Twitch affiliate streamers get a cut of game purchase referrals now

Twitch added an affiliate program a few months ago, giving streamers a chance to make money by monetizing their streams. The company is now expanding that by giving affiliate streamers a 5 percent cut of any revenue made from purchases of games or in-game items through Twitch’s store.

The revenue share has been available to “Partner” streamers — who are selected by Twitch — since the store opened in February, but today’s move opens that up to any streamer who qualifies to be an affiliate. Any user who, in the last 30 days, has had at least 500 total minutes of broadcasts, seven unique broadcast days, and an average of three concurrent viewers or more, along with at least 50 followers, can apply to join the affiliate program. 

Affiliate steamers will be able to start making money off of game purchases today. All an affiliate user has to do is stream a game that’s offered on the store, and a purchase link will automatically show up on the page for viewers watching the stream. The revenue share for purchases joins the previous “Cheering with Bits” as an option for affiliates to monetize their streams. But there’s still a long way to go for Twitch to build out the platform for users who hope to make a living streaming, including offering money from channel subscriptions and ad revenue splits (both of which are offered to Partners), which Twitch plans to open up to affiliates sometime in the future. 

The article was published on : theverge