Twitch Affiliates program will give smaller streamers a way to make money

Mothers and fathers, your teen who talks slightly too loud has a new job. Twitch Affiliates is a new program for smaller streamers that, according to the announcement blog, “... allows eligible streamers to start earning income on Twitch while building their audience, and provides a stepping stone to bridge the gap between emerging streamer and Twitch Partner.”

At launch, which is happening “very soon”, Affiliates will have access to Cheering, meaning streamers with significantly smaller audiences than partners will be able to make money from their audience throwing Bits at them. For every Bit a viewer Cheers at an Affiliate—stick with me here—they’ll make 1 cent, which is the same amount a Partner receives.

Bits won’t be the only money maker for Affiliates in the long term though, with Twitch eventually providing access to basic versions of their subscription, game commerce, and advertising tools. But when those launch, they won’t be precisely on par with what Partners get, giving scrappy upstarts something more to strive for.

“For example, when we launch Subscriptions for Affiliates in the future, Affiliates will have only 1 subscriber emote, whereas Partners will be able to unlock a full set of 50 subscriber emotes.” That single emote better be packing some prime meme potential if you want your subscribers to spam it in chat.

There’s no application process yet, as Twitch is testing the program by invite initially, and the criteria for access is subject to change as the program develops—but here’s what streamers will need for the first invites:

At least 500 total minutes broadcast in the last 30 days
At least 7 unique broadcast days in the last 30 days
An average of 3 concurrent viewers or more over the last 30 days
At least 50 Followers

No once-a-month casual streamers like myself will make the cut, it seems. Email me some bits anyway.

For more details, here’s Twitch’s breakdown in differences between casual, Affiliate, and Partnered streamers at launch and over time:

TOPICS

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.