Time to make it rain! Or at least… drizzle. Maybe a light mist. Could even be some increased humidity… Either way Twitch is sending money to members of their Affiliate program through game sales.
Affiliate as Advertisers
After introducing their Twitch Affiliate Program to help streamers who weren’t quite qualified for their Partner Program, Twitch is expanding their streamer support. If a game is available through the Twitch store and is being streamed and viewers like it, they can buy it right then and there. So now an Affiliate and Partner streamer becomes further ingrained in the marketing. Now streamers aren’t just showcasing the game, they’re selling them. Game developers are realizing the power of streamers and while YouTube is shunning it, Twitch all in. Since Amazon bought Twitch, they’ve expanded the revenue sources, and using Twitch as an online retailer coincides perfectly.
Affiliates and Partners, will have the titles and in-game content on their Channel pages. Each purchase will earn them a five percent cut. Twitch used to get thirty percent of sales through the program with seventy percent going to developers. The five percent cut for streamers comes from Twitch’s portion. If viewers want to think it over, the games are available on their detail page at any time. The games are downloaded via Twitch’s desktop app.
Twitch’s Money Machine
Since announcing they’d sell games in Februrary, their library has continued to expand. When using the official Twitch app, players can find AAA titles and great indie games. Although they have been tight lipped on official sales numbers, it seems like Twitch is doing everything right. Whether it’s TwitchCon expecting more than 40,000 attendants, owning the E-sport stream market, or climbing the Alexa rankings they can do no wrong. Everybody wins with this move by Twitch. Partner and Affiliate streamers are being given more avenues to make money and legitimize their business. Twitch has more inroads with developers and continues to corner the evolution of the gaming business. And developers can showcase their games to a broad audience and try to capture their excitement for their titles.
We here at Slickster Magazine love the hard work and dedication streamers put into their craft. So much so we try to give some of these up and coming streamers their due. And in a world increasingly filled with clickbait, false advertisements, and money grubbing developers this is good for consumers. At its core it’s just a new way to advertise games. But this is an unobtrusive way to advertise games that make sense. People who watch Twitch streams often want to try out the games for themselves. Twitch is helping to shape the future of gaming for players, streamers, and now developers. Do you think this is their next step in world domination?