How to Become a Twitch Affiliate in 2022

Generating income through gaming video streaming on Twitch is becoming an appealing concept for gamers around the world.

Twitch allows gamers to monetize their streaming experience by gaining subscribers through its Twitch Affiliate and Twitch Partner programs.

Now the questions are, how to become a Twitch Affiliate/ Twitch Partner? How do these programs work?

Let’s broaden our knowledge by understanding the difference between Twitch Partner and Twitch Affiliate in the following sections.

How to Become a Twitch Affiliate in 2022?

A gamer will receive an invitation to join the Affiliate program once he/she reaches specific milestones. They can simply accept the invitation to join the Affiliate program and earn while they play. 

Reach the following milestones to get an invitation to the Twitch affiliation Program: 

• Minimum 50 followers.
• At least five hundred minutes of broadcast time in the previous 30 days. 
• A minimum of 7 unique broadcast days in the previous 30 days.
• An average of three concurrent views is required before 30 days of the invitation. 

How Much Do Twitch Affiliates Make?

Top Twitch streamers might not make as much money as their YouTube counterparts, but there are still some who make a few million dollars per year. You might wonder, how much does the average Twitch Affiliate make? 

Twitch’s annual revenue for 2019 was $1.54 billion. Successful streamers, on average, make $3000 to $5000 through their subscriptions only.

Twitch takes 50% of the subscription fee and the rest goes to streamers. Therefore, increasing subscribers through marketing and engaging content is a proven way to make money through Twitch.

Twitch streamers also earn money by running ads during their streaming. However, most streamers avoid this during live content streaming.

Novice Twitch streamers make a few hundred dollars per month, but gamers who have just started won’t be able to make money. New streamers must wait till they get their Twitch Affiliation invitation to earn from streaming. 

There are several other ways for Twitch Affiliates to make money out of their channels.

Streamers can collaborate with brands through sponsorships to gain additional capital. Other ways include distribution and sale of customized merchandise based on their streaming channel.

This also helps in increasing the visibility of their channels.

Some famous streamers also generate money through Patronship/donations from their subscribers. Medium-scale Twitch Affiliates get money through Affiliate links/referral programs or Twitch Affiliate ads.

Competing in gaming tournaments to make money through winnings is also a great way to gain monetary profits and increase visibility via tournament marketing.

Is it Hard to get Twitch Affiliate?

The Google search statistics show queries like “How to become a Twitch Affiliate?” are increasing day by day because of the increase in popularity of the Twitch Affiliate program.

But another query that follows is “how hard is it to get Twitch Affiliate invitation”?

The answer to this question is subjective. Some individuals receive Twitch Affiliate invitations within weeks of joining the platform and start making money within a few months.

Then, there are Streamers who, even after spending months, won’t fulfill the conditions to join the Twitch Affiliate program. 

It all depends on the quality of content and how much engagement a Gamer can bring to his channel.

Marketing of the channel also becomes important to shorten the time of getting Twitch affiliation. To summarize, streamers who create entertaining and interactive content for viewers get to become Twitch Affiliate easily. 

How Long does it take to become a Twitch Affiliate?

It takes an average streamer about 2 to 4 months to meet all the conditions to become a Twitch program Affiliate and start making money on Twitch.

However, it all depends on the brand value and entertainment quotient of the channel. Highly interactive and engaging content gets Twitch affiliation within 2 to 3 weeks.

Some other channels could take even months to get the same engagement and thus their Affiliation status. 

Gamers looking to monetize their channels quickly often end up taking the easier way around, foregoing the basic Twitch Affiliate requirements.

Following the trend, some gamers implement the cliché solutions shown on some YouTube videos or blogs to increase channel visibility. But these suggestions or quick fixes rarely work.

In the end, it all boils down to the quality of content streamed. Instead of working with quick fixes, gamers should look for ways to make their channels user-friendly and brand them according to the niche and target audience to get increased engagement. 

Twitch Partner vs Affiliate: Which is better?

A debate among gamers is which platform is better to make money from Twitch? Is it Twitch Affiliate or Twitch Partner?

Before we get into this debate, let’s first understand the Twitch Partner program. 

What is Twitch Partner?

The Twitch Partner program is like the Twitch Affiliate program, with the difference being added benefits but higher stakes to receive an invitation.

Some benefits of the partner program are direct support from Twitch, ad revenues, and custom emotes. Partners will benefit from revenue share.

Top-tier Twitch Partners get up to 70% of the subscription revenue. This is substantially higher than what Twitch Affiliates make. It also allows the donation of Bits, whose conversion rate is $0.01 for 1 Bit, and there are ways to earn Twitch Bits for free.

However, the biggest advantage of this program is ad revenue. The Partner gets paid according to the way the advertiser wants to show his ad to the viewers on the platform.

Partners get channel customizations like custom chat badges, custom emoticons, and custom emoticon prefixes. A verified user badge for the Twitch Partner also increases their credibility to new viewers. 

Other Benefits of the Twitch Partner Program

• Free lifetime channel subscription of the chatbot to increase functionality.
• The video-on-demand storage time for Twitch Partner is 60 days. This allows the Partner to store videos and small clips for a longer time. It works best for streamers who want to go back to their content to analyze it for enhancing the quality of future streams. 
• Reruns and premiers of old and new videos for subscribers are also part of this program. 
• Up to 3 free lifetime channel subscriptions for subscribers of Partner’s choice.  
• A Twitch Partner gets full access to the transcoding of streams to ensure the highest video quality. 
• To avoid stream snipers, Partner can delay their stream up to 15 minutes. 
• A Twitch Partner gets dedicated support teams to get their queries resolved within 1-2 business days. 

How does the Partner Program work?

The Twitch Partner program is hard to get and is mainly for Gamers who already have a healthy viewership on their channels.

A streamer first becomes a Twitch Affiliate and can only be offered a Twitch Partner invitation if their channel shows significant growth.

The following conditions are to be met by a channel to get the Twitch Partner invitation. 

• Stream content for 12 unique days from the previous 30 days,
• Stream time of 25 hours in the last 30 days.
• Must have an average of 75 viewers in the last 30 days, 

Twitch Partner vs Affiliate

The Twitch Affiliate program is great for beginners or new streamers who have just started their channels. It has relatively fewer benefits for the gamer, but it allows them to make money while having fun.

The Twitch Partner program is bigger, better, but hard to get. It requires a gamer to keep viewers engaged for longer periods. It might take months or more than a year for an average streamer to reach this level.

However, the benefits associated with the Twitch Partner program are far greater compared to the Twitch Affiliate program. A Twitch Partner program puts a gamer into the list of high-end and elite game streamers. 

How to get Twitch Affiliate Fast?

Follow these steps suggested by elite gamers to reach affiliation milestones quickly:

• Brand your channel to increase its visibility.
• Advance content planning for every stream.
• Select your genre by analyzing viewers’ statistics. 
• Set up the schedule of the stream such that you get ample time to plan your game streaming. 
• Review each stream to find your peaks and take notes of audience engagement. 
• Produce interactive content and enjoy your gameplay while streaming.
• Be enthusiastic and positive as the audience wants to be entertained. 
• Watch reruns of the stream videos and try noticing viewers’ reactions to different bits. Incorporate similar bits in your next stream to get positive reactions from viewers. 
• Use social media to brand your Twitch channel. You can post direct links and creative marketing pieces for your next streaming in your social media account.
• You can also ask your friends to share the streaming links to as many people for the marketing of the channel.

More Twitch Guides that might help you on your twitch journey

• How to Record Discord Audio & Add it to Your Twitch Stream
• How to Change Your Twitch Name | Best Ways to do it
• Top 3 Twitch Banner Makers & How to Use Them
• Twitch Keeps Buffering | 9 Quick Ways to Fix It
• AdBlock Not Working on Twitch – 12 Easy & Quick Fixes
• How to Stream on Twitch and YouTube at the Same Time?
• How To Squad Stream on Twitch?
• How to Connect and Upload Twitch Streams to YouTube?
• The 25 Best Free Twitch Overlays
• 5 Seamless Ways To See Your Twitch Chat Logs

Conclusion

Getting an invitation to the Twitch Affiliate program is the first step for a gamer on the way to becoming a Twitch Affiliate.

If you just want to be creative and do it for fun, then getting the Twitch Affiliation program might be enough for you.

It will give you monetary support and engagement to enjoy your game and have some side income as well.

But if you are passionate about gaming and like to entertain the audience with your gaming and presentation skills, you must go all out in creating entertaining content for your channel along with relevant powerful marketing.

If you are talented enough, you will get to be part of the Twitch Partner program, which has immense monetary benefits for the gamer.