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Major Benefits of Becoming a Twitch Affiliate
- September 11, 2023
- by Ben Price
The Twitch Affiliate program allows live streamers the opportunity to monetize their channel and be on their way to working towards reaching Twitch Partner Status. Becoming a Twitch Affiliate is essential, and is the first step for streamers looking to turn streaming from a casual hobby into a full-time career. Regardless of whether you’re looking to build an entire career out of streaming or are simply looking to make a few bucks while playing games you love, you’ll want to reach Twitch Affiliate status.
Luckily, reaching Affiliates isn’t too challenging, and doing so offers a lot of benefits. Today, we’ll be sharing how to reach Affiliate status, tips for doing so, the many benefits that come with being a Twitch Affiliate, and even some of the potential downsides to it.
What is a Twitch Affiliate?
A Twitch Affiliate is a Twitch streamer that has been granted the ability to monetize their channel via subscriptions, bits, and ad revenue. Twitch Affiliates are also granted some additional features and customization options. However, in order to become a Twitch Affiliate, there are several prerequisites that a streamer must fulfill first.
Twitch Affiliate Requirements 2023
In order to become a Twitch Affiliate, a streamer must complete the four following requirements:
- Reach 50 followers
- Stream for a total of 8 hours within the last 30 days
- Stream on seven different days within the last 30 days
- Reach an average of three viewers
Once these requirements have all been fulfilled, you’ll become eligible for the Twitch Affiliate Program. Upon doing so, you should receive an email stating that you have successfully reached Affiliate status, and will be granted access to the program.
Twitch Affiliate Benefits
As a Twitch Affiliate, you receive tons of benefits that are not present for non-Affiliate streamers. The biggest benefits, by far, are those related to earning more on your channel. Here are the biggest benefits:
- Subscriptions – Upon reaching Affiliate status, channels get the added ability to offer subscriptions. Whereas anyone can follow a channel for free, subscribing to a channel costs a monthly fee – there are three Subscription tiers, at $4.99, $9.99, and $24.99 respectively. In return, channel subscribers can access exclusive emotes, loyalty badges, and ad-free viewing. Subs can also be gifted. Keep in mind that streamers only receive 50% of all revenue. Sub Badge icons can be fully customized as well in order to match the style of your channel. So by having fun sub badges, you can offer additional value to your loyal subscribers by enhancing their viewing experience.
- Cheers – Twitch’s tipping currency, cheers can be purchased by viewers and then donated to streamers as a way to “cheer” them on during their broadcast. 1 tip is essentially equal to 1 cent. Viewers who cheer are rewarded with Cheer Chat Badges, which have various different tiers (1 Bit Badge, 100 Bit Badge, 1,000 Bit Badge, etc). Similar to Sub Badges, Cheer Chat Badge icons can be customized in order to further enhance one’s channel.
- Ad Revenue – Affiliates will earn a percentage of ad revenue from ads streamed on their channels, with streamers having the ability to customize the length of the ads and how frequently they play. While it’s not recommended to play ads often, it’s a great idea to play them whenever on breaks during streams.
- Game Sales – When streaming a game on one’s channel, an offer to buy said game or in-game items will appear on the channel page. If a viewer purchases the game through that link, Twitch Affiliates earn a 5% share of the revenue. While initially only offered as a benefit for Twitch Partners, this has recently been expanded to Affiliates as well.
- Video Tools – In addition to revenue, there’s also access to previously unavailable video tools. Most importantly the transcoding option, allowing viewers to change the quality of the stream. This can create a better viewing experience for some members of your community. Perhaps they’re tuning in on their phones, during their commute, or simply don’t have a good internet connection.
- Twitch Channel Points – These channel points are rewarded to viewers who spend time in your stream. By implementing these channel points, you drastically increase your viewers engagement, especially if you get creative.
- Unlock Emotes – By becoming an affiliate you will unlock some emote slots. Emotes have many benefits such as forming a more cohesive community. Emotes communicate a lot about a streamer’s personality. They’re a great way to capture the unique essence of a streamer’s brand and identity.
Disadvantages of Becoming a Twitch Affiliate
While gaining Twitch Affiliate status is largely seen to be a positive thing, with it providing many benefits to streamers, there are also some unfortunate disadvantages as well. Here are the biggest negatives of becoming a Twitch Affiliate:
- 50/50 Revenue Split – One of the biggest complaints made by streamers is Twitch’s high revenue split. Twitch takes half – that’s right, half – of all revenue made through the platform. This means that for every $4.99 subscription, streamers only make $2.49. Additionally, half the bits that are cheered by viewers go straight to Twitch as well. It is worth noting, however, that Twitch streamers still get 100% of their revenue if viewers decide to donate directly to them, which can be done easily through the platform. It’s very easy to set up a “DONATE” button on one’s stream, by linking paying services like Paypal or even pay with crypto-currency. If you want to maximize your earnings, urging your viewers to directly donate is usually the best solution. Additionally, you can maximize your income by partnering with sponsors, offering affiliate links, and selling merch.
- 24-Hour Content Exclusivity – In your latest stream, a viewer clips a real stand-out moment and it would make a perfect clip for TikTok… wait not so fast! According to Twitch’s Affiliate contract, any content created through Twitch must remain exclusive to the platform for 24 hours. This means that sharing clips on TikTok and Instagram or reposting streams on YouTube must be done 24 hours after airing.
- No Multistreaming Allowed – Because of the 24-hour exclusivity rule, Twitch also does not allow Twitch Affiliates to multistream. Multistreaming is essentially the act of streaming live on more than one streaming platform at once – platforms such as YouTube, Facebook Live, and Kick. No other platforms have such rules, so Twitch’s strict rule in this regard is unfortunate. This rule makes it difficult for Twitch streamers to try out brand new platforms, as any time spent broadcasting on another platform can be seen as time wasted.
- Filing Taxes is a Nightmare – Money made on Twitch is no different than any other source of income – depending on where you live, the process of filing taxes will vary, but it’s very important to remember that money earned through Twitch isn’t free and has to be reported, which can be a pain.
Tips on reaching Affiliate
While the steps to do so are fairly straightforward, reaching Affiliate status isn’t easy for everyone. After all, less than 700,000 of the 1.8 million streamers on Twitch hold the Affiliate status – that’s just 37.8%. Because of this, it’s clear that a large portion of broadcasters on Twitch are struggling with obtaining Affiliate status.
We believe the best way of achieving affiliate status is to take a holistic approach, by learning how to grow your Twitch stream organically and focusing on long term and sustainable goals. Here are some top tips for reaching Twitch affiliate status.
- Stop Streaming to Zero Viewers – By far, the toughest requirement for reaching Twitch Affiliate status is reaching an average of three concurrent viewers; far too often, we see streamers make the massive mistake of streaming to nobody. You should never ever stream to 0 viewers, as this is both detrimental to your streaming viewership average as well as easily avoidable. How can this be avoided? Simple: open your stream in a browser window, and have it play while your channel is live. Your own channel will count as a viewer, meaning that you will always have at least one viewer. Voila – not only will your channel now be more discoverable, but you’ve also boosted your average viewership, making it that much easier to reach affiliate status.
- Stream Consistently and Often – By streaming on a regular (and consistent) basis, you’ll make it much more likely that new viewers will stumble across your channel. And by streaming consistently, it will make it easier for followers to return to your channel. This is huge, as creating a community and regular viewers entirely relies on them being able to know when to tune in.
- Advertise Your Streams on Social Media – On a similar note, remember to utilize social media in your favor. Advertise when you are going live, and post often. Use hashtags as well, as this can attract potential new viewers to your channel (because Twitch has terrible discoverability options). Additionally, make when you’re live to encourage viewers to follow you on your socials.
- Be Charismatic – Many new streamers believe that they can gain viewers simply by recording themselves playing games. It really isn’t that simple, though. Live streaming is a form of performance; because of this, new broadcasters must interact with their chat, and be charismatic while on camera. This is definitely easier said than done, as charisma isn’t something that can be easily taught. However, sometimes all it takes is becoming comfortable with broadcasting live on Twitch.
- Avoid Dead Air – As Frank Reyonds once pointed out in Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, nobody likes dead air. No matter what, remember to keep the conversation going while live streaming. Silent streams can quickly get uncomfortable, so it’s important to continue to talk while streaming. If you have a silent chat room, we suggest talking through what you’re doing in-game.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Lose Affiliate On Twitch
Yes. Streamers who are inactive on Twitch for more than a year will be automatically removed from the Twitch Affiliate program. However, if you were already part of the Twitch Affiliate program, you can contact Twitch by email requesting to rejoin.
Can You Become a Twitch Partner Without Becoming an Affiliate?
Yes, you can technically reach partner level without ever first becoming an affiliate. Since the requirements for becoming a partner don’t include being an affiliate.
- An average of 75 viewers or more within the last 30 days
- Stream at least 12 different times within the last 30 days
- Stream at least 25 hours over the last 30 days
Can You Multi-Stream as a Twitch Affiliate?
No. Multistreaming is not allowed if you are a Twitch Affiliate. Streamers must end their current Twitch stream before going live again on the other streaming platforms.
Do Twitch Affiliates Get More Views?
Not necessarily. Holding the title of Twitch Affiliate does not guarantee that you will have a higher number of viewers. As stated above, the only real difference with being an Affiliate is that you have the ability to monetize your channel but it doesn’t automatically mean that you will gain more viewers.
Improve your channel’s branding with Hexeum
If you’re looking to reach Affiliate status, then we recommend adding professional scene overlays to your channel. Branding is vital for those looking to make their stream stand out, so if you’re looking to customize your channel with new overlays and designs, then we suggest checking out Hexeum’s store.
Hexeum’s website offers a large library of custom designs including camera borders, “BRB” and “stream starting soon” scenes, alerts, widgets, and more that can help elevate your live stream and really stand out from the crowd. If you want to improve your channel, then look no further – visit Hexeum’s store today!
This entry was posted in Guides.
Ben Price
Ben Price is a writer, gamer, and even used to stream on Twitch. His time as a small streamer gave him invaluable insights into the mindset and challenges small streamers encounter. With a passion for video games, he enjoys gaming sessions whether it's on his PC or Switch.
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