, it’s worth noting these are potential changes that are apparently in discussion at Twitch.
Cecilia D’Anastasio, author of the original report, added: “I want to again emphasise that sources said these changes are or have been in discussion and are not finalised. Some may help streamers make more money. The idea here was to make important discussions less opaque, one source told me.
“I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to read an article before commenting on it publicly, especially if on the very online creator economy. I’m seeing lots of people describe my reporting on Twitch’s discussions around partnerships as “plans”.
Related article: Britain has one of the highest proportion of female viewers of gaming streams in the world
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
