Twitch plans to standardize its revenue sharing agreement with streamers, reshaping the earnings landscape for top creators who have historically been able to pocket a larger share of the money they make through paid subscriptions on the platform.
President of Twitch, Dan ClancyHe explained that while the “vast majority” of streamers have a 50/50 revenue split for paid subscriptions, in the past a subset of creators were offered premium subscription terms that allowed them to get a better 70/30 deal. The subscriptions of Twitch start at $ 4.99 per month, offering viewers a way to support their favorite streamers while receiving special access and benefits in return.
"This is not something we've talked about publicly, but such deals are common knowledge within the streaming community."Clancy said. Apparently, Twitch didn't really have hard and fast criteria describing who got the best revenue split. The company stopped bringing new streamers into the special deal over a year ago, according to Clancy, but anyone with better terms can keep them for now.
The company noted that more than 22,000 streamers on its feedback forum have asked the platform to move all creators to the 70/30 subscription split, but that's not what will happen.
“In reflecting on how we handle these premium offerings, we became aware of a few issues”Clancy wrote. "First, we had not been transparent about the existence of such agreements. Secondly, we were not consistent in the rating criteria and typically targeted larger transmitters. Finally, we do not think it is correct that those with standard contracts have a varied income distribution depending on the size of the transmitter.
Clancy says that, ideally, "all streamers would be on the same set of terms, regardless of size", but changing the terms entirely would disproportionately affect some top streamers of Twitch who helped build the platform into what it is today.
The solution you have reached Twitch for now it is allowing streamers with the premium deal to keep 70% of their first $100,000. After that, they will default back to the 50/50 non-premium revenue split. The changes will be implemented after June 2023, but only when a given streamer's contract is renewed.
