How Much Do Twitch Streamers Typically Make?

So, you’re thinking about becoming a Twitch streamer. That means you probably want to play video games, make high-quality content, develop a following, and hopefully quit your day job one day to stream full-time. Welcome—you’re on an incredibly fun and rewarding journey!

If you’re serious about turning your side hustle to your full-time gig, you’ve probably wondered at some point, “How much do streamers actually make? Can I live off of my streaming income? And how many subs do I need to get to make this my living?”

All of those are incredibly important questions that we’re going to answer for you in this article. We’ll help you set some goals for yourself, as well as manage your expectations as you start raking in the bits and subs. Let’s get started.

How Much Do Top Twitch Streamers Make?

Getting right into it, you probably know that it takes a long time for streamers to start earning meaningful money. Every streamer is at a different point in the journey. So, let’s look at a few different stages in the streamer journey so you can start to get a picture of how much money you can expect and when.

The High Earners

When you think of the biggest streamers out there, you probably think of names like Ninja, Shroud, xQc, Pokimane, and the like. These are some of the biggest creators on the streaming platform, and they’re certainly making some bank from Twitch.

But these creators might not make as much as you think. There can be some big gaps even among the top earners on the platform. Ninja is the biggest, and he makes about $500,000 a month, which is an insane amount of money. That’s just one of the perks of having 19 million followers.

But if you move a little down the list to Pokimane, who has about nine million followers, she brings in about $18,000 a month. Then there are creators like NickMercs. Even though he has less than seven million followers, he brings in about $232,000 a month thanks to his whopping 38,000 subscribers.

All that to say, there’s a lot of variance, even among your favorite streamers on the platform. Your income will change dramatically depending on how many followers you convert to subs and how much engagement you’re getting.

The Entry-Level Earners

If you’re still at the beginning of your Twitch journey, you might not make nearly as much as the big kids on the block — but everybody starts somewhere. Let’s take a look at the average person with Twitch Affiliate status.

If you have an average of about 50 concurrent viewers, you’re live streaming regularly, and you're working hard to make Twitch Partner status, you might bring in about $400 or $500 a month. That may not be enough to quit your day job, but it’s still pretty significant.

And if you’ve just made Affiliate and are still maintaining about five to 10 average viewers, you’re probably looking at about $100 a month. If you keep racking up those Twitch streams, viewers, and hours, you’ll be well on your way to bigger money.

The Middle of the Pack Earners

Now, let’s look at the middle-of-the-pack streamer. They’re not huge, but they’ve also been in the Partner program for a while and have developed a pretty decent following.

It’s estimated that to become a full-time creator from Twitch alone, you’ll need to amass about 1,000 subscribers. If you’re lucky enough to get to that viewership threshold, you can make a livable wage and might even be able to afford to get out of that day job.

As you can imagine, just about everybody wants to make a living from streaming. There are 7.5 million active streamers on the platform, and just over a thousand of them actually have 1,000 subs.

How Do Twitch Streamers Make Money?

So now that you know a bit more about how much these gamers make, let’s talk about where all that money comes from. In actuality, there are several different sources of income, even within Twitch. If you want to become a career streamer, these are going to be your main sources of income.

Subscribers

First things first, we’ve got subscribers. Subs are the backbone of your Twitch income. Twitch income is all over the place in general, but your income from subs will probably have the least ebb and flow out of all of your revenue streams.

Twitch subscriptions generally cost $4.99 a month (although some Twitch channels have tiers at $9.99 and $24.99). After taxes, Twitch splits that money with you 50/50, so you can expect a bit less than $2.50 per sub per month. Subscription revenue adds up quickly, so you’re always going to want to focus on converting your followers to subscribers.

It’s also worth noting that once you break the barrier of 350 paid subscriptions, Twitch will begin to only take a 30% cut. So that’s even more incentive to boost that subscriber count.

Ad Revenue

Ads are another big portion of a streamer’s income. As a streamer, you can choose how many ads you want to air, how long you want them to air for, and where you want to air them in your stream, so this offers a wide variety of customization and profit.

Many streamers prefer not to put ads in the middle of the stream. While avoiding this gives the user a better experience, it can also take away from your income. In addition, some creators let their subs have ad-free viewing.

All that means that ad revenue from AdSense is super unpredictable. And, just like with user-generated income, Twitch will take a 50/50 slice of the advertisement pie. It’s estimated that streamers pocket about $3.50 per 1,000 ad viewers.

Twitch Bits, Cheers, and Cheermotes

Next up, we have the all-important Bits and Cheers. These are some of the most important ways you can make money early on as a streamer. Here’s how they work.

Users can buy Bits through Twitch. Think of them as a sort of “Twitch virtual currency.” They can then use these Bits to buy Cheers on your stream, and you’ll set the bit cost of your Cheers.

Most streamers will have progressive tiers of Cheers and Cheermotes. The more Bits you spend on a Cheer, the more fun and impressive the emote or Cheermote, and the more it sticks out in the chat.

Bits spent on your channel equal about 80% of one cent in your wallet. It doesn’t sound like much, but it can add up if all of your viewers are using this feature, especially if you set the Cheer cost a bit higher.

Donations

Then, there are direct donations. People can just flat-out donate to your channel. Because these donations go through third-party apps like PayPal, Twitch doesn’t take any cut of donations, which is great for you — although not a lot of people donate.

You can also set up third-party crowdfunding sites, like Patreon. Here, users can subscribe to your Patreon for a small subscription fee to get access to special content.

There are also Gifted Subs. As the name implies, your subscribers can give short subscriptions to other viewers who have yet to subscribe. The recipient can upgrade the gifted sub into a regular sub. This is a fantastic way to boost your engagement and gain loyal, devoted fans.

Affiliate Marketing

Sponsorships and affiliate marketing are other fantastic ways to make money. Affiliate marketing is when a company gives you a special link with which you can advertise their products. If people buy the product through your unique link, you’ll get a portion of the profits from that sale.

You can rep your affiliate links on your channel, and it’s a great way to earn some extra cash. So always be on the lookout for these, or take the initiative and reach out to brands you like!

Merch

Lots of creators also make money through merch. You can either sell custom T-shirts or items themed after popular games, such as Fortnite or Call of Duty. Simply set up an Amazon storefront and link it to your channel.

If you’ve got loyal fans and know somebody who can design some sick drip, you should take advantage of this to make some extra money. It’s tough to make this reliable, but if you do it right and push it hard, your followers will catch the itch for your threads.

Other Social Media Platforms

Finally, most streamers do not make all of their money on Twitch alone. As a content creator, it’s important to expand your reach across multiple platforms, like Instagram Reels, YouTube and YouTube Shorts, and TikTok. All of these are great platforms that offer monetization as well.

So take the time to make content for these platforms, too, so you can make money from them and grow your audience. Then, send your new followers to your Twitch so you can capitalize even further.

It might seem daunting to start creating content for a bunch of other platforms. But it doesn’t have to be difficult. With tools like Powder AI, you can automatically capture clips from your streams that are ready to post right away. Plus, with our one-click editing feature, you can instantly compile highlight reels from hours of footage and easily reformat them for each social media platform with the click of a button. This can help provide you with a steady stream of shareable clips to amplify your reach without working harder.

Maximize Your Income as a Streamer

Making money as a streamer is no easy task. There are thousands of streamers out there who don’t make any money on Twitch. But if you strategize and work hard to grow your audience, you can get there someday. So get out there, get streaming, and you might just be able to make a living playing your favorite games.
For more information on how to make money as a streamer and for tools to help you in your content creation journey, follow along with Powder AI.

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