The Twitch streamer bbjess has reportedly been waiting for her payment for several weeks. The expected amount is in the tens of thousands, she claims. She is not satisfied with Twitch’s response.
This is the situation:
- bbjess is a popular streamer in the Just Chatting category on Twitch with over 43,000 followers.
- Between October and November 2021, she had 10,383 subscribers (via TwitchTracker.com). A new record for the streamer.
- Now she says: The money from her record never reached her. Twitch owes her a lot of money.
Who is the streamer? bbjess has been actively streaming on Twitch since mid-2020. Initially, she showed various games, but she also ventured into categories like music or unlisted categories.
By now, she primarily focuses on Just Chatting and interacts with her viewers. She is especially known and loved for her humor and open personality.
In October 2021, bbjess experienced a surge in popularity and drastically multiplied her average viewership as well as her followers. Also, her subscriptions reportedly increased significantly during this time (via TwitchTracker.com).
In November 2021, she spoke out on Twitter. There she says: Twitch owes her “tens of thousands of dollars”, although there is no reason for the payment to be delayed. She is missing the internet to ask for help and the voices of people:
“Twitch owes me tens of thousands of dollars”
This is what the streamer says: In one of her current streams, bbjess states that Twitch owes her 26,000 dollars. She says: “Twitch has not paid me. I have contacted them. I am on vacation, just paid taxes, I am running out of money, but I thought it’s okay. A big check is coming. But it just isn’t coming” (via Twitch.tv).
Twitch streamers receive a share of the subscription fees that accumulate monthly for the subscribers. A regular subscription costs 4.99 US dollars in the USA – recently only 3.99 euros in Germany. Depending on the contract, streamers receive about 50% of the revenue from the subscriptions.
With around 10,400 subscribers at the peak, this amounts to 26,000 dollars, which she has mentioned herself in the stream – or converted to 23,111 euros.
Why isn’t the money coming? According to the contract with bbjess, Twitch supposedly has a period of 45 days after the end of the month to transfer the money (via Dexerto.com). Also, according to some users on Twitter, it is not uncommon for salary payments to arrive later.
In bbjess’s case, however, she has already received a response from Twitch. They stated that there was an irregularity with her account, which is why payments have been blocked for security reasons.
The support does not specify what exact irregularity it is.
It may be related to a 19-hour ban that bbjess received in October for her “bbjessBoobees” emote (via Twitter.com). However, before any further payments can occur, bbjess must first contact support.
Twitch is not worth it for everyone
What about other streamers? According to bbjess, other streamers are also affected. However, she does not elaborate on who exactly is affected.
A leak has already revealed that only 0.06% of streamers can live “well” off Twitch. It remains uncertain how many streamers are hit hard by missing payments.
Meanwhile, the competition is also not inactive. Facebook and YouTube apparently make some well-off offers to many well-known streamers if they turn their backs on Twitch:
Streamer explains how much money YouTube and Facebook offer to poach people from Twitch
