Top Twitch streamers can earn over fifty thousand dollars a month.
These astonishing numbers showcase why so many people turn to live-streaming instead of working a traditional job.
However, the big streamers aren’t representative of most streamers. Before you quit your job to start a streaming career, it’s vital to have a realistic idea of how much money you will likely make.
Discover the truth about how much streamers at various levels make and if there’s still room for new streamers to grow an online business.
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Can You Make Money as a Twitch Streamer?
There’s still money to be made on Twitch, especially for outgoing gamers who are great at personal branding.
However, it’s crucial to remember that building a business on Twitch takes time. The platform is oversaturated, with millions of people trying to earn a living playing their favorite games.
To make money streaming, you must treat it like a business and find a way to stand out.
How Many Streamers Are There?
According to Twitch Tracker, there are nearly 7 million active streamers each month, down from its peak of 9.2 million at the height of the pandemic.
A little under 4 million viewers watch Twitch daily, meaning there’s heavy competition among the millions of streamers for attention.
Most of these streamers don’t earn any money at all. You can’t even start making money on Twitch until you reach affiliate status, and you won’t make big money until you become a Twitch Partner.
How Many Partners and Affiliates Are There?
Less than 1% of all streamers have achieved Partner status, the epitome of Twitch streaming. A Twitch partnership opens the doors to exclusive promotional opportunities, brand partnerships, and a large share of profits from user subscriptions.
Becoming a Twitch affiliate is a crucial step on the path to partnership. Streamcharts estimates there are nearly 2.5 million Twitch Affiliates, but that number doesn’t account for the thousands of people who attained the status and stopped streaming.
I became a Twitch affiliate in 2020, and although I could turn on Twitch and start streaming as an affiliate whenever I want, I haven’t gone live for many years. The 2.5 million affiliates likely include streamers like me who no longer use the platform.
Less than half of 7 million streamers are partners or affiliates, meaning less than half earn money on the platform.
As we will see, the vast majority of those 3 million partners and affiliates don’t make much.
How Much Do Twitch Affiliates Make?
Streaming is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and most of the 2.5 million affiliates don’t make enough to earn a payout, much less earn a living.
Although Twitch makes no distinction between small streamers, top streamers, and everyone else, it’s easier to understand how much money Twitch streamers make if we break it down into tiers.
We’ve identified three tiers of streamers, which will help you understand your income potential on the platform.
Small streamer – less than 500 followers, less than 100 subs, less than 25 average viewers
Mid-tier streamer – between 500-2000 followers, about 250 subs, 25-75 average viewers
Top streamer – Twitch Partners and those with over 2000 followers, over 250 subs, and over 75 average viewers
Before diving into this, it’s important to note that Twitch has no records of how much anyone makes. Some top streamers disclose their income, which is helpful, and we can infer how much other folks are making by knowing how much they get from subscriptions and making educated guesses of how much they make with ads.
A Note on Subscription Levels
Twitch offers three subscription levels, and streamers can make more money if their fans subscribe at higher levels. However, Twitch doesn’t disclose any information on subscriber levels, so for this article, I will assume every subscription is a tier 1 subscription, meaning each subscription is worth $2.5 to the streamers.
The top streamers probably make thousands of dollars more than I’m estimating because they have some level two and three subscribers.
Mid-tier and small streamers tend to have very few subscribers at these levels, so although they may make a little more than I’m estimating, it’s not much.
How Much Do Small Streamers Make?
Small streamers make a pittance if anything. Fifty percent of streamers haven’t even reached affiliate level, so they don’t make any money.
Small affiliates are only a tiny step above that. During my streaming journey, I amassed a little over 100 followers. Though I became an affiliate, I rarely made enough money to earn a payout. I made a little over $100 in about six months of taking streaming seriously.
Honestly, though, that’s not bad for three months. I only made $16 my first year of blogging, so I know what it’s like to put in a ton of effort for little reward.
Growth in anything takes time, and if you aren’t prepared for that, streaming might not be the side hustle for you.
Small Streamer Income Sources
Small streamers earn most of their income via subscriptions, but it isn’t a lot. Even if you are at the top of the small streamer tier, at $2.5 per month per sub, you will earn $250 monthly.
Small streamers can often earn extra money through cheers and donations. However, that is not stable, so I consider it a bonus rather than something guaranteed. Streamers earn one cent for every bit used in chat (and 80% of one cent for bits used through extensions), so viewers must cheer a lot for bits to add up.
Although affiliates of any size get ad-share with Twitch, the amount of money is so low that it’s almost negligible. I had 27 viewers during my last stream, and I made a grand total of three cents in ads—that’s .001 cents per viewer.
Of course, some of these folks bounce as soon as the ad starts to play, so I think it’s more reasonable to break things down by average viewer count. I had three average viewers during that stream, so that’s about a cent per average viewer.
How Much Do Mid-Tier Streamers Make?
Mid-level streamers can make a little more money than small streamers. If they have 250 subscribers, they make about $630 a month. Although that’s still well below the poverty level, they likely make up for it in cheers, ad revenue, and affiliate merchandising (earning a commission on a product you promote in stream).
Although I don’t have any concrete proof, my understanding is that if you have more average viewers, you get a tiny bit more in ad revenue. That means the mid-tier and top streamers are probably making a little more than one cent per viewer on their ads, but it’s still undoubtedly a tiny source of revenue for them.
When you start getting 50-75 average viewers per stream, the likelihood that you will make an affiliate sale or earn money from cheers and donations increases.
I can imagine that some of these mid-level streamers make close to $400 in ads, affiliate sales, cheers, and monthly donations.
If that’s the case, the ones near the top of this tier may make close to $1000 monthly, which is still below the poverty level in the United States.
How Much Money Do Top Twitch Streamers Make?
If you’re a top Twitch streamer, you can earn a full-time income on the platform. Many of the most famous streamers make millions of dollars a year.
The top Twitch streamer has a little over 100,000 subscribers. Even if those are all tier one with a 50/50 profit share, the streamer will take home $250,000 on subscribers alone (in one month!). The number 10 streamer has 35,000 subscribers this month, meaning they will take home about $87,500.
These top streamers also get thousands of views. The number one streamer has an average of 78,000 views for the month. Even if he was making the minimum of a cent per view, that’s still about $780 per stream.
A top streamer, Disguised Toast, released a YouTube video in 2018 disclosing exactly how much money he makes. Most of his income comes from subscribers, but he gets donations and sponsorship deals. When you pull in over ten thousand viewers, brands will pay you a ton of money to play a game or promote their product.
How Many Top Streamers Are There?
Being a top streamer sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? They make hundreds of thousands a year playing video games– it’s no wonder so many people want to try their hand at live streaming.
But the truth is, even though Twitch disclosed that there are about 70000 partners, far fewer streamers make massive incomes on the platform.
Twitch Tracker only tracks the top 1000 streamers, but number 1000 has 1236 subscribers, meaning they earn about $3000 per month. That’s only $36,000 per year.
Less than 400 streamers earn over $100,000 on the platform via subs.
Of course, the Twitch tracker is flawed. Streamers must manually agree to be included on the platform, so it’s likely missing a lot of data. There may be hundreds more streamers making decent incomes on the platform.
It’s also true that if a streamer has enough subs to make $3000 a month, they probably make much more than that in ad revenue, donations, bits, cheers, affiliate sales, and sponsorships.
Subscriptions only tell one part of the story. Twitch streamers can make money in multiple ways.
However, if the data showed up to 2000 streamers, we’d likely see a steep drop in earnings. Less than 1% of all Twitch streamers can likely earn a full-time income on the platform.
How Many Views Do You Need to Get Paid on Twitch?
To start getting paid on Twitch, you need to be an affiliate. To reach affiliate status, you must meet the following metrics:
- Average of 3 concurrent viewers per stream
- Fifty followers
- Stream for 8 hours in a 30-day period
- Stream on 7 different days during a 30-day period
Becoming an affiliate is just the start. If you don’t continue to grow, you won’t make enough money to receive a payout.
Is Streaming on Twitch Worth it?
You may feel discouraged by the small percentage of streamers that make money. Millions of people put a lot into streaming and get nothing in return.
Is it worth it?
If you love gaming, enjoy interacting with people, and know how to work a virtual room, it’s worth it. If you put in the effort, most people can hit the affiliate mark in 30 days, and you can keep growing from there.
However, you must curb your expectations. Do not start a Twitch career because you want to earn $50,000 per month. That’s not realistic or achievable for most people.
In 6-12 months of streaming, you might earn $100 monthly, which is enough to support your gaming habit.
If you’re extremely good at what you do (crafting an online persona, skilled at the game, etc.), you can turn your love of gaming into a profitable side hustle within a few years.
More Than Money
Streamers make more than just money.
The gaming community has a bad reputation, but in my experience, most gamers have been open, welcoming, friendly, and all-around good people. Interacting on Twitch was a great way to maintain human interaction during the pandemic, and I’m delighted that I decided to get back into it.
After just three short months, I consider many of the folks I’ve met through gaming to be friends. We play games together, promote, hang out in each other’s streams, and have a great time.
Even now, after I haven’t streamed in years, I still consider those I met friends.
Streaming on Twitch is a great way to build relationships with people from all over the world. Even if you don’t make a dime, it’s worthwhile just for that.
How Much Do Twitch Streamers Make?
Although most streamers don’t actually make a lot of money, they make friends, grow connections, learn about new games, and generally have a great time.
So, if you’re considering streaming, my advice is to try it. Learn how to start your Twitch stream and dive in!
You may not make a fortune, but you won’t regret it.