A look into how the Twitch community is making wild bread from streaming

As kids, before it was even close to being a real thing, we dreamed of being able to have a career playing video games. Long before streaming, friends would gather at each other’s houses to compete, though most of our parents couldn’t understand.

Being able to talk trash and own bragging rights over your opponent is what we lived for. Then when it became possible to compete online against your friends, online gaming became the new wave. Now our adolescent dreams have become the reality we live in thanks to Twitch.

Twitch, one of the largest streaming platforms in the world, is changing lives. With streamers making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month off of video games alone, the streaming platform giant is leading the charge in eSports. It has been a busy 2018 for Twitch, which is quickly becoming the one-stop shop for all eSports competition.

Earlier this year, Twitch inked multi-year deals with G2 ESPORTS and Clutch Gaming becoming the exclusive streaming partner of both eSports companies.

In April, the streaming service inked a multi-year partnership deal with NBA 2K to live stream every NBA 2K League game and tournament. Recently this past August, the Inaugural 2K League came to a close crowning Knicks Gaming as the first ever 2K League champions.

With these partnerships intact, eSports fanatics can further immerse themselves deeper into their favorite video games. Now fans can watch their favorite streamers going ham in their respective games while getting a full analysis, updates, and commentary.

If a gamer just so happens to believe that they are the GOAT at a game and looking to make a living from playing it, creating a Twitch account is a major key.

After watching DisguisedToast’s low-key in-depth video breaking down how much the top streamers on Twitch really make, donations, sponsorships, advertisements, and subscribers has these content creators rolling in dough.

Donations are a great way for your Twitch stream to bring in revenue. Viewers can give directly to their favorite steamers — potentially being you.

It’s nothing out of the ordinary for streamers to offer incentives when asking donations. Incentives can be anything from free merchandise to private access to their Snapchat account. Hell dudes are even donating money to random hot girls just because!

If a streamer’s Twitch channel is really poppin’ off video game companies will sponsor a streamer’s live stream, tweets, an Instagram post, live appearances and more. Let’s look at DisguisedToast.

He mentioned that the hourly rate for sponsored live streams is 1 cent per viewer. DisguisedToast Twitch channel has a little over 800,000 followers.

When he is doing a paid sponsorship, his channel consistently averages 10,000 viewers during his streams. Depending on how long he decides to stream, DisguisedToast can make anywhere between $1,000 – $10,000 bands!

We have a love/hate relationship when it comes to advertisements. Yes, they are one of the many highlights of the Super Bowl, but such a nag when your favorite TV show is on. But for a Twitch streamer, ads can be their best friend or their worst enemy.

Streamers have full discretion when they run ads. There is even an ad button that allows streamers to control how frequently they want to run ads. Every time an ad plays, a streamer gets a little chunk of change and that change adds up.

Subscriptions are another great way for streamers to keep viewers coming back for more. When a viewer subscribes to a streamers Twitch channel, they will be notified when their favorite streamers make a move. Viewers can subscribe to their favorite streamer’s channel for as little as $4.99 per month.

Amazon and Twitch are making subscriptions easier for viewers and streamers. Each month Amazon Prime offers its members $4.99 credit to subscribe to one new Twitch streamer. The viewer gets a free subscription and the streamer still gets paid. Twitch’s top streamer, Ninja, is making over $423 thousand a month just off Twitch subscribers alone. Bananas, right?

Twitch provides four solid avenues for streamers to stack up their bread. But before you go flexing on Instagram with your bands, Twitch has to get their cut. Twitch takes 50% of a streamers revenue unless they are a top-tier partner. Sick!

If a streamer is listed as a top-tier partner, Twitch only takes 30% of a streamer’s revenue.

Content creators who are top-tier partners averaging over 10,000 viewers per stream. However, with four different revenue streams, content creators can create Hulu and Netflix like business models to maximize their profits. 

As long as video games are being played, except for Twitch to always be in the mix. Their ability to provide the best online streaming experience for viewers and creators is why this media giant will continue to thrive.