How To Make Money on Twitch in 2026

Twitch is a livestreaming platform where creators can earn money playing video games, hosting “Just Chatting” sessions, and sharing entertainment content.

Some streamers make thousands of dollars each month from monetizing their Twitch channels. Stream Scheme estimates that potential earnings for full-time Twitch streamers range from $3,000 to $6,500 per month.

Here, discover ways streamers make money on Twitch and learn how to build an audience on the platform.

What is Twitch?

Twitch is a livestreaming platform where content creators play video games, stream esports competitions, share music, and broadcast other content live. The most popular categories include Grand Theft Auto V (82 million followers), just chatting (51.6 million followers), and League of Legends (38.6 million followers).

Users find content by scrolling their home feeds, exploring the Twitch directory, or searching for specific types of streams. They may also support their favorite creators by subscribing for a small monthly fee or following them for free. 

Twitch Affiliate vs. Partner programs

Twitch has two invite-only monetization programs: the Twitch Affiliate program and the Partner program. Here are the requirements for each:

Twitch Affiliate requirements

The Affiliate program is Twitch’s entry-level monetization program. To qualify, streamers must meet the following requirements within 30 days:

• 25 followers
• Four hours of streaming
• Stream on four different days
• An average of three viewers on four different days

You’ll see your progress toward these milestones under Path to Affiliate in the Achievements section of your Creator Dashboard. Once you meet the requirements, it can take one to two days to receive an invite. If you’re invited to join the Affiliate program, you’ll receive an email and a Twitch notification.

Twitch Partner requirements

“Partner” is Twitch’s highest monetization tier for committed streamers. Twitch Affiliates can level up to Partners by completing the Path to Partner Achievement, which requires averaging 75 viewers per stream across six separate streams within two consecutive 30-day periods.

After completing the Path to Partner Achievement, you’ll see the option to apply for Partnership in the Creator Dashboard. Twitch will then review your application.

Other paths to monetization

In July 2025, Twitch expanded access to its monetization tools to all streamers, provided they complete onboarding by sharing tax information, selecting a payout method, and signing Twitch’s Monetized Streamer Agreement. 

Streamers who complete onboarding can start using features like subscriptions and Twitch Bits (a virtual, in-platform currency), but they won’t get an actual payout until they join the Affiliate program. In the meantime, onboarded streamers can earn toward a Spendable Balance, which allows them to use their earnings to support other creators. 

If you decide not to complete onboarding or don’t qualify for any of Twitch’s official programs, you can still make money on Twitch with off-platform opportunities like selling merch. 

Here’s a breakdown of which monetization methods are available to Twitch Partners and Affiliates, streamers who have completed onboarding, and all streamers:

10 ways to make money as a Twitch streamer

1. Twitch subscriptions
2. Twitch Bits
3. In-stream ads
4. Donations
5. Affiliate links
6. Patreon
7. Brand sponsorships and partnerships
8. Merchandise
9. YouTube
10. Start a business

Twitch streamers make money through Twitch’s official programs as well as through off-platform opportunities. Here’s a breakdown of 10 methods:

1. Twitch subscriptions

• Eligibility: All streamers who have completed onboarding can enable subscriptions. Twitch Affiliates and Partners can receive a payout.
• Earning potential: Your subscriber count and how much they pay determines how much you can make. Twitch splits subscription revenue 50/50 (after fees) with Affiliates. Eligible Affiliates and Partners can apply for the Plus Program to increase their share of subscription revenue to up to 70%.

Viewers support Twitch streamers by signing up for a monthly subscription. Signing up gives subscribers perks like custom Emotes (small custom images they can use in the chat), sub badges (images that show how long someone’s been subscribed), and a sub-only chat. 

Twitch sets subscription pricing based on the viewer’s country. For example, a Tier 1 subscription costs $5.99 in the US.

Streamers can add bonus sub benefits to encourage viewers to subscribe or upgrade to a higher tier. (All streamers have three subscription tiers.)

 Video game streamer TheBurntPeanut offers exclusive Emotes and peanut-theme badges for subscribers. Emote designs often speak to a streamer’s personal brand. For example, TheBurntPeanut has a “stay frosty” Emote and sells a hat with the same catchphrase.

Source: Twitch

2. Twitch Bits

• Eligibility: All streamers who have completed onboarding can enable Bits. Twitch Affiliates and Partners can receive a payout.
• Earning potential: Streamers typically earn 1¢ per Bit received.

Cheering is a way for viewers to support streamers and get recognition during a stream. Viewers buy Bits from Twitch, then Cheer for a streamer by including Bits in a chat message.

Viewers can also select Cheermotes, which are animations unique to Cheers. The more Bits a viewer sends, the more Cheermotes they can choose from. Twitch Partners can enable custom Cheermotes, and all streamers can set a minimum number of Bits required to Cheer or use Cheermotes in their streams.

Twitch further incentivizes Cheering with leaderboards. For example, here are the monthly top Cheerers for streamer CDawg, who posts Just Chatting and video game content: 

Source: Twitch

3. In-stream ads

• Eligibility: Revenue sharing from in-stream ads is only available to Twitch Affiliates and Partners.
• Earning potential: Streamers can receive 55% net revenue share by running ads for three minutes per hour. 

Twitch runs ads on all streams, but only Twitch Affiliates and Partners have access to Ads Manager, which allows streamers to customize how video ads appear on their channels—and potentially earn revenue from those ads. 

Streamers don’t get to decide which advertisers appear on their channels, but they can schedule ads and select ad length and frequency. To start earning ad revenue, they need to enable at least three minutes of ads per hour of streaming.

Twitch offers a few different ad formats:

• Pre-roll ads play for incoming viewers before a stream starts. Pre-roll ads do not count toward the three-minute minimum required to activate revenue sharing, and running three minutes of ads per streaming hour will automatically disable pre-roll ads.
• Mid-roll ads, which streamers can schedule during their stream or automate. Most advertising revenue comes from these ads.
• Display/banner ads appear on screen while content is streaming. Streamers have no control over display ads.

4. Donations

• Eligibility: All streamers can collect donations.
• Earning potential: Viewers choose how much to donate.

One way streamers like musician Raquel Lily make money on Twitch is by collecting donations. Raquel has an Info Panel on her channel’s About page that explains how viewers can support her through Streamlabs, PayPal, Venmo, or CashApp. She also includes a heartfelt thank you to donors: “Because of you, I can live my dreams and play music for you full time.”

Source: Twitch 

Some streamers, like TheBurntPeanut, use chatbots to create custom commands users can type into the stream chat to receive a link. For example, you can type “!TIP” in chat to get a link to donate to TheBurntPeanut via PayPal.

5. Affiliate links

• Eligibility: All streamers can share affiliate links and codes.
• Earning potential: Businesses set commission rates, which typically range from 2% to 10%. 

With affiliate marketing, you can earn a commission any time one of your fans makes a purchase using your unique affiliate link or discount code. CDawg shares Amazon affiliate links to items he uses to create his streams, such as his microphone and tripod, at the bottom of his About page.

Source: Twitch

Another way to promote affiliate products is by sharing discount codes during your stream. For example, CDawg advertises his collaboration with supplement brand Gamer Supps on his About page. Or, he could share the code “CDAWG” during a stream if he happened to be drinking one of the supplements during a stream.

6. Patreon

• Eligibility: All account types.
• Earning potential: Creators set subscription prices, but each transaction has payment processing, platform, and, if applicable, currency transaction fees. Patreon recommends starting with a $5-per-month subscription and adding a $10-per-month tier with extra perks.

Patreon is a subscription platform that streamers can use if they aren’t yet eligible to start receiving payouts from Twitch or want to give their fans more options to support and interact. Unlike with Twitch, creators set the price for Patreon subscriptions.

Streamers encourage subscriptions by offering incentives like exclusive content, access to a community group on a platform like Discord, or sneak peeks at merch. 

7. Brand sponsorships and partnerships

• Eligibility: All streamers can work with brands, though Twitch has some partnership features that are available only to Affiliates and Partners.
• Earning potential: Creators and brands set rates together. 

Brand sponsorships and partnerships can take various forms. A streamer might promote a brand by mentioning their product or service during a stream, sharing with viewers something they genuinely like and use. 

Brands can also sponsor an entire stream, with creators displaying their sponsors’ names in their stream titles or on-screen, so viewers see them. 

As a streamer, you must disclose when you’re paid to promote a product or service. Twitch’s Terms of Service also require you to clarify that Twitch is not behind the promotion. Use a disclaimer like, “This is a promotion by [Your Name]. Twitch does not sponsor or endorse this promotion and is not responsible for it.” 

You can use a third-party platform, such as StreamElements, InStreamly, or Streamlabs, to find brands to work with, or contact your favorite businesses directly.

Twitch Affiliates and Partners can add a Creator Profile to their account to find businesses to work with on the streaming platform. These profiles include viewer demographics, watch time, and average daily viewership. 

8. Merchandise

• Eligibility: All streamers can sell merch.
• Earning potential: Creators set merch prices and determine profit margins. According to Printify’s profit calculator, you could earn $658.13 per month by selling one $30 t-shirt a day.

Streamers like CaseOh use Twitch to sell merch featuring inside jokes and catchphrases that appeal to their viewers. For example, the CaseOh Premium Fork is “the one and only fork that’s been sitting on CaseOh’s desk since the beginning. Iykyk [if you know, you know],” per the product description.

Source: CaseOh Games

CaseOh uses Shopify to run his merch store. With Shopify, you can connect your online store to print-on-demand (POD) apps like Printify to design and sell merch without investing upfront or holding inventory.

Here’s how to connect your Shopify store to a print-on-demand service:

1. Go to the Shopify App Store and navigate to print-on-demand (POD) apps under Browse apps > Finding products.
2. Look through the reviews and the products offered, and pick your partner.
3. Click the Install button on their Shopify App Store page. This will take you to your Shopify admin, where you’ll hit Install to confirm that the app can access customer and store data.
4. From your Shopify Admin, you’ll be prompted to log in or sign up to the print-on-demand partner’s website.
5. Design your products from your Shopify Admin.

9. YouTube

• Eligibility: Creators who are part of the YouTube Partner Program.
• Earning potential: YouTube sets revenue sharing. 

A YouTube channel lets your audience consume and share your content beyond Twitch. Share snippets of your videos on your YouTube channel or multistream. Creator Valkyrae, who shares Just Chatting content, simultaneously streams on YouTube and Twitch. 

She promotes her YouTube channel on her Twitch account, where she has 1.6 million followers.

Source: Twitch

To monetize your YouTube account, you need to join the YouTube Partner Program. To qualify and participate in revenue sharing, you need:

• Program availability in your location
• An account in good standing
• 1,000 subscribers
• 4,000 public watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million public shorts in the last 90 days

10. Start a business

Some of the most successful Twitch creators have used their fame to launch a business. Take Sean McLoughlin (Jacksepticeye). According to Forbes, the gaming streamer earned $18 million in 2025.

Sean launched his coffee brand, Top of the Mornin’, in 2023. He promotes the brand on his Twitch and YouTube channels and makes frequent appearances in the Top of the Mornin’s social media posts.

At $5 a month, Shopify’s Starter plan lets you start your business website in a few minutes. Use it to share products on your social media pages, like on Twitch. 

How to build an audience on Twitch

1. Find your niche
2. Engage with viewers
3. Build your network
4. Use Twitch’s tools
5. Collaborate with other streamers

To build an audience on Twitch, follow these steps: 

1. Find your niche

Niche content focuses on a particular topic to encourage connections with like-minded people who share your interests. Committing to a niche also helps viewers understand what to expect from your channel. 

You can find your niche by considering your passions and skills, studying competitors to identify gaps, and determining whether you can create content consistently in that niche. Experimentation can also lead you to your niche. That’s how it happened for TheBurntPeanut, who has 2.2 million Twitch followers. 

As the gaming streamer shared on the Around the Bar podcast, he first tried to become a VTuber (a virtual YouTuber) but didn’t find much success. After a yearlong break, he decided to try streaming with a 3D peanut avatar, which has become his signature.

TheBurntPeanut knew he had found the right niche after he streamed for 17 hours straight during a Drops campaign, which allows viewers to earn prizes. 

“I went from 2,000 viewers to 5,000, which is completely normal for Drops,” he told the podcast. “But then the Drops ended, and it just stayed. It didn’t go down even a little bit, which was crazy. I was like, ‘Do these guys think I still got Drops on?’”

TheBurntPeanut broadcasts all of his streams and even conducts vodcast interviews as his peanut character. Subscribers can use peanut-theme emojis and purchase peanut merch on his Shopify store to support him.

2. Engage your viewers

Popular streamers have mastered the art of becoming must-watch creators. Best practices for keeping your audience engaged include:

• Watching other streamers to learn new strategies
• Interacting regularly with viewers in chat
• Hosting special events for channel subscribers
• Streaming on a consistent schedule

Another way to engage with viewers is by reading and responding to chats as you stream. For example, in a Just Chatting video, user CaseOh was asked how to gain more self-confidence. The streamer went on to tell the viewer that no one else’s opinion should matter.

3. Build your network

Networking may help you grow your presence as a Twitch streamer. Watching and interacting with other streamers connects you with content creators and can build a community. Friendships with other streamers can lead to collaborative streams.

Actively participating in chat during other streams also promotes your name and channel, encouraging viewers to click your profile and follow you.

4. Use Twitch’s tools

Twitch offers several tools for enhancing your streams. For example, dual-format streaming lets you stream in both horizontal (desktop) and vertical (mobile) modes. With mobile devices accounting for nearly 63% of website traffic globally, enabling dual-format streaming opens your stream to more users. 

While watching your stream in full screen, mobile viewers can join and participate in Hype Trains, large celebrations in support of a creator that take place when there is a surge in participation during a five-minute window. They can also decide how much of the chat they want to see on their devices. 

Dual streaming is in beta as of May 2026, and it’s only accessible to select streamers.

But there are other tools you can use, such as Twitch Studio, which is the platform’s free app that helps new users create professional-looking streams. Stream Together is a native Twitch feature that lets streamers collaborate with other creators or invite community members to join their livestreams. 

5. Collaborate with other streamers

According to Twitch, collaborating with other creators can help grow your audience and make your content more entertaining. A few options include:

• Drop Ins. Stream Together has a feature called Drop Ins, where creators can virtually knock on the door of any live streamer and join their session. It’s a spontaneous collaboration tool that can surprise viewers.
• Shared chat. When streamers collaborate, their followers can interact with one another. Twitch added this feature to prevent different communities from feeling siloed.
• Shared hype trains. Twitch Affiliates and Partners can enable shared hype trains, collaborative events where streamers connect via a shared chat and share Bits, rewards, and subscriptions.
• Co-Streaming. With Co-Streaming, the main streamer can grant other streamers permission to add content to the stream and rebroadcast it to their followers. This is designed for large events, such as esports. 

If you’re considering collaborating, think of creators whose content and vibe complement yours. You don’t need to have the same audience size or even stream the same content. What matters is the authentic chemistry. 

When you collaborate with other channels, Twitch automatically enables the shared viewership metric, which displays total combined views. This higher combined number influences your stream’s discoverability and ranking. 

Top Twitch streamer earnings

Most Twitch streamers don’t make a living off the platform, but a small number earn tens of thousands of dollars a month. Streams Charts did their own calculations to estimate which streamers earn the most. Note that these numbers don’t include other revenue streams, like selling merch or partnering with brands. 

Here are their highest-paid Twitch users by subscribers: 

How to make money on Twitch FAQ

How do beginners make money on Twitch?

• Twitch subscriptions
• Twitch Bits
• Ads
• Donations
• Affiliate links
• Patreon
• Brand sponsorships and partnerships
• Merchandise
• YouTube

How much money do Twitch streamers make?

Income varies based on viewership, monetization methods, and consistency. According to Streams Charts, top streamers earn $11,009 to $232,809 a month from subscriptions alone.

How many views do you need to get paid on Twitch?

To get paid through the Twitch Affiliate program, you need at least 25 followers and an average of three or more concurrent viewers.

What are some reasons why Twitch streamers don’t make money?

Streamers may struggle to make money if they don’t broadcast consistently, fail to build a following, or overlook revenue streams such as donations, subscriptions, and brand deals.

Can you make $1,000 a month on Twitch?

Yes, some streamers make $1,000 or more per month through streaming. Tactics for earning more include diversifying your income through donations, sponsorships, or merch, and finding ways to keep your audience engaged so they follow or subscribe to your channel.

How many followers do you need on Twitch to earn money?

You can start earning as a Twitch Affiliate with 25 followers. To earn money, focus on consistent viewership and interactions rather than follower count alone.

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