It can be hard to tell the real difference between becoming a Twitch Affiliate or Partner. What options you have available to you at each level? And even what it takes to become an affiliate or partner?
On the outside, it might seem like they are fairly similar and that could make it difficult to make a comparison.
That’s why we are here to save the day and explain the differences, it’s essentially a showdown: Twitch Partner vs Twitch Affiliate!
What is a Twitch Affiliate?
A Twitch Affiliate is a streamer who has reached a certain target in order to be offered a place in the Twitch Affiliate Program. Twitch Affiliates can start earning money on the platform and work to achieve the dream of making it their full-time career.
Essentially, as a Twitch Affiliate, you can start earning an income through bits, subs, and eventually ad income. This program is a way to recognize and compensate the hard work small to medium sized streamers are putting in.
Twitch Affiliate Requirements
I’m sure you are now desperate to know how you can become a Twitch Affiliate and earn money from playing video games, you want to live every nerd’s dream!
Twitch has laid out a few targets that you have to meet to be considered a dedicated and qualified enough streamer, these are as follows:
- You must have at least 50 followers
- Over the last 30 days you have at least 500 total minutes broadcast
- 7 unique broadcast days
- You have an average of 3 or more concurrent viewers
These targets can be quite the challenge to meet if you’re just starting out. So if you do receive that highly anticipated email from Twitch inviting you to become an Affiliate, you might want to pop that champagne and celebrate, you are doing great!
What is a Twitch Partner?
A Twitch Partner is what Twitch considers to be the world’s most popular video game broadcasters. There’s currently only 27,000 partners total in the world. In order to be considered for the Twitch Partner Program, you have to already be a Twitch Affiliate, and you have to apply for partnership.
Twitch Partner’s earn money just like Affiliate’s do but they also get a lot of other added bonuses alongside the money which can improve the quality of content or quality of engagement with their audience. Additionally, partners also unlock the ability to receive revenue from Twitch ads.
Here’s a run down of the extra partner features:
- Custom Cheermotes
- Can unlock up to 50 custom sub emotes
- Ability to get revenue share from ads displayed during your stream
- Full access to video transcoding
- Past broadcasts store for 60 days instead of 14
- Access to priority Partner Support
- The sexy verified channel badge:
Twitch Partner’s can also get special treatment at gaming events. because who doesn’t want to see inside the fancy Twitch Partner lounge?
Twitch Partner Requirements?
As mentioned before, in order to become a Twitch Partner, you will need to apply. There are no minimum view or follower requirements but there are certain things that the Twitch overlords look for.
They look at three areas in particular:
- Content
- Average viewership (70-80 average viewers is the minimum)
- Stream frequency and schedule
Twitch admins are looking for Partners who have a strong, loyal community that they engage with frequently, they are also looking for streamers who would be great brand representatives for Twitch.
So, if you’re looking to become a partner, you might want to make sure that you are sticking to those community guidelines in your streams…
Concurrent viewership is incredibly important as Twitch wants to know that you are consistent and that your viewers love your content. They place no numbers on what you need to become a Partner, basically, be good at streaming, passionate and you will go far.
What are the benefits of each scheme?
Becoming a Twitch Affiliate and a Twitch Partner each have their own benefits. Everyone always wants to become a Partner to be seen as ‘the best of the best’ but you shouldn’t turn your nose up at the opportunity of just being a Twitch Affiliate, they are both pretty sweet programs.
The benefits of being a Twitch Affiliate
If you have succeeded in becoming a Twitch Affiliate, congrats! If you want to see what’s in it for you, read on my friend.
Twitch Affiliates can earn money from their followers through subscriptions. You can accept subscriptions on your channel for $4.99, $9.99, $24.99, and the Twitch Prime free subscription.
With each tier, subscribers will receive different benefits, from ad-free viewing to exclusive emoticons and subscriber badges.
You also have the ability to earn money with Bits. These mysterious Bits are a great way for your followers to cheer you on while streaming. Bits are basically virtual goods that can be bought and used in your streams, you will earn a portion of the revenue whenever a follower uses them.
Lastly, you can earn money through game sales! This is a pretty awesome feature where, during your stream, Twitch insert an offer underneath the video which is selling the game you are playing or in-game items you are using.
If one of your lovely supporters buy the game by clicking that button, you will get a 5% share of the profits, nice!
The benefits of being a Twitch Partner
So, being a Twitch Affiliate sounds pretty great right? There are loads of ways to earn money and Twitch recognizes you as an awesome, dedicated hard-working streamer. Let’s take a little look at what being a Twitch Partner can offer you.
Twitch Partners can enjoy all of the lovely things that Twitch Affiliates get and then some.
Partners can fully monetize their channel by unlocking the ability to use ads on their stream and receive a portion of the income, not just relying on followers to give them money through Bits etc.
Twitch Partners can potentially earning even more money through subscriptions on their channel, depending on the contract that is signed.
You can also have no quality limitations on your channel, meaning your viewers can really enjoy your stream and your wonderful face in the highest definition and speeds!
Lastly, at any gaming events, Twitch Partner’s are basically treated like royalty by game developers, letting you play closed-betas, and schmoozing you up hoping to get your attention to share their content with your audience.
What restrictions come with each program?
As they say, the grass is always greener! Both programs sound great as you get money for streaming which is quite literally fun and games (a little added work too). However, they do come with some restrictions which could put some streamers off.
If you multi-stream your content on YouTube either/or Mixer, you will be unable to do this as a Twitch Affiliate/Partner.
Furthermore, you won’t be able to share your streams on any other platforms for 24 hours after.
If you have a bigger audience on YouTube or Mixer, you might want to consider focusing on these and saying ‘thanks but no thanks’ to the Affiliate and Partner programs.
You can negotiate different contracts with Twitch, but content exclusivity is one of the big benefits for Twitch’s business model, so it might be hard to get those restrictions removed. But there’s no harm in asking.
So, what should you do?
It really does depend on your individual situation. If you are a streamer who uses only Twitch and want to turn it into a living, go ahead and make Affiliation your goal! Once you reach that step, there’s no reason to not become a partner.
If you stream on multiple platforms and gain a lot of attention on those other platforms, you might want to keep your options open or work on negotiating a different contract instead of the standard partner/affiliate contracts before committing yourself to the Twitch overlords.
All in all, the Twitch affiliate/partnership program provides content creators with a way to create revenue streams from doing what they love.
