Many creators worldwide, and even in South Africa, have been using Twitch to support themselves and their families while doing what they love. As streamers’ audiences grow on the platform, there are many ways to turn a profit – either directly or indirectly. One of the most popular ways to turn streaming into a job is by accepting donations through the platform. For years, Twitch has allowed viewers to donate money to their favourite streams by clicking the donate button on their profile.
Another way streamers can start turning a profit is by becoming a Twitch Affiliate streamer by meeting the following milestones within 30 days:
- Broadcasting for a minimum of 500 minutes.
- Broadcasting over at least seven days.
- Having an average of at least three concurrent viewers and at least 50 followers.
Once these milestones have been met, the streamer can become a Twitch Affiliate and start earning money in different ways on the platform.
One of these ways is by allowing viewers to pay to subscribe to your stream, thus unlocking unique benefits for them and a paycheck for the streamer. Currently, channel subscriptions range between $4.99 (R90) and $24.99 (R450) per month.
As of this week, Twitch is testing another way for streamers to support themselves by streaming by allowing users to pay to boost their chat messages on the platform – similar to YouTube’s “Super Chat” system. Called “Elevated Chat,” select users can now “elevate” their chat messages for a specific time using a one-time fee. The fees are presented in five different tiers ranging from 30 seconds to two and a half minutes, with prices ranging from $5 (R90) to $100 (R1800).
Currently, the feature is only available for a “limited number of channels” on the platform. If you’re one of the lucky ones, the option to elevate a message will appear either at the top of the chat or at the bottom of a video. What we know about the system so far is that multiple people can elevate their chat message at once, but it is on a first-come, first-served basis. Messages will be queued depending on who purchased them first and will be managed by streamers and moderators.
Regarding revenue, the test will feature a 70/30 split in favour of the creator, which is a surprise considering that Twitch recently announced that all streamers would be subject to the new 50/50 payment split regardless of status.
Twitch will start its “Elevated Chat” service on Thursday. The test will run for four weeks for select users in the US, Germany, Canada, Australia, Korea, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, and Taiwan.