It was announced last month that Twitch would no longer share 70% of its earnings with its most popular streamers. Instead, the top-tier 70/30 split is reserved for Twitch’s most successful creators and streamers; however, as of June 2023, this split will be reduced to 50/50 after the first $100,000 in income.
As one might expect, this update did not sit well with Twitch’s content providers. Twitch stated that the costs of sharing so much revenue were too significant for even Amazon, the second largest corporation in the world, to handle, but even those who did not earn nearly enough to achieve the 70/30 split still desired it as an aspirational goal.
Chief Monetization Officer Mike Minton stated in yesterday’s TwitchCon that such a significant revenue split would not allow Twitch to maintain the present level of global programming we enjoy.
I care most about enhancing your earnings potential, as do the teams I manage. But, ultimately, we’re establishing a foundation for the future, Minton added, so that streamers like you may keep making money for as long as feasible and future generations of streamers can do the same.
All avenues of inquiry were investigated. The short answer is no; we do not have the resources to provide a widespread 70/30 split. In the long run, it’s not something that works for Twitch.
When questioned why Amazon didn’t just foot the bill, Minton explained that the retail giant had high hopes for Twitch’s future as a self-supporting venture.
Each of us understands that we must work together to succeed. Minton summed up the situation by saying, “You all have the hard work of creating fantastic, engaging content, forming communities, and keeping your communities safe, and our responsibility is to provide the tools that enable you to do that while earning more money.” The price of real-time broadcasting is another consideration. Sending high-definition, low-latency video across the internet is a very costly endeavor. We’re in this together like that.
