How Much Do Small Twitch Streamers Make?

Content ManagerAntonina Marć

The challenging part about your favourite hobby is the money. If you do something you like, then chances are, it’s not about working a 9 to 5 with a steady cash flow. You can still make money on almost anything. But you must prepare you’ll have to work on your income single-handedly. Every successful Twitch streamer starts small (not only channel-small but money-small), and you have to climb to the top. So how do you know what you will need to reach a full time streamer salary? 

1. Smallest of small
2. Getting higher
3. How to earn on Twitch?

Smallest of Small

Starting is always the worst stage. You are not earning anything, but you must spend a lot of time and money preparing. If you are not yet making anything while streaming, you are the majority of Twitch users.   

Streamscheme found that over 70% of all Twitch streamers do not earn money. 

So how to get paid by Twitch? Do you know how long do streamers stream to reach 50 viewers? Twitch streamers earn bits, subscriptions, and ads. You can’t do it unless you are a Twitch Affiliate or Partner. Your viewers can give donations on a different site, but you won’t earn enough to support yourself unless you have a loyal community. Most small streamers can earn around $10-50 per month. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to earn money streaming video games. But it’s possible!

Getting Higher

Every new viewer is a small win. When you get to 100 average viewers, you can say you’ve won your first big battle. You can become a Twitch Partner and earn money there. Twitch Affiliates also attract sponsors.

As for 2021, the average streamer with 100 viewers could earn around $1,500 per month on their Twitch channel. It’s always something. You can finally put some money towards a new setup and buy the things you need. But this is all very general, you can see the numbers, but you still don’t know how to increase your income. That’s why we should check out how much you can earn on chosen activities.  

How to Earn on Twitch?

Donations & Bits

On Twitch, there are two types of donations. Twitch offers a virtual currency called Bits. Viewers can buy Bits and choose an amount they want to give to their favourite Twitch channels.

1 Bit represents one cent. 

So if you receive 100 Bits from a fan, this equals a dollar. But does it? In actuality, no, because you can only earn from Bits if you are a Partner or an Affiliate, and still, even then, you receive $0.01 for every Bit.

The second way to earn donations is to set up a PayPal account and ask your fans to give you money there directly. This way, you won’t have to pay any extra fees. Some streamers prefer to use other third-party platforms like StreamLabs, as you can also use other features for your fans. For example, you can set up animations on your stream and show your viewers how much they have already donated. 

Subs

Twitch takes half of the money collected from subscribers, whereas most Twitch partners get half. As a result, the average Twitch streamer earns $2.50 monthly from each subscriber.

Sponsorships

Streaming on Twitch appeals to many brands, as streamers significantly influence their audience and often stream to hundreds or thousands of people daily. Not every streamer can land a significant sponsorship deal with a prominent brand, but everyone can search for micro-sponsorship deals via platforms like inStreamly. The amount of money you earn depends on your stream’s length and viewership. The best thing about it is that you can always make something, even if you have only 5 or 10 viewers.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a popular way to earn money among streamers. Streamers most typically use the Amazon Associates program. You can post your streamer gear in your Twitch bio and earn a commission if a viewer purchases something through your Amazon link. Many viewers ask their favourite streamers about their gear, as they can see how it works on various games. As a result, they feel that it’s a very reliable review. 

Ads

Ads are available to every streamer on Twitch. Streamers can click a button and launch the ad. However, they are not the best paid and are very invasive to the audience, as they take the whole stream space. Estimating the average income streamers earn on this is very hard, as Twitch does not allow them to talk about it.

So how much money does a small twitch streamer make? It all depends. Everyone can have a different definition of a “small” streamer. It also depends on the proactiveness of a particular streamer. The more Twitch streams you do – the more you earn. Still, we hope these estimations will help you make an informed decision!

Content ManagerAntonina Marć

I can honestly say my passion is creating valuable content for gamers, streamers and brands interested in gaming. Outside of work, I'm a tabletop RPG Master, a LARPer, a comic book freak and the biggest dachshund lover you'll ever meet.