Why creators see Twitch’s monetization and moderation updates as the latest salvo in the livestreaming wars

Previously, Twitch creators could only enable subscriptions and Bits by joining the platform’s affiliate program, whose guidelines require users to stream for at least eight hours on seven different days and average at least three viewers per stream to qualify. Now, users will be able to turn on subscriptions and Bits from the moment they create their Twitch account, although other monetization features, such as Twitch’s advertising revenue share, remain available only to Twitch partners or affiliates.

“As we head into 2025, our goal continues to be to make Twitch the absolute best place for our streamers,” Clancy wrote in the letter, “and also, an exciting place for new creators and viewers to build and find their communities.” 

The boomerang effect

Lofty framing notwithstanding, Twitch streamers have a more pragmatic view of the announced changes. Seven Twitch creators who spoke to Digiday for this story said that they perceived the open letter as an attempt to curry the favor of livestreaming creators considering a switch from Twitch to alternative platforms such as Kick or YouTube.

Although Twitch remains the most popular platform for livestreamed video content, its grip on the streaming community has loosened significantly in recent years, with its total share of the livestreaming market decreasing from 71 percent to 61 percent between 2023 and 2024, according to a November 2024 report by Stream Hatchet. During the same period, Kick’s share of the market grew to 5.5 percent. One of Kick’s major selling points is its subscription revenue split, which gives creators 95 percent of their subscription dollars, compared to Twitch’s 50 percent. To enable subscriptions, Kick streamers need to have streamed for over 5 hours and have at least 75 followers — a less stringent list of requirements than Twitch’s aforementioned affiliate program guidelines.

“These changes are definitely Twitch’s way of trying to reclaim some of that lost ground to platforms like Kick. When competitors offer better revenue splits and easier paths to monetization, creators naturally gravitate toward those opportunities,” said Twitch streamer Khairi “KDotDaGawd” Harris. “What Twitch is doing now is essentially acknowledging that their previous barriers to entry were too high, in my opinion. By opening monetization to streamers of all sizes, they’re directly countering one of Kick’s main selling points — the ability for new creators to make money right away.”

Twitch chief monetization officer Mike Minton told Digiday that last week’s announcements represent an increase in Twitch’s investment in creator monetization tools. He flagged the launch of Twitch’s Creator Dashboard, which directly connects creators with sponsorship opportunities, and added that Twitch plans to roll out “new interactive features that rally community support with Bits.”  

“On average globally, we saw an 11 percent increase in creators’ monthly recurring sub and gifted sub revenue [in the past year],” he said.

Twitch representatives denied that last week’s updates were explicitly intended to tempt streamers away from rival platforms, with Twitch senior director of global risk and strategy Kristen Murdock pointing out that many of the updates had “been in discussions for a couple of years now.” However, she acknowledged that one of the benefits of the changes was that they would encourage “boomerangs,” with streamers who had previously jumped ship, such as Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter — who signed a deal to stream exclusively on YouTube in 2020, but returned to Twitch at the beginning of 2025 — coming back to Twitch as a result. Twitch representatives declined to share specific figures regarding the return of streamers who had previously left the platform.

“What we’ve really been trying to do is make sure that Twitch is the safest place for people to stream, and that’s why we’re starting to see a lot more people, especially women, minorities and members of the LGBTQIA community, come back to Twitch, even if they’ve left for a bit,” Murdock said, without providing exact figures of this.

Sticking points

The updates announced last week included changes that creators have clamored for for years, such as the introduction of new clip discovery and editing tools, including more automated ways to identify potential clips during streams, “smoother editing,” and more options to share clips. Twitch creator Kruzadar, who requested to keep her real name private to protect her personal information, said that she had been pushing Twitch to expand the discovery tools for its pre-recorded videos since 2021, when she had a “private partner meeting” with Clancy and Emmett Shear, the company’s outgoing CEO at the time. 

“I’m streaming to roughly 1,000 concurrent viewers every stream — but afterwards, I’m getting 15,000 to 20,000 views on a Twitch VOD,” she said. “There’s things like that, where they’re missing out on revenue, and they just think they need to cut it.”

Prominent Twitch streamer Esfand — who has over 1.4 million followers on Twitch and similarly requested to keep his real name private — said that he has observed some speculation within the streaming community that larger creators’ earnings could be hurt by the opening of monetization tools to all streamers. However, he dismissed these concerns, pointing out that large streamers target different viewers than smaller streamers.

“The guy who has one viewer and his mom subscribed to him is not going to take away from you, I’m sorry. What are you crying about?” said Esfand, who boasted an average of over 3,000 viewers per stream over the past month, according to the data platform SullyGnome. 

Rather than cannibalizing the viewership of larger creators, smaller Twitch streamers tend to start their careers by bringing new eyeballs onto the platform, according to Minton, who said that he anticipated Twitch’s expanded monetization features would thus have an additive effect on the platform’s revenue pool, rather than shrinking larger creators’ earnings. 

“What we typically see is smaller creators will start with their friends and family as their audience, and this brings new viewers to Twitch,” he said.