Make money on Twitch

Twitch is one of the strongest platforms to monetize a live audience. But between subscriptions, donations, ads and partnerships, it can be hard to keep track. This article breaks down Twitch revenue sources, their limits, and complementary levers to better monetize your audience without changing what you do.

How Twitch monetization works

Twitch offers several monetization tools once you become an Affiliate or Partner.

The main revenue sources are subscriptions, Bits, ads, and external partnerships (sponsors).

To activate monetization, you typically need Affiliate status. Exact criteria may evolve, but the logic stays the same: consistency, streaming minutes and a minimum audience.

• Have at least 50 followers
• Stream at least 500 minutes in the last 30 days
• Stream on at least 7 different days
• Average 3 viewers per stream

Twitch ads: how much does it pay?

Twitch pays streamers through a CPM (cost per thousand ad impressions), which varies widely depending on audience, countries and ad load.

• CPM often observed between $2 and $5 per 1,000 ad impressions
• The number of ads per hour strongly impacts revenue
• Only non-subscribed viewers see ads
• Revenue can fluctuate significantly month to month

In practice, you often need dozens of concurrent viewers and consistent streaming for ads to become meaningful.

Other revenue sources: subscriptions and donations

Subscriptions (subs) are often the core of monetization for many streamers. You receive a share of what the subscriber pays, depending on your status.

• About 50% to 70% of the subscription amount
• So, depending on the case, roughly $2 to $3.50 per subscriber per month
• Direct donations (Ko-fi, PayPal, Streamlabs…) remain popular but very irregular

These revenues depend on viewers paying. Yet only a small minority of viewers actually subscribe or donate.

The limits of Twitch’s model

Twitch is great for building a loyal community, but monetization can take time to build and is highly dependent on going live.

• Can be slow to set up (Affiliate/Partner, validation, consistency)
• Dependent on live streams: without streaming, there’s little revenue
• Revenue depends on the paying behavior of a small minority
• Potential mental load: moderation, pace, audience pressure

As a result, many small and mid-sized streamers have a strong community but limited stable income.

Extend revenue without charging viewers: Happew

In this context, a platform like Happew can become a strategic complement for streamers.

You publish content you fully control (images, text, videos): clips, bonuses, anecdotes, messages, content to boost interaction during live streams… Your fans don’t pay: they watch an ad to unlock content, and you earn revenue.

• No entry requirements: no minimum views or followers
• Monetize outside of live streams: you earn even when you’re not live
• Works with all formats (text, image, video)
• Ideal to strengthen the bond (post-live announcements, off-stream content, bonuses)

On Happew, observed monetization is often between $2 and $8 per 1,000 impressions, and can go higher depending on the plan.

Conclusion

Making money on Twitch is possible, but it takes time, consistency and an active base of paying viewers. Ads alone are often not enough to make a living from streaming.

Complementing with a solution like Happew opens an additional revenue channel based on real community engagement, without asking them to pay.