The leak about Twitch has caused a stir and the earnings of the top streamers seem impressive to many outsiders. However, most streamers on Twitch do not come close to these numbers, warns Austrian streamer Pia “Shurjoka” Stolz.
What is the problem? With the big Twitch leak, which has now also been confirmed by Amazon, the earnings of many streamers were published on October 6:
- Only in September, streamers like xQc or Hasanabi were said to have earned six figures.
- Looking at the last two years, you find earnings in the millions, even among German streamers like MontanaBlack or Knossi.
These numbers lead to the belief that one can earn a lot of money with Twitch. But that only applies to the top 10% of streamers. Those who are not among the most-watched channels get very little of the big money pie.
Shurjoka also warns against this. With over 200,000 followers and an average of 2,150 viewers, she belongs to the top 2,000 on Twitch and shows various games like Anno, Dead by Daylight, or Humankind.
“Not even 10% of streamers get about 90% of the earnings”
What does the streamer say? Shurjoka finds it important in her tweets to provide more context to the leak’s figures. Because the earnings of the top 500 streamers seem impressive and encourage imitation.
But she warns against being dazzled by the numbers:
- On the one hand, many streamers on Twitch also have teams behind them, whose salaries also need to be paid and which are part of the streamer.
- On the other hand, only the upper percentages receive a large part of the money.
She says: “Not even 10% of streamers get about 90% of the earnings from the platform. And within that 10%, 10% earn as much as the remaining 90%.”
She compares streaming on Twitch to football and acting. There too, only the very big earn a lot of money, while the majority ends up empty-handed.
What do many overlook? On Twitch, there is a huge number of streamers who hardly get seen. The big success is thus reserved for only a few.
According to the analysis site Sullygnome, there were 3,451,871 different streamers online in the last 30 days:
- Only 24,010 users managed to have an average of 100 or more viewers.
- Those who have an average of more than 20 viewers are already among the top 5% of the platform. But at this level, monetizing Twitch is difficult. With a bit of luck, there are $100 transferred every few months.
- More than 1.5 million people have streamed to one or even no viewers.
For success on Twitch, it doesn’t necessarily matter how actively you stream. During our research, we came across several streamers who have streamed around 300 hours (almost 10 hours a day over 30 days) and still had less than 2 viewers.
On the other hand, there are top 100 streamers who stream less than 50 hours a month and still have many viewers. Thus, much more is needed for success on Twitch than “just being online and gaming.”
So, anyone considering quitting their job to become a Twitch streamer should think it through carefully. Shurjoka emphasizes this in her tweets.
What does Shurjoka think about the leak? In a livestream, the streamer talks about being very transparent about her financial situation. However, she expects many comments and discussions to revolve around the earnings.
She doesn’t blame the platform, as the data wasn’t posted online intentionally.
The big Twitch leak has not only published information but has also highlighted that the top earners on Twitch are primarily men. The first woman comes at position 48. More about this here:
