Many gamers who take gaming very seriously do somewhat wish that they can make it big on a streaming platform like Twitch, making an actual career out of it. The thing is, while it’s a highly competitive atmosphere to get into, let alone make a sustainable income from, it’s hard to determine an actual ballpark estimate of how much you can earn. So, how much money do streamers make on Twitch? Can anyone do it? How so? We can break down all we know below.
How Much Money Do Streamers Make on Twitch?
As stated above, it’s hard to determine how much a streamer actually makes while streaming on Twitch because there are so many factors that you have to take into consideration in this confusing formula.
The recent developments with the streaming service now allow for content creators on their platform to “have more flexibility to explore how to use different, off-platform features” to build their communities. This also includes allowing both affiliates and partners to stream live on other platforms. And following many big names leaving the platform, they’re definitely trying to play nice to not lose any more top money makers.
So far in this equation, the sources of income for streaming on Twitch include ad revenue, subscriptions, bits, and donations. These variables widely vary depending on how many viewers each streamer gets.
Someone who averages thousands of viewers will have significantly more ad revenue and subs compared to someone who averages a couple hundred. It’s like comparing someone like xQc to Hungrybox. Their difference in audience numbers, followers, and subs are drastically different.
On top of the aforementioned means of making money, you also have to take how big the followings are on a streamer’s other platforms, namely Twitch’s rivals like Facebook gaming and YouTube. Ad rates and all other means of donations will have different values depending on how much the streamers get and how much the companies get. Take TommyInnit, for example. His net worth is cited as one thing, but that only considered his YouTube revenue without the payouts from Twitch.
You also have to look at possible sponsorships, merch, and collaborations Twitch streamers have. With all of these considered, you can start to somewhat ballpark how much someone makes, but even then, you won’t be close to their amount unless another big leak happens or if they outright told you how much they make.
A streamer like Ninja easily makes six figures or more per month, especially after his stunt earlier this year which was to promote his streams being available on all major platforms. Though, other streamers with only a fraction of his following and viewership could make five figures or even less. In short, it really depends. Analytics can only show so much.
You can use Twitch via a web browser or all current consoles, including the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X.
