Twitch Partner Requirements: How To Become a Twitch Partner in 2023

Last Updated on 01/02/2023 by Dean

This is a comprehensive guide on how to become a partner on Twitch.

Becoming a Partner and getting that verified checkmark is the ultimate goal of every small Twitch streamer.

In this guide, I’ll cover everything you need to know to reach that goal.

🎬 This article is part of our Grow on Twitch series.

Twitch Partner Requirements

You have to meet the following requirements in a 30-day period to qualify for the Twitch Partnership Application.

  • You should have 75 concurrent viewers at all times
  • You have be live for at least 12 out of 30 days
  • You need to have 25 total streaming hours in the last 30 days

Oftentimes, these requirements are misunderstood.

Many streamers are unclear about what 75 concurrent viewers really means.

Some streamers will see their live view count go up to 75 viewers and think they’ve made it.

Sadly, this is not the case.

Even 75 average viewers won’t qualify you for Twitch Partnership in most cases.

What Twitch really means is that you should have at least 75 viewers at all times.

So someone who qualifies for Twitch partnership is more likely to have a live count of 100 or more live views at most times.

What is a Twitch Partner?

A Twitch partner is a streamer with at least 75 concurrent viewers who holds a contract with Twitch.

You can tell someone is a Twitch Partner by the Verification badge next to their name.

Twitch Partners have access to benefits such as:

  • Subscriptions
  • Advertisements
  • Bit Donations
  • And more

These are the types of streamers that make money from streaming, many of them even stream full-time.

Twitch Partner vs Twitch Affiliate

There isn’t a huge difference between being a Twitch Affiliate and a Twitch Partner.

While a lot easier to achieve, Twitch Affiliates enjoy many of the same benefits as Twitch Partners.

👉 In terms of Monetization

Both Affiliates and Partners have access to Subscriptions, Advertisements, and Bit Donations.

In other words, you really don’t need to become a Partner on Twitch to start making more money.

In fact, you won’t see any extra revenue once you become a Twitch Partner.

A Twitch Affiliate with 100 viewers makes just as much as a Twitch Partner with that same 100 viewers.

Twitch Partners do have more leverage though. For example, bigger streamers can negotiate their revenue split.

Every Affiliate and Partner has a base revenue split of 50/50 on subscriptions.

But some bigger streamers can negotiate the sub split all the way to 70/30.

👉 In terms of Benefits

Here are the extra benefits Twitch Partners have other Affiliates:

  • 45 days to get paid instead of 60
  • No fees on the payout
  • 60 subscriber emotes instead of 5
  • Custom cheermotes
  • Verified badge
  • 60 days VOD storage instead of 14
  • Enhanced customer service
  • Dedicated Partner Team

How to Apply for Twitch Partnership

Unlike becoming a Twitch Affiliate, for which you are automatically accepted once you reach teh requirements, applying to become a Twitch partner is a little more complicated.

Twitch Partnership requests go through a manual review by Twitch staff.

And you wouldn’t be the first person that qualifies but gets denied anyway.

Here’s how Twitch reviews your Partnership Application…

👉 Twitch looks at your Concurrent Viewers

Earlier I mentioned that the viewer count requirements for Twitch Partnership aren’t as straightforward as Twitch makes it seem.

For example, many streamers believe that they qualify for partnership as soon as they hit 75 viewers.

This is not true, however.

Twitch requires 75 concurrent viewers meaning that your live count will look closer to 100 viewers and up before your will qualify.

👉 Twitch looks at your Stream Schedule

Twitch only Partners with active streamers.

Streamers that have inconsistent schedules and stream just a couple of days per month are unlikely to qualify for partnership.

Even if a streamer has completed the 12 days and 25-hour requirement for a 30-day period, they can deny candidates based on inactivity from previous months as well.

👉 Twitch Judges the Quality of your Viewers

Sadly, there are many people who feel the need to cheat their way to Partnership.

For example, some streamers will buy followers and use viewbots to appear far more popular than they actually are.

Twitch knows this of course, and thus they thorougly check the quality of each Twitch stream to ensure the viewers are 100% legit.


How to Become a Twitch Partner

👉 Stream Consistently

Streaming consistently is not only a requirement to getting your partnership application approved, it’s also necessary to continue your growth on Twitch.

While some bigger streamers seem to not care about having a clear and consistent stream schedule, smaller streamers really can’t afford to do so.

In fact, I consider it a must to have a clear stream schedule.

If you were to ask me to mentor you into becoming a better streamer, the first thing I would tell you is to set a stream schedule and stick to it.

The benefits that come from having a stream schedule are simply irreplaceable.

First of all, a dedicated stream schedule forces you to stick to it.

Without a schedule, you’ll just kind of stream whenever you want, and that’s going to lead to a lot of postponing and eventual quitting.

Second, it gives your viewers an idea of when you will be live.

This way, they can plan around your schedule.

Third, it gives you time to prepare your stream beforehand.

You’d be surprised just how much you can improve the quality of your stream when you make some time to prepare exactly what you’re going to do and say.

I could probably go on and on but you get the point. Get a schedule, stick to it.

👉 Improve the Quality of your Stream

Twitch Partners have high-quality streams. If you want to become one, you’ll have to match their level.

As you stream more and more often, the quality of your stream will naturally increase.

But there are some things that you can only change with some monetary investment.

The first and most important element: upgrading your microphone.

Audio quality is by far the most important element of live streaming.

After all, we are really spoiled in 2021 with so many creators having AMAZING sounding microphones.

Don’t worry though, we have a budget microphone guide that will hook you up with a great quality microphone for as little as $50.

Additionally, you could work towards upgrading other elements of your stream such as your webcam, your stream lighting, your background, and so forth.

But really the most important element is your microphone.

👉 Work on your Streamer Personality

Top streamers bring a lot of personality to the table.

Ninja wouldn’t ever have blown up in the Fortnite era if he didn’t have such an outgoing personality.

Similar to how xQc would have never become as big as he is today without his over-the-top persona.

When you think about the top creators on Twitch, each of them has a prominent personality that makes them stand out from the rest.

Developing such a streamer persona isn’t easy but it is required if you plan to make it big.

👉 Pay Attention to Other Streamers

There is a lot you can learn from other streamers!

That’s why you should always keep up with streamers within your niche and see how they handle their stream.

You’d be surprised how much you can learn simply by consuming content.

Pay attention to how they interact with chat, what their personality is like, how they handle their stream, how they prevent dead moments, the list goes on.

Additionally, paying attention to others will help you come up with new ideas that you could incorporate in your own stream.

Ludiwg calls this method the “Yoink and Twist”.

ludwig explans how the yoink and twist can be used by streamers to copy other streamers and create their own spin.
Courtesy: Ludwig

Taking inspiration from other streamers to come up with your own spins is something that every streamer does. Or at least, the successful ones. 😉

👉 Build your own Little Twitch Community

Every popular streamer on Twitch has their own little community.

These communities are made up of their most loyal fans who discuss their favorite streamer in subreddits, discord servers, and other places.

As a growing Twitch streamer, you should work on building such a community.

For starters, you can create your own Discord Server.

Discord is a great place to bring similar-minded people together.

Inside your community, people can develop online friendships, share memes, ask for tips and advice, and so forth.

This may not sound very important but such community-building will make your viewers even more loyal and dedicated to your stream.

👉 Expand your Presence Beyond Twitch

Twitch isn’t the best platform to get recognition on.

The built-in discovery system is severely flawed and only favors big streamers.

So if you’re relying solely on Twitch to get new viewers, you’ll have a hard time increasing your audience size to fit the requirements for Twitch Partnership.

Instead, you should leverage other platforms that do have good discovery systems.

One such example is YouTube.

If you aren’t already posting highlights on YouTube, you should be.

YouTube has an amazing discovery system that rewards those that upload great content.

Other such platforms include Instagram and TikTok.

👉 Network with Other Streamers

2020 was a great year for those that collaborated with other streamers.

During that year, social interaction games such as Among Us and Gartic Phone became huge because they allowed for collabs between Twitch streamers.

And these collabs led to a LOT of growth for these streamers.

You should take this trend to your advantage as a smaller Twitch streamer.

Of course, you won’t be collabing with huge creators but you can still enter mutually beneficial collabs with streamers that have similar-sized audiences.

Read more on how to Network and Collaborate with other streamers.

👉 Remain Patient

Nothing happens overnight.

Growing big enough to become a Twitch Partner takes time.

Some of the biggest Twitch Partners to this day, have taken years to get where they are.

For example, KarlJacobs streamed to 15 average viewers for all of 2017.

Two years later, in 2019, he had 66 average viewers which still wouldn’t qualify him for Twitch Partnership!

But then in 2020, KarlJacobs’s audience blew up after joining the Dream SMP and these days he has over 140,000 viewers every time he goes live.

You can read KarlJacob’s story here.

Remain patient, work hard and keep at it.


FAQ

🤔 How Long does it Take to Become Twitch Partner?

Some streamers qualify for Twitch Partnership within their first year but the majority of Twitch streamers take at least 1-2 years before they qualify.

🤔 How Long does Twitch Take to Respond to my Partner Application?

It takes Twitch up to 7 business days to reply to Partner Applications.

🤔 How Many Twitch Partners are there?

Currently, there are 58,702 partners on Twitch.

🤔 How much do Twitch Partners Make?

Twitch Partners don’t make any more money than Twitch Affiliates do.

🤔 Can Twitch Partners Stream on Other Platforms?

Twitch Partners sign an exlusive contract that prevents them from streaming on other platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.

🤔 Can Twitch take away Partnership?

Twitch does not take away partnership when you lose viewers.

You can find plenty of partnered streamers on Twitch who have 50 or even less concurrent viewers.

However, they can take away partnership to streamers who consistently break rules in the form of a permanent ban.

🤔 Can Twitch Partners Play Music?

Twitch Partners have the same music privileges as regular streamers or Twitch Affiliates.

No streamer is allowed to play copyrighted music on Twitch.

Partners can get DMCA strikes just as well as any other streamer!

Learn more about DMCA-Free music on Twitch.

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