Which Live Streaming Platform Pays The Most? [2024]

The game live streaming community is growing year by year. In 2024 there will be over 8 million active streamers on Twitch alone. Together with our community, the number of live streaming platforms available online grows. Anyone can decide to monetise this hobby or make it a full-time job. Many streaming platforms exist on the market, each offering different features, subscription revenue, or features. So how can we know which live streaming platform pays the most?

We’ve analysed five game streaming platforms to help you make the best choice possible. Let’s dive into the subject!

Table of contents:
Twitch.tv
YouTube Gaming
Kick.com
Trovo
Huya.com

Twitch.tv

It’s probably not surprising that Twitch is the first platform we want to look at. It’s the biggest streaming platform, accounting for 76% of all streamed gaming content. Twitch has many loyal fans, however, many voices criticise their approach to streamers. First, let’s discuss your options if you want to make money directly through the platform.

Affiliate Program

Let’s be honest: you can’t do jack if you are not a Twitch Affiliate or Partner. The platform is not adapted for small streamer monetisation. While the threshold to becoming a minor Affiliate is not so big, most streamers still can’t count on any “legal” Twitch income. If you want to know more about the requirements for becoming an Affiliate, click here.

Income options as a Twitch Affiliate or Partner

So you meet all the requirements, and finally, you can start earning money on streaming games. What now? You can earn with:

• Subscriptions
• Bits (fan donations)
• Ads

Sounds cool until it doesn’t. Check the revenue split. The overwhelming majority of streamers get a 50/50 split on subscriptions. So, with a roughly €5 subscription, Twitch and the creator both get €2.50. Sure, the platform has many expenses like server maintenance or moderation, but still, 50% seems a little over the top. What’s even funnier, the most popular creators on the platform were offered the dreamy 70/30 split (in favour of Twitch). Great way to please your community.

Twitch pros

• It’s the most popular platform, and it’s recognisable for viewers. If you post your channel on various social media platforms, the chance is your followers will be registered there. That’s why Twitch promotion and securing a small audience is relatively easy
• It’s easy to earn on Twitch once you’re an Affiliate or Partner
• The subscription model is simple and effective in the long term
• There are many websites you can check your Twitch stats on
• It has a particular vibe people like. The Twitch community has its own slang, behaviours and emotes
• You can use inStreamly while streaming on Twitch to earn extra money
• Prohibits gambling streams

Twitch cons

• Unfavourable revenue split
• You can get banned because of reasons (what reasons? No one knows)
• Channels are hard to moderate
• No option to earn as a small streamer without the help of third-party services
• Prohibits gambling streams

YouTube Gaming

When YouTube Gaming kicked off in 2015, everybody hoped we would finally have a worthy business opponent for Twitch. It seemed like an excellent streaming service with the possibility of very high video quality.

While some streamers decided to transition from Twitch to YouTube, we still need to see the heralded success. However, many still hope the platform will succeed in the next 2-3 years. Let’s check their monetisation features!

YouTube Partner Program

Both Twitch and YouTube have the same strategy here. You can only earn once you’re big enough for them to consider you worthy. To become a YouTube Partner, you must meet the requirements of at least 1k subscribers, and 4k watched hours. Some streamers find it much faster to start making money on YouTube; however, there aren’t official numbers to support this claim.

Income options as a YouTube Partner

As a Partner, you get paid for your content with the help of:

• Ads & YouTube Premium
• Super Chat & Super Stickers
• Memberships
• YouTube Shopping & BrandConnect
• Super Thanks

The main difference between Twitch and YouTube ads is that YouTube focuses on viewing time instead of the view count. So, you’ll have more ad revenue if you keep your videos longer. AND the revenue split is 70/30.

Super Chat is a fantastic feature. It is created as a value-for-value model, meaning you can pay any sum you want, ranging from €1-1500. However, this feature is not available in every country.

On the other hand, the YouTube Membership program is nuts – being a Partner is not enough. You have to have at least 30k subscribers. Wtf? Who came up with this idea?

The merch shelf allows you to partner with a retailer and sell your branded merch and showcase the merchandise. You need 10k+ subscribers, your audience can’t be set as Made for Kids, and you can’t receive hate-speech strikes.

YouTube Premium users do not watch ads, yet streamers get paid for views generated by them anyway. As a streamer, you get a portion of a subscriber’s fee when they watch your content.

YouTube Gaming Pros

• 70/30 revenue split
• Possibility of keeping your content long-term
• Fewer streamers than Twitch but significantly higher user numbers
• Lower competition
• Indexing algorithm that allows new users to discover you through keywords in the recommended feed
• Clear banning policy
• You can use inStreamly while streaming on YouTube

YouTube Gaming cons

• Stricter monetisation options
• Significantly smaller than Twitch
• Algorithms designed for permanent content, not live streaming
• No option to earn as a small streamer without the help of third-party services

Kick.com

This is one of the newest streaming platforms, so don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard about it. The launch was announced in 2022 by a former Twitch streamer, Tyler “Trainwreckstv“. Kick hopes to overthrow Twitch by introducing enticing policies and programs. The platform is still beta-testing, so no details about the future models are known, but here is what we know.

Kick policies

• The platform aims to give streamers a 95/5 split of ad revenue
• Subscribe button is available right away
• 100% of fan donations go to the streamer
• Clear Terms of Service

We’re eager to see what the platform will look like in the future!

Trovo

Trovo is another beta-testing streaming platform created to compete with Twitch and Youtube Gaming. It’s obviously much smaller than the two mentioned above, but there is one interesting thing. Trovo 500 wants to boost the site’s growth by sponsoring up to 500 creators in its early years. According to reports, the company raised a total of $30,000,000 USD to share among the streamers.

Trovo Levels

Like on every other platform, before you start making money on game streaming, you have to obtain the right Trovo status. There are no Affiliate or Partner statuses as it works on a level system. So, you need only 20 followers and a minimum of 5 hours streamed to achieve this. Compared to other live streaming platforms, the requirements aren’t very high. 

You can see all the requirements of various levels in the table below:

Reaching new levels grants you more features like increased number of moderators, pins, clip storage days, custom emotes, mana spells, or maximum cash out each time. 

Our thoughts

Trovo has a big potential. It’s easy for users, the layout is very clean and user-friendly, and the level system allows smaller streamers to grow fast. As of today, the platform is visited by about 100k viewers and streamers every day. However, the future of Trovo depends on the number of streamers and their fans willing to use it as the only platform. Just as with Kick, we will follow their development closely. 

Huya.com

Huya.com is an excellent platform if you are Chinese or know Mandarin! Otherwise, you will have little fun there. 

However, I decided to list this platform because 1) I know you are here reading this, people from Asia and 2) Huya opens an interesting ground for discussion. While 90% of Twitch’s revenue comes from advertising, Huya focuses on “Virtual Goods“, so subs, gifts, bits, etc. Twitch has over 6 million streamers live each month, and Huya only 700k. Despite this, the total revenue of these platforms is similar ($1.2 bln Huya vs $1.54 bln Twitch).

This fact opens an interesting topic on the future of all live streaming platforms. How can you further personalise the experience between the viewer and the streamer on the platform? Is ad-based revenue the only option for western streaming platforms? The only thing we can do right now is to wait and observe what the future will bring.

Summary

So which live streaming platform pays the most? To sum up – streaming on Trovo, Kick, or YouTube pays more than streaming on Twitch. Nevertheless, Twitch still is the most popular platform offering the most diversified audience. Twitch days will be coming to an end, along with the development of smaller platforms centred more on smaller streamers. 

Do you have any thoughts on the subject? Be sure to share them with us on our Discord server (and in the future comments section we are working on)!