Twitch cuts revenue, enrages streamers

Twitch announced a reduction in payouts for top creators, enraging the community who claims that the company is ignoring feedback.

Twitch recently released an update for its Partnership program that decreases revenue earned from top creators. This has ignited a firestorm of criticism, with many saying that they are heading to YouTube instead.

Twitch Partnerships normally pay out at a 50/50 split — 50% of a subscription goes to the streamer, while the other 50% goes to Twitch. Some Partners, however, were allowed a 70/30 split — 70% to the streamer, 30% to Twitch. This exclusive deal was often offered only to consistently high-performing streamers.

The adjustment to the Partnership revenue split will remove the 70/30 split for creators who make over $100,000 USD. If a streamer makes $105,000, for example, the first $100,000 will pay out like it has at a 70/30 split, but then the $5,000 afterwards will be split 50/50.

This does affect only the highest paid streamers, of course, but the intent behind the change was received loud and clear — Twitch is an Amazon-owned company, and they cannot pay their top-earning creators appropriately. This negatively impacts the livelihood of the people that make Twitch possible, the creators themselves.

it was nice of trombone champ to include a theme song for twitch in their game :) pic.twitter.com/7xBGi1VO8W

— 𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐨𝐟𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 ☀️ (@rayofsun0915) September 21, 2022

Back in April, this planned rollout was leaked, with many top streamers publicly coming out against it. The feedback was loud and instant, with many asking Twitch to stop alienating the creators. This feedback either didn’t make it to Twitch, or was ignored, because it is still planned to go into effect June 2023.

Combined with a higher ad requirement than competitors, Twitch has permanently driven a wedge between the company and the creators that make the company profitable in the first place. Other features that have been requested from Twitch, including higher payouts for smaller content creators or tools and resources to help smaller streamers grow, have been brought up as well.

Popular content creators have taken Twitch to task on Twitter, such as Asmongold calling out the excessive ad requirements — users sometimes will see six ads in a row before being allowed to watch the streamer again unless they subscribe — while other content creators, like Valkyrae, compared the experience of Twitch to YouTube, where she explained that she meets with executives to discuss content creation at events.

This Twitch news is just one part of an explosive week on the platform. Twitch recently banned gambling on its platform, with many streamers excited about the change. Not everyone was so keen, however, as a few streamers who received substantial payouts from gambling were upset at the change. It was necessary, however — a streamer’s shock confession that he had been scamming others out of money to feed his addiction rocked the community, sparking a backlash against gambling.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.