Twitch pays streamers “typically at the rate of 1 cent per Bit” for Cheers, and its June 2024 Power-ups launch confirmed that streamers get 100% of the Bits viewers spend on those effects (Twitch, Bits page 2026; Twitch Blog 2024). Those micro-payments sit inside a wider fan-funding market where the split varies sharply by platform: YouTube creators receive 70% of Super Chat and Super Sticker revenue, Kick advertises a 95/5 subscription split, and Twitch’s Plus Program tops out at 70/30 on subs. The money is concentrated: across the top 10,000 Twitch earners in leaked 2019-2021 payout data, the revenue Gini index was 0.57, and researchers projected about 0.93 for the full platform (Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023). For the broader platform context, see our live streaming statistics. We aggregated data from Twitch’s own pages, blog and Monetized Streamer Agreement, YouTube Help, Kick Help, HUYA and DouYu quarterly results, the Games Done Quick tracker, peer-reviewed journals and preprints, and clearly labelled third-party trackers (Streams Charts, TwitchTracker).
TL;DR
- Twitch rewards streamers for Cheers typically at 1 cent per Bit (Twitch, Bits page 2026).
- Streamers get 100% of the Bits used on Power-ups, as with Cheering (Twitch Blog, Introducing Power-ups 2024).
- Twitch’s Plus Program pays 60/40 at Level 1 and 70/30 at Level 2 on subscription revenue (Twitch Blog, Supporting Streamers in Latin America 2025).
- YouTube creators receive 70% of Supers revenue confirmed by Google (YouTube Help 2026).
- Kick gives streamers 95% of subscription revenue through its 95/5 split (Kick Help Center 2026).
- Twitch pays fees monthly within 45 days of month-end, after a 50 dollar payout threshold (Twitch Monetized Streamer Agreement 2026; Twitch Blog, Monetization for All 2026).
- Streamer-led promotions lifted gifting revenue 30-45% on average for medium-sized creators, and as high as 250% in some cases (Twitch Blog, TwitchCon San Diego 2025).
- Channels running gift sub discounts saw up to 80% more gift subs during promotional events (Twitch Blog, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2026).
- Gift sub recipients were 2.732 times more likely to become gifters than non-recipients (Kim et al., arXiv 2025).
- Revenue Gini among the top 10,000 Twitch streamers was 0.57 (Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023).
- DouYu’s livestreaming revenue fell 13.0% year over year to RMB503.0 million in Q2 2026 (DouYu Q2 2026 results).
- AGDQ 2026 raised 2,478,270.78 dollars from 34,236 donations with a 25 dollar median (Games Done Quick tracker 2026).
1. What a Bit Is Worth: The Official Cheering Economics
Twitch’s design keeps the streamer side of a Cheer simple and the viewer side flexible. Twitch says it “rewards streamers for Cheers in a channel typically at the rate of 1 cent per Bit” (Twitch, Bits page), and its Partner page describes the Partner share of Bits revenue as “equal to 1 cent per Bit.” The variable is what the viewer pays for Bits, which Twitch adjusts through volume discounts of 5%, 8%, 10% and 12% on larger bundles.
Power-ups extended the same rule to paid chat effects. Twitch’s launch post states, “Like Cheering, streamers get 100% of the Bits used” (Twitch Blog, Introducing Power-ups, June 12, 2024). The legal fine print matters, though: Twitch’s Bits Acceptable Use Policy states that “Bits do not have an equivalent value in real currency” (Twitch, Bits Acceptable Use Policy), and the Monetized Streamer Agreement says streamers “may receive a fee from us relating to Bits” rather than setting a contractual per-Bit rate.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Streamer reward per Bit used to Cheer | Typically 1 cent per Bit | Twitch, Bits page 2026 |
| Partner share of Bits revenue | Equal to 1 cent per Bit | Twitch, Partner Program page 2026 |
| Share of Bits used on Power-ups paid to streamers | 100% | Twitch Blog, Introducing Power-ups 2024 |
| Volume discounts on Bits bundles | 5%, 8%, 10% and 12% tiers | Twitch, Bits page 2026 |
| SUBtember 2026 bonus Bits promotion | 10% added to Bits spent, September 12-18 | Twitch Blog, SUBtember 2026 |
| Minimum payout threshold | 50 dollars | Twitch Blog, Monetization for All 2026 |
| Payment timing | Monthly, within 45 days after month-end | Twitch Monetized Streamer Agreement (modified August 21, 2026) |
| Currency conversion fees removed for EU streamers via SEPA payouts | Previously 1-2.5% of earnings | Twitch Blog, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2026 |
Context note: the Bits page does not publish bundle prices in a form we could read, so we do not state the viewer-side cost per Bit. Because 1 Bit equals 1 cent to the streamer, the platform’s margin on Bits is the difference between the price a viewer pays and that cent, which Twitch does not disclose.
2. Revenue Splits: Twitch vs YouTube vs Kick
Bits are only one fan-funding rail; subscriptions carry the percentage splits that platforms compete on. Twitch’s Plus Program pays 60/40 at Level 1 and 70/30 at Level 2, and in Latin America the Plus Point thresholds were cut from 100 to 50 (Level 1) and from 300 to 200 (Level 2) effective June 1, 2025 (Twitch Blog, Supporting Streamers in Latin America, 2025). Twitch CEO Dan Clancy reported a 4x increase in the number of Partners benefiting from these revenue shares (Twitch Blog, open letter, February 2025).
Rivals publish flatter headline numbers. YouTube’s help center states that “Creators receive 70% of Supers revenue that is confirmed by Google” (YouTube Help, Super Chat and Super Stickers), and Kick’s help center describes a 95/5 split on subscription revenue (Kick Help Center). The practical takeaway: a streamer’s real cut depends less on the headline split than on which rail fans use, since Twitch’s Bits rail pays a fixed cent rather than a percentage.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Twitch subscription options listed on the Partner page | 5.99, 9.99 and 24.99 dollars | Twitch, Partner Program page 2026 |
| Twitch Plus Program, Level 1 / Level 2 | 60/40 / 70/30 revenue share | Twitch Blog, Latin America 2025 |
| Latin America Plus Point thresholds from June 1, 2025 | 50 (from 100) / 200 (from 300), three consecutive months | Twitch Blog, Latin America 2025 |
| Growth in Partners benefiting from Plus revenue shares | 4x | Twitch Blog, Dan Clancy open letter 2025 |
| YouTube Super Chat and Super Stickers creator share | 70% of Supers revenue confirmed by Google | YouTube Help 2026 |
| Kick subscription split | 95/5 in the streamer’s favor | Kick Help Center 2026 |
| Twitch Cameo fees, select creators (reported, not announced) | 80% Partners / 75% Affiliates | Streams Charts report, 2026 |
| SUBtember 2026 discounts | 25% off 1- and 3-month subs, 30% off 6-month subs; full payout to streamers | Twitch Blog, SUBtember 2026 |
Context note: the Cameo figures were communicated to select creators by email and reported by Streams Charts; Twitch has not published them, and they apply only to Cameo personalized video fees, not to subs, Bits or ads (Streams Charts, 2026). The Monetized Streamer Agreement itself refers sub and ad percentages to each streamer’s dashboard rather than stating them.
3. Who Can Collect: Eligibility Thresholds Across Platforms
The barrier to cashing out micro-donations is falling. Since May 13, 2026, all eligible Twitch streamers can accept Bits, subs, emotes, badges and Channel Points, though payouts still require Affiliate or Partner status (Twitch Blog, Monetization for All, 2026). From June 2026 the Affiliate bar was cut roughly in half: 4 hours of streaming instead of 8, 4 streaming days instead of 7 and 25 followers instead of 50, with a minimum of 3 average concurrent viewers on 4 different days.
That puts Twitch closer to Kick, where the only stated requirement to enable subscriptions is 5 cumulative hours of streaming, and well below YouTube, whose Partner Program requires 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 qualified watch hours in 12 months or 10 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days (YouTube Help, YouTube Partner Program overview). The pool of monetized channels is already large: Twitch counted over 1 million Affiliates in May 2025 (Twitch Blog, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2025).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Twitch Affiliates | Over 1 million | Twitch Blog, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2025 |
| Twitch Affiliate streaming hours required (from June 2026) | 4 hours (previously 8) | Twitch Blog, Monetization for All 2026 |
| Twitch Affiliate streaming days required | 4 days (previously 7) | Twitch Blog, Monetization for All 2026 |
| Twitch Affiliate followers required | 25 (previously 50) | Twitch Blog, Monetization for All 2026 |
| Twitch viewer requirement | Minimum 3 average concurrent viewers on 4 different days | Twitch Blog, Monetization for All 2026 |
| Kick requirement to enable subscriptions | 5 total hours streamed | Kick Help Center 2026 |
| YouTube Partner Program threshold | 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours (12 months) or 10M Shorts views (90 days) | YouTube Help 2026 |
| Active Twitch streamers, September 2026 (third-party estimate) | 6,107,012 | TwitchTracker 2026 |
Context note: Twitch says the lower bar produced “a promising increase in the number of qualifying Affiliates” but did not publish a count. TwitchTracker’s active-streamer figure is a third-party estimate, not a Twitch number; a different tracker, Streams Charts, counted “just over 2.9 million” active channels in the same month, a gap that reflects different definitions of an active channel.
4. Gifting Mechanics: Promotions, Hype Trains and Badges
Twitch’s recent product data says the biggest lever on micro-donations is the collective moment, not the individual tip. Streamer-led promotions increased gifting revenue by 30-45% on average for medium-sized creators, and by as much as 250% in some cases (Twitch Blog, TwitchCon San Diego 2025). By May 2026 creators had run over 450,000 such promotions, and channels running gift sub discounts were seeing up to 80% more gift subs during the events (Twitch Blog, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2026).
The same pattern shows up in smaller features. In testing, creators who set up custom event badges saw up to 50% more gift sub revenue on the event’s first day than their monthly average, and rare Community Trains earned 2X more than typical Hype Trains (Twitch Blog, May 19, 2026). Each Partner and Affiliate gets 70 hours of promotional time to use in up to seven promotions per year, with a 35% discount on bundles of 5 or more gift subs.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gifting revenue lift from streamer-led promotions (medium creators) | 30-45% on average; up to 250% | Twitch Blog, TwitchCon San Diego 2025 |
| Streamer-led promotions run since launch | Over 450,000 | Twitch Blog, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2026 |
| Gift sub lift during discount promotions | Up to 80% more gift subs | Twitch Blog, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2026 |
| Promotional allowance per Partner or Affiliate | 70 hours, up to 7 promotions a year, 35% off 5+ gift sub bundles | Twitch Blog, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2025 |
| Custom badge events, first-day gift sub revenue | Up to 50% above monthly average | Twitch Blog, May 2026 |
| Community Trains vs typical Hype Trains | 2X earnings | Twitch Blog, May 2026 |
| Subscription-gated Drops | An additional 11 million dollars to streamers | Twitch Blog, TwitchCon Rotterdam 2026 |
| Sponsor-funded bonus gift subs | 1 bonus sub per 5 purchased; State Farm gifting nearly 100K subs | Twitch Blog, August 2026 |
Context note: all of these figures are Twitch’s own test or program results and are described with “up to” or “on average” qualifiers; Twitch does not publish sample sizes or baselines. The sponsor-funded bonus sub figures come from the Bonus Gift Subs post and the SUBtember 2026 post. Membership-style support on other platforms is covered in our Patreon creator retention statistics.
5. Inequality: Who Actually Receives the Money
The most rigorous public look at Twitch payouts comes from the leaked 2021 dataset. Among the top 10,000 Twitch streamers, revenue from August 2019 to October 2021 had a Gini index of 0.57, and extending the fitted distribution to the roughly 9.2 million streamers on the platform gives about 0.93 (Houssard, Pilati, Tartari, Sacco and Gallotti, Scientific Reports 2023). For comparison, 0.93 is close to the theoretical maximum of 1, meaning nearly all income flows to a thin top layer.
The same paper shows why small channels still matter. Revenue scales sublinearly with subscribers (exponent about 0.8), and the smallest quintile converts followers to subscribers at 0.017 versus 0.008 for the largest, so niche communities pay more per head. Top streamers hedge with outside income: the top 2,000 list about 3.7 sponsorship or affiliate URLs in their channel descriptions versus about 2.2 for a comparison sample. A YouTube study of 153,000 channels with at least 100,000 subscribers and 137 million video descriptions found the same push toward off-platform monetization links (Rieder et al., Social Media + Society 2023).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue Gini, top 10,000 Twitch streamers (Aug 2019-Oct 2021) | 0.57 | Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023 |
| Projected Gini, all streamers (about 9.2 million) | About 0.93 | Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023 |
| Cumulative payout range in the sample (9,523 streamers) | 9.5 million dollars down to 23,520 dollars | Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023 |
| Revenue distribution | Power law, exponent -2.13 | Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023 |
| Subscribers vs revenue correlation | Spearman about 0.498 | Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023 |
| Follower-to-subscriber conversion, smallest vs largest quintile | 0.017 vs 0.008 | Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023 |
| Sponsorship or affiliate URLs, top 2,000 vs comparison sample | About 3.7 vs 2.2 | Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023 |
| YouTube channels studied for monetization linking | 153,000 channels, 137 million descriptions | Rieder et al., Social Media + Society 2023 |
Context note: the Twitch figures rest on the October 2021 data leak, which covered payouts but not the split between subs, Bits and ads; it is the most recent available data of its kind (Scientific Reports, 2023). 477 of the original 10,000 entries were excluded because pseudonyms could not be matched.
6. Market Scale: Audiences and Virtual-Gift Revenue
Neither Amazon nor Twitch reports Twitch revenue: Amazon’s 2025 Form 10-K mentions “Twitch streamers” only as one group that can “publish and sell content” (Amazon Form 10-K for 2025, SEC EDGAR). Audience size therefore comes from third-party trackers. Streams Charts counted 29.45 billion hours watched across live platforms in Q3 2025, with Twitch at 4.3 billion (down 6.2% quarter over quarter) and Kick at 1.7 billion (up 55%) (Streams Charts, Q3 2025 Global Livestreaming Landscape). In September 2026, Kick set a record of 773.8 million hours and 1.09 million average viewers (Streams Charts, 2026).
China’s listed platforms show what a tipping-first model earns, and its current direction. HUYA’s live streaming revenue was RMB1,101.5 million (US$162.3 million) in Q2 2026, down from RMB1,153.2 million a year earlier, a 4.5% decline (1,101.5 / 1,153.2 = 0.955), while total revenue grew 11.0% on game-related services (HUYA Q2 2026 results). DouYu, which defines a paying user as someone who bought virtual gifts at least once, reported 2.3 million quarterly paying users and an ARPPU of RMB283 (DouYu Q2 2026 results).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hours watched, all tracked platforms, Q3 2025 | 29.45 billion (YouTube 13.25B, TikTok Live 9.2B, Twitch 4.3B, Kick 1.7B) | Streams Charts Q3 2025 (third-party) |
| Twitch hours watched, September 2026 | 1.47 billion (Streams Charts) / 1.51 billion (TwitchTracker) | Streams Charts 2026; TwitchTracker 2026 (third-party) |
| Twitch average concurrent viewers, September 2026 | 2,098,161 | TwitchTracker 2026 (third-party) |
| Kick, September 2026 | 773.8 million hours; 1.09 million average viewers | Streams Charts 2026 (third-party) |
| HUYA live streaming revenue, Q2 2026 | RMB1,101.5 million (US$162.3 million), from RMB1,153.2 million | HUYA Q2 2026 results |
| HUYA revenue sharing fees and content costs, Q2 2026 | RMB1,214.7 million (US$179.0 million), up 3.2% | HUYA Q2 2026 results |
| DouYu livestreaming revenue, Q2 2026 | RMB503.0 million (US$74.1 million), down 13.0% | DouYu Q2 2026 results |
| DouYu paying users / ARPPU / average MAU, Q2 2026 | 2.3 million / RMB283 / 45.4 million | DouYu Q2 2026 results |
Context note: Streams Charts and TwitchTracker disagree on Twitch’s September 2026 hours (1.47 billion vs 1,510,326,227 hours); both are estimates built from public API sampling, not Twitch disclosures. Twitch’s own State of Gaming 2026 reports more than 8.6 billion hours of gaming content watched over its reporting period. DouYu’s voice-based social business added RMB272.3 million with 66,200 monthly average paying users.
7. Why Viewers Pay: Reciprocity, Parasocial Bonds and Charity Streams
Gifting behaves like a contagion. In 8,068 Twitch streams from September 2022, viewers who received a gift sub were 2.732 times more likely to become gifters themselves than non-recipients (Kim, Ha, Kim and Hemphill, arXiv 2025). The effect was stronger when a recipient was the sole beneficiary (odds up by a factor of 1.728) and reversed for gifts from frequent gifters (odds ratio 0.571), while anonymous gifts had no effect (p = 0.956). Most gifting is communal: 87.17% of gift subs went to randomly selected viewers.
Emotion and parasocial ties predict who tips. A minute-level analysis of 1,450 live streams found that a happier broadcaster makes the audience happier and intensifies viewer tips (Happiness Begets Money, Journal of Marketing Research 2021). A 2025 survey of 560 Twitch viewers (91.6% male, mean age 22.2) explained only 9.6% of the variance in donation intention (Information, 2025), a reminder that tipping is hard to predict, and a 2026 study of 312 dance-stream viewers found income predicted tip amounts but not frequency (Han, Economics 2026). Charity streams show the micro-donation pattern at scale: Games Done Quick’s median donation was 25 dollars at all three of its most recent completed marathons in our sample (Games Done Quick tracker, AGDQ 2026).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gift recipients vs non-recipients, odds of gifting later | 2.732 times more likely | Kim et al., arXiv 2025 |
| Gift subs sent to random viewers / specific viewers / anonymously | 87.17% / 10.44% / 2.39% | Kim et al., arXiv 2025 |
| Effect of gifts from frequent gifters on recipients | Odds ratio 0.571 (less likely to gift) | Kim et al., arXiv 2025 |
| Variance in donation intention explained (560 Twitch viewers) | 9.6% | Information (MDPI) 2025 |
| AGDQ 2026 | 2,478,270.78 dollars; 34,236 donations; average 72.39, median 25 dollars | Games Done Quick tracker 2026 |
| SGDQ 2026 | 2,436,821.20 dollars; 31,976 donations; average 76.21, median 25 dollars | Games Done Quick tracker 2026 |
| AGDQ 2025 | 2,583,290.22 dollars; 40,763 donations; average 63.37, median 25 dollars | Games Done Quick tracker 2025 |
| Largest single donation, AGDQ 2025 / AGDQ 2026 / SGDQ 2026 | 71,500 / 53,000 / 42,300 dollars | Games Done Quick tracker 2025-2026 |
Context note: between AGDQ 2025 and AGDQ 2026 the total fell 4.1% (2,478,270.78 / 2,583,290.22 = 0.959) while donation count fell 16.0% (34,236 / 40,763 = 0.840), so fewer donors gave larger amounts on average. Experimental work on charity streams found high parasocial interaction raised viewers’ intention to give emotional and financial support (Wang, Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing 2024). The Kim et al. paper is a preprint. Paid chat on YouTube’s VTuber scene is covered in our VTuber agency and Super Chat statistics, and ad-side creator pay in our YouTube Shorts RPM statistics.
Summary: Twitch Bits and Live Streaming Donations by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Streamer reward per Bit used to Cheer | Typically 1 cent | Twitch, Bits page 2026 |
| Share of Power-up Bits paid to streamers | 100% | Twitch Blog 2024 |
| Twitch Plus Program sub split | 60/40 (Level 1), 70/30 (Level 2) | Twitch Blog 2025 |
| YouTube Supers creator share | 70% | YouTube Help 2026 |
| Kick subscription split | 95/5 | Kick Help Center 2026 |
| Twitch payout threshold / timing | 50 dollars / within 45 days of month-end | Twitch 2026 |
| Twitch Affiliates | Over 1 million | Twitch Blog 2025 |
| Affiliate requirement (from June 2026) | 4 hours, 4 days, 25 followers | Twitch Blog 2026 |
| Gifting revenue lift from streamer-led promotions | 30-45% average, up to 250% | Twitch Blog 2025 |
| Gift sub lift during discount promotions | Up to 80% | Twitch Blog 2026 |
| Community Trains vs typical Hype Trains | 2X earnings | Twitch Blog 2026 |
| Gift recipients’ odds of gifting later | 2.732x non-recipients | Kim et al., arXiv 2025 |
| Gift subs that are community (random) gifts | 87.17% | Kim et al., arXiv 2025 |
| Revenue Gini, top 10,000 Twitch streamers | 0.57 (about 0.93 platform-wide) | Scientific Reports 2023 |
| Live streaming hours watched, Q3 2025 | 29.45 billion | Streams Charts (third-party) |
| Kick average viewers, September 2026 | 1.09 million (record) | Streams Charts (third-party) |
| HUYA live streaming revenue, Q2 2026 | RMB1,101.5 million | HUYA Q2 2026 results |
| DouYu livestreaming revenue, Q2 2026 | RMB503.0 million, down 13.0% | DouYu Q2 2026 results |
| AGDQ 2026 raised / median donation | 2,478,270.78 dollars / 25 dollars | Games Done Quick tracker 2026 |
Methodology and Sources
Every figure above was read during research for this article on a platform’s own page, help center, legal agreement or blog, a company results release, a public donation ledger, or a peer-reviewed paper or preprint. Third-party trackers are labelled as estimates wherever they appear.
- Twitch: Bits page, Partner Program page, Bits Acceptable Use Policy, Monetized Streamer Agreement (modified August 21, 2026)
- Twitch Blog: Introducing Power-ups (June 2024), Dan Clancy open letter (February 2025), Supporting Streamers in Latin America (May 2025), TwitchCon Rotterdam 2025, TwitchCon San Diego 2025, Monetization for All (May 2026), New ways to turn participation into earnings (May 2026), TwitchCon Rotterdam 2026, Bonus Gift Subs (August 2026), SUBtember 2026, State of Gaming 2026
- YouTube Help: Super Chat and Super Stickers, YouTube Partner Program overview
- Kick Help Center: How to become a KICK Partner and how KICK streaming works
- Amazon: Form 10-K for fiscal 2025, SEC EDGAR
- HUYA: Second Quarter 2026 Unaudited Financial Results
- DouYu: Second Quarter 2026 Unaudited Financial Results
- Games Done Quick tracker: AGDQ 2026, SGDQ 2026, AGDQ 2025
- Third-party trackers (estimates, not official): Streams Charts Q3 2025 Global Livestreaming Landscape, Streams Charts Twitch September 2026, Streams Charts Kick September 2026, Streams Charts on Cameo splits, TwitchTracker statistics
- Research: Houssard et al., Scientific Reports 2023, Kim, Ha, Kim and Hemphill, arXiv 2025, Rieder et al., Social Media + Society 2023, exploring Twitch viewers’ donation intentions, Information 2025, Happiness Begets Money: Emotion and Engagement in Live Streaming, Journal of Marketing Research 2021 (DOI 10.1177/00222437211002477), Han, Economics 2026 (DOI 10.1515/econ-2025-0233), Wang, Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing 2024 (DOI 10.1002/nvsm.1849)
- Data watch: Twitch does not publish total Bits volume, Bits revenue or the viewer-side price per Bit in a form we could read, and Amazon does not break Twitch out in its SEC filings, so no market-size figure for Bits is given here; any such number elsewhere is an estimate. Twitch help-center articles (Salesforce-hosted) and Twitch developer documentation could not be loaded, so Bits rules were taken from the Bits page, Partner page, legal agreements and blog. The Bits page, Partner page, Twitch Blog posts, Twitch legal pages and the MDPI Information article were read through a text mirror (r.jina.ai) and are cited at their original URLs. Twitch’s Plus Program thresholds outside Latin America (100 and 300 Plus Points) are inferred from the Latin America post’s “down from” wording. Twitch’s promotion results (30-45%, 250%, 80%, 50%, 2X) are company test results without published samples. Streams Charts and TwitchTracker disagree on Twitch’s September 2026 hours watched (1.47 billion vs 1.51 billion) and on active channels (just over 2.9 million vs 6.1 million active streamers) because of different definitions. The Houssard et al. payout data (2019-2021) is the most recent available platform-wide earnings dataset. The Cameo splits are reported, not announced. The Kim et al. study is a preprint. A StreamElements State of the Stream report and Kick’s tipping (KICKs) split could not be retrieved and were not used.
Last updated: October 3, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when HUYA and DouYu publish Q3 2026 results in November 2026 and Twitch announces its next monetization changes at TwitchCon San Diego 2026.