Twitch Is Making Big Changes To Its Monetization Policies In 2025

Streaming platform Twitch has announced a big change to its monetization policy, as "most streamers" will soon gain access to the site's monetization tools. Previously, only Twitch affiliates and partners could access these revenue-generating tool, but these will be available to more creators later in 2025.

"We want you to be able to take advantage of our monetization tools, whether you're just getting your community started, or have been on Twitch for a while," Twitch CEO Dan Clancy wrote in a blog post. "We're excited to open up monetization tools--subscriptions and bits--to most streamers, from day one. This will allow creators, regardless of their status, to grow their communities and start building earnings through direct patronage. We're also introducing an option, which will allow all streamers to use their earnings on purchases within Twitch."

Previously, earning a Twitch partnership required a user to have 50 followers, an average of three viewers per stream, and at least eight hours of cumulative streaming across at least seven different days. That process could be daunting for new streamers given the competitive nature of Twitch, but it was generally achievable if a person was consistent with their efforts.

Beyond this big change, Clancy also explained other plans for Twitch in 2025. The company is working on features to help partners earn more money while collaborating, both landscape and vertical video through enhanced broadcasting tools will be added to improve the mobile viewing experience, and the tools to edit clips will also be improved. These updates come shortly after Twitch announced that it'll be implementing a 100-hour storage cap on highlights and uploads starting April 19, a move that has not gone over well with a large part of its userbase.

While the company cites a need to save on storage costs and video highlights not being as popular as it envisioned as reasons behind the move, users have noted that Twitch's parent company Amazon is one of the biggest names in cloud storage, leading to criticism of the cost-cutting measure.