How much do Twitch streamers make in 2023? Small vs Big vs Top-tier

Last Updated on 02/17/2023 by Dean

Interested to know how much your favorite Twitch streamer makes from broadcasting video games? Or maybe you’d like to know how much YOU can make as a smaller streamer? What is your earning potential when joining the platform?

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the salaries of Twitch streamers. We’ll dig deep into their many different income sources. We’ll examine each tier of streamer from small streamers with less than 100 viewers to streamers with 1000 average viewers and even cover top-tier streamers such as xQc and NickMercs.

Additionally, we’ll take a look into what Twitch streamers make from subscribers, donations, bits, advertisements, sponsorships, and even outside platforms such as YouTube where they can earn extra money through advertisements, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing.

We’ll also cover some of the top-tier broadcasters in the industry and look at exactly how much they make from Twitch.

You can use the navigation below to quickly navigate through this article and find the answer you’re looking for.

In this article you’ll learn:

💰 This article is part of our how to make money on Twitch series.


How much do small Twitch streamers make?

Small streamers make anywhere from $50 to $1500 per month depending on the number of average viewers that they have.

A small streamer with 10 average viewers can expect to see around $50 per month on average while a streamer with 100 average viewers can expect up to $1500 per month.

Below is a chart of the average earnings of small Twitch streamers based on their average viewers. Keep in mind that the amount is based on subscribers, bits, and advertisements, it does not include income from other sources such as YouTube and sponsorships.

Amount of viewersEarnings
5 – 10 average viewers $50 – $200 per month
20 average viewers$200 – $400 per month
50 average viewers$500 – $750 per month
100 average viewers$1000 – $1500 per month

If you want to learn how much REALLY small streamers (with less than 20 viewers) make, here are a couple of micro streamers that have revealed their early earnings from Twitch.

Below is a video of a small streamer named QuirkyPixel who revealed how much she makes on Twitch with 5 average viewers.

In this video, QuirkyPixel reveals that she made $64.81 in 30 days as a small streamer. During this time, she had 5 average viewers and received 26 subscribers.

The majority of the money she received came from subscribers ($57.55) with a very minimal amount from advertisements ($0.79) and $6.47 from bit donations.

In a similar video, small streamer Doro44 also revealed just how much he made from Twitch in a single month. The amount was $211 for 10 average viewers.

In yet another video, small streamer poggachu revealed that he made $484 in a 30-day period from 17 average viewers. He does mention that $315 was made from bit donations, leaving $169 from subscribers and ads.

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How much do big streamers make on Twitch?

Big streamers make anywhere from $5000 to $30,000 per month depending on the number of average viewers they have.

Below is a chart of how much the average big streamer makes depending on the number of average viewers they have.

Amount of viewersEarnings
1000 average viewers $5000 per month
5000 average viewers$13,000 per month
10000 average viewers$30,000 per month

Here are some examples of big Twitch streamers ranging from 1000 to 10,000 average viewers and how much they make.

Ezekiel_III

Ezekiel_III is a Twitch streamer who makes an estimated $5,000 USD per month from Twitch.

For example streamer Ezekiel_III averages 1200 viewers per stream and has 1300 subscribers according to Twitch tracker. This would give him around $3,250 per month in subscribers alone or around $5000 if we add possible donations and advertisements.

fuslie net worth

Fuslie

Fuslie is a big streamer who makes $20,000 USD per month from Twitch.

Fuslie consistently streams to over 9000 people and has around 7000 subscribers on average, this brings her in about $20,000 every month. Her monthly income is not just limited to Twitch though and also earns money from YouTube, Sponsorships and merch as well.

Through her YouTube channel, Fuslie brings in an additional $10,500 every month.

hafu net worth

Hafu

Hafu is a big streamer who makes $13,000 USD per month from Twitch.

Hafu streams to around 7000 people every time she goes online, this brings her in about $13,000 per month from Twitch alone. On top of that she makes an additional $8,700 from her YouTube channel and she earns money through merch and sponsorships as well.

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How much do top-tier Twitch streamers make?

Top-tier streamers make anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 per month from Twitch depending on the number of average monthly subscribers they have.

The absolute top of Twitch makes a lot of money. These streamers have tens of thousands of subscribers for which they receive $2.50 each, including Twitch Prime Subs!

We’ve done net worth profiles of some of the top streamers on Twitch, and here’s what we’ve found in our research.

xqc net worth

xQc (Felix Lengyel)

xQc is a top-tier streamer who makes $197,545 USD per month from Twitch.

xQc has seen a massive surge in popularity in the last couple of years. He streams almost every single day to over 70k people, doing this makes him A LOT of money in subscribers, advertisements, and donations.

But that’s not where it ends, xQc has a popular YouTube channel as well that brings in an additional $100,000 per month. Adding in sponsorships and merch, we estimate that xQc likely makes at least $500,000 every single month.

We see similar results when looking at other top-tier streamers.

nickmercs net worth

NickMercs

NickMercs is a top-tier streamer who makes $131,491 USD per month from Twitch.

NickMercs also makes up the top of Twitch and consistently streams to over 25,000 viewers. This generates $204,500 through subscribers, donations, and advertisements.

Additionally, he makes $12,000 from posting highlights to his YouTube channel and likely makes quite a bit from sponsorships and merch as well.

Kai Cenat

Kai Cenat is a top-tier streamer who makes $222,490 USD per month from Twitch.

Our next streamer is Kai Cenat, a newer streamer who is currently at the very top of Twitch due to his massive subscriber count.

Kai Cenat streams to over 60,000 viewers on Twitch and generates a massive $222,490 per month from subscribers alone!

Additionally, he makes an extra $45k per month from uploading highlights to his YouTube channel.

Here’s a little sum-up of the top 5 streamers on Twitch right now:

Twitch StreamerAverage monthly subscribersHow much they make from Twitch
xQc79k$197k USD
Kai Cenat89k$222k USD
Hasanabi61k$154k USD
NickMercs52k$131k USD
AdinRoss36k$91k USD

Of course, these figures once again do not include any of the income made off-Twitch. Since at the top-tier level, these Twitch streamers make SO much money from alternatives sources such as Youtube, it would be unfair not to include their estimated income from these sources.

Below is a chart revealing how much top-tier streamers make from their YouTube channels.

Twitch StreamerAverage monthly viewsHow much they make from Youtube
xQc32.5 million$97k USD
Kai Cenat8.5 million$45k USD
Hasanabi13.5 million$40k USD
NickMercs4 million$12k USD
AdinRoss15 million$45k USD

As you can see, some of these top-tier streamers can expect an additional $10,000 to $100,000 per month from YouTube ad revenue.

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💰 How do Twitch streamers make money? 💰

Twitch streamers have a variety of ways to make money both on and off the platform.

👉 Subscribers

One of the biggest income sources for Twitch streamers is their monthly subscribers. These subscribers are viewers who pay a monthly fee (usually $4.99) to gain access to extra content such as streamer emotes and ad-free watching.

Subscribers also consider themselves ‘supporters’ of live streamers who want to pay for the content they consume in a similar way that you would pay for Netflix or Disney Plus.

Subscribers come in 3 different tiers:

  • Tier 1 subscribers: $4.99 per month
  • Tier 2 subscribers: $9.99 per month
  • Tier 3 subscribers: $14.99 per month

While tiers 2 and 3 exist, they make up less than 1% of the sub counts of Twitch streamers and thus don’t provide much additional income.

Subscribers are available to Twitch streamers who have Affiliate and/or Partner status.

Most Twitch streamers keep 50% of the earnings they make from subscribers, Twitch keeps the other half. Thus, the average Twitch streamer makes $2.50 per month for every subscriber they have.

Top-tier streamers get a different cut. These streamers can negotiate their way to a 70/30 subscribers split meaning that they take home 70% instead. Such sub-splits are available to streamers who stream to an audience of 10,000 viewers or more. These top-tier streamers make $3.50 per month for every subscriber they have.

Unfortunately (and controversially), Twitch is currently in the process of terminating this option and by June 2023, this 70/30 sub-split will no longer be an option.

While most subscribers are paying out of pocket, it is possible to subscribe to a streamer for free as well. This option is available to Amazon Prime subscribers.

Viewers who have an active Amazon Prime subscription can subscribe to any streamer they want for free. These subs are called ‘Twitch Prime Subs‘ and offer the same benefits as a regular subscription with the exception of ad-free watching. While Twitch Prime Subs are free for the viewer, the streamer still gets paid for these types of subscriptions.

If you link your Amazon Prime account with Twitch, you can subscribe to a Twitch Streamer for free.
If you link your Amazon Prime account with Twitch, you can subscribe to a Twitch Streamer for free.

👉 Donations and Bits

Aside from subscriptions, Twitch viewers also have the ability to donate to their favorite streamers as well.

Donations offer a way to support the streamer in a ‘one-off’ type of way.

Most donations are small amounts such as $1 or $5 but it is not uncommon for small streamers to receive larger donations as a way of supporting their channel growth.

Viewers can add a message to their donation which offers a way for the viewer to interact with the streamer e.g. by asking them a question. Some streamers have text-to-speech donations enabled meaning a robot voice will read their donation message aloud for the entire stream.

There are two types of donations on Twitch:

  • Bit Donations
  • External donations

Bit Donations are the official donation system that is built into Twitch. Viewers can purchase these bits and keep them stored on their Twitch account to later donate to streamers as they see fit.

Streamers keep $0.01 USD for every bit they receive, meaning a 100-bit donation is equal to 1 Dollar.

Twitch doesn’t take a cut from the bits that are donated to streamers. However, they do make viewers pay extra to purchase bits. For example, 100 bits will cost a viewer $1.40 to purchase.

twitch makes money from selling bits
Twitch makes money from selling bits

Thus if a viewer buys 100 bits and donates them to a streamer that streamer will receive $1 but the viewer will have paid $1.40, with the 40 cents going directly into Twitch’s pockets.

To circumvent the high costs of bits, most streamers accept external donations as well. These Twitch streamers accept donations in a tip jar provided by companies such as streamelements and streamlabs.

Such tip jars often accept a wide variety of payment methods such as Paypal, credit cards, and in some cases even crypto.

As donations are not consistent, and streamers do not reveal this data, it’s hard to estimate how much a streamer makes from donations.

Read also: How to donate on Twitch

👉 Advertisements

Twitch streamers who have Affiliate or Partner status make money from advertisements displayed on their stream.

Advertisement data is not something that Twitch streamers are allowed to reveal due to their contracts but according to many streamers, the CPMs (Cost per 1000 viewers) are quite low.

It should be noted as well that running advertisements is only viable for big streamers as small streamers make next to nothing from advertisements.

small streamers don't very little money from advertisements
small streamers don’t very little money from advertisements

Twitch streamers have the option to schedule ads manually or automatically. This is entirely up to the streamer.

Streamers who have automatic ads set up tend to make more money.

Twitch also has a new Ad Incentive Program that allows streamers to make more money from advertisements. Streamers who qualify for this program have to claim one of their incentive offers which require them to run a certain amount of ads per hour and stream a certain number of hours per month.

twitch streamers can make money from twitch's brand new ad incentive program
an example of Twitch’s new Ad Incentive Program

These offers can range from running 2 mins of ads per 1 hour of streaming to running 6 minutes of ads for every streamed hour. The more ads they run per hour, the more the streamer makes.

While these incentives might seem beneficial, they can stunt the growth of a streamer as a large number of ads can scare potential viewers away.

👉 Sponsorships

Since big Twitch streamers broadcast daily to hundreds and thousands of people, they can have a massive influence on that audience which makes them irresistible to sponsors.

A common sponsorship for Twitch streamers is a peripheral sponsor. For example, Shroud is sponsored by Logitech as we covered in his streamer setup. He has his own branded mouse and keyboard with Logitech that he uses to play Valorant on stream.

Shroud is sponsored by Logitech and gets paid to promote their products
Shroud is sponsored by Logitech and gets paid to promote their products | screengrab from Shroud on Twitch

This is however not the only type of sponsorship that exists among Twitch streamers. Some streamers get paid for smaller ‘one-shot’ sponsorships as well.

Pokimane did a one off sponsorship with venmo
Pokimane doing a one-off sponsorship with Venmo | source: @pokimane

In this case, streamers get paid a certain amount for a simple shoutout on Twitch or one of their social media channels.

Yet another type of sponsorship is video game sponsors. Sometimes, game developers will pay big streamers to promote their games to their large audience.

For example, Ninja played Apex Legends on release day and was paid $1 million for doing so.

Similarly, (before Twitch banned gambling) many streamers made big bucks from gambling sponsorships. E.g. TrainwrecksTV claims to have made $360 million from gambling contracts over the course of 16 months.

Trainwreckstv claimed to have made $360 million from gambling contracts
Trainwreckstv claimed to have made $360 million from gambling contracts

👉 Merch

Many top-tier Twitch streams make some extra income from selling merchandise.

If you have thousands of people watching you stream live on a daily basis, why not start your own merch line, right?

hasanabi net worth

Popular Twitch streamer Hasanabi has a merch store called ‘Ideologie’ where he sells ‘Himbo’ merch.

Hasanabi makes money from selling merch on his merch store ideologie.shop
screengrab from Hasanabi’s merch shop Ideologie.shop
lilypichu net worth

LilyPichu is another streamer who makes money from selling merchandise. Her merch shop is called ‘comfibeats’

LilyPichu makes money from her merch shop comfibeats.com
LilyPichu makes money from her merch shop comfibeats.com

Most popular streamers will have some sort of way you can support them through merchandise. Even smaller streamers often have merchandise listed in their bio.

Read also: How to sell merch on Twitch

👉 Affiliate Marketing

Many streamers make some side income through Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate Marketing is a money making method that allows streamers to promote a product and get paid for the referral. Oftentimes viewers have to click a specific link or use a referral code. Once the viewer makes a purchase, the Affiliate (aka the streamer) will receive a small commission.

One popular Affiliate Program that streamers love is the Amazon Associates program. This allows them to list their streamer equipment in their bio and earn an extra penny from viewers who purchase through their link.

Another popular referral program is G-Fuel. Plenty of Twitch streamers are sponsored by G-Fuel and make money for every viewer that makes a purchase using their discount code.

aydan used to make money from affiliate marketing by promoting g-fuel
Aydan used to refer his viewers to G-Fuel using his discount code ‘Aydan’

👉 Youtube Advertisements

Most Twitch streamers have a YouTube account. And while many streamers use these accounts to drive traffic to their Twitch streams, there is definitely some money to be made on Youtube as well.

Youtube (as I’m sure you are aware) serves a lot of advertisements. Youtubers keep about 55% of the earnings that come in from these advertisements. In the streaming industry advertisements can bring in about $2 – $4 per 1000 viewers.

disguisedtoast net worth

DisguisedToast makes $58,500 per month from advertisements on his YouTube channel.

As you can see, Youtube can be a very lucrative source of income for streamers with massive audiences. But even smaller streamers who may not have lots of views, can still make some extra money from Youtube advertisements at no additional cost to them.

Asmongold makes $124,000 per month from advertisements on his many YouTube channels.

👉 Subscription-based services

While Twitch can be considered a subscription-based service already, some Twitch streamers generate extra cash through other subscription-based services such as Patreon and Onlyfans.

These subscription-based services allow viewers to get access to exclusive content from a streamer. In the case of Patreon, this can be anything from exclusive art pieces to explicit content.

Amouranth makes over $1 million per month from her profile on OnlyFans.


Final thoughts

Clearly, Twitch streamers make good money. Even smaller streamers start making a decent amount of money once they reach over 50 consistent viewers. At around 100+ viewers you can even consider going full-time and make a decent living from Twitch and other platforms using your audience.

Once a streamer reaches around 1000+ they started making some serious money with numbers ranging between $5000 up to $30,000 per month from Twitch alone.

Top tier streamers, the Ludwig and xQc’s of the world make over $200,000 per month from Twitch and YouTube.

If you had doubts about whether or not streamers make money, this article should have cleared things up for you. We’ll finish off by answering some frequently asked questions about making money on Twitch.


Frequently asked questions

🤔 How much do Twitch streamers make from subscribers?

Twitch streamers keep 50% of their subscriber revenue. So tier 1 subscriptions which cost $4.99 leave $2.50 for the streamer.

Top-tier Twitch streamers with over 10,000 consistent viewers keep 70% of their subscriber revenue. So tier 1 subscriptions leave them $3.50 per subscriber.

⚠️ The 70/30 sub-split for top-tier creators will disappear in June of 2023. Once this happens, these creators will receive 70% of their earnings until they reach an income of $100k (annually) after that, they will keep 50% of their earnings or $2.50 like every other Twitch Partner and Affiliate.

🤔 How much do Twitch streamers make per prime sub?

Twitch streamers earn the same amount from prime subs that they would from regular or gifted subs: 50% or $2.50 per subscriber.

🤔 How much do Twitch affiliates make per subscriber?

Just like Twitch partners, Twitch affiliates make $2.50 or 50% of the revenue from each subscriber.

🤔 How much do Twitch streamers make per viewer?

On average, Twitch streamers earn about $3 for every consistent viewer they have. Meaning someone with 10,000 average viewers, can expect to make around $30,000 from Twitch.

🤔 How much do Twitch streamers make per bit?

Twitch streamers make 1 cent for every bit they receive. So if you donate 100 bits to a streamer, they will get 1 dollar.

🤔 How much do Twitch streamers make per ad?

Twitch streamers are not allowed to reveal how much they make from advertising. It is estimated that Twitch streamers make $20 for every 1000 viewers. Meaning a streamer with 10,000 average viewers can make $200 from a single stream.

🤔 Can you make a living on Twitch?

As this article clearly indicates, you can make a living on Twitch once you reach over 100 average viewers. At this point, you’ll make around $1000 – $1500 from Twitch and you can make an additional $1000 – $2000 from alternate sources such as YouTube, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, merch, and Patreon.

🤔 When can I expect to start making money on Twitch?

You’ll start making money on Twitch as soon as you reach affiliate status. This process takes weeks for some and months for others. On average, small Twitch streamers don’t really start making money until they have completed at least 6 months of consistent streaming.

🤔 When do Twitch payouts happen?

Twitch pays their affiliates and partners 15 days after the end of the month. There is also a minimum $100 threshold for payouts.

🤔 Can you make money on Twitch without being a partner?

You don’t have to be a Twitch partner to make money on Twitch. Twitch affiliates make money as well and there are many other ways to monetize your viewership. In a separate article, we cover exactly how you can make money without being a Twitch partner.

🤔 How old do you have to be to make money on Twitch? When do Twitch payouts happen?

According to the Twitch Affiliate agreement, you have to be at least 13 years old to make money on Twitch. Twitch affiliates aged 13-18 are required to be supervised by a parent or legal guardian.

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2 thoughts on “How much do Twitch streamers make in 2023? Small vs Big vs Top-tier”

    • Provided those are real viewers, you can definitely earn money from 100 viewers even if you aren’t affiliated or partnered with Twitch.
      You can sign up for Amazon Affiliates and add links to your gear in your Twitch bio.

      You can also try to find a sponsor for your stream.

      Finally, you should add a donation button to acquire donations from fans.
      Hope that helps,
      Dean.

      Reply

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