Twitch are lowering the cost of channel subscriptions across Europe. This is in a huge effort to continue expansion outside of North America more aggressively. Details below.
A vast majority of Twitch streams are in English. The most popular streamers are overwhelmingly North American. And, indeed, the US makes up 22% of all the site's traffic, the runner-up (Germany making up only 6%). As they said in a recent blog post:
This isn’t just anecdotal; it’s reflected clearly in the numbers. The percentage of active users in Europe or Asia who support creators with a subscription is roughly 50% lower relative to North America. In Latin America, it’s nearly 80% lower.
So while Twitch has done well globally, there's still huge room for expansion outside of North America. In an effort to capture that market they've been lowering prices for channel subscriptions across South America, Africa, and Asia, and now Europe.
How Much Will A Twitch Subscription Cost In Europe Now
The price went down from £4.99 to £3.99 in the UK, and from €4.99 to €3.99 across every European country that uses the Euro. For countries with currencies other than the Euro, you can consultTwitch's page. But effectively, no matter what you paid, expect to pay 20% less.
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How Will This Affect Streamers
Twitch are hoping that in the long term it will help them, but they're setting up a program to support creators who will see an initial hit from the 20% lower subscription revenue. In their own words:
We’re confident lower sub prices will boost creator growth and revenue in the long-term, but we knew we also had to minimize potential dips in creator revenue during this early adjustment period. To help creators adapt to the new pricing model with no impact to their short-term subscription revenue, we’re launching a 12-month program that guarantees a certain level of revenue for eligible creators.
Here's how that program will work:
- Twitch will cover 100% of baseline channel and Prime sub revenue (if needed) for three calendar months, including the month of the price change. After that, they will slowly decrease incentive payments by 25% every three months over the following 9 months, totaling a 12-month period of providing revenue adjustment incentives.
- It all starts with “baselines.” Basically, they’ll take a look at how much money a creator has made from paid and prime subs in the last three months, as well as how many hours were streamed live, and calculate averages. These averaged baseline stats will be visible in the Creator Dashboard for eligible creators in countries where the price has changed.
- As long as that creator streams at least 85% of their live baseline hours in a month and meets certain other eligibility criteria, they’ll pay that creator a “revenue adjustment incentive” to make up for any lost revenue from subs.
- When creators out-perform their average – i.e. get more subs revenue – they will receive that increased amount, not the incentive payment, but may be eligible for future months should they need it. Once local sub pricing begins rolling out, eligible creators will be able to use their Creator Dashboard to view their monthly baseline amounts, actual subscription revenue, and upcoming streaming requirements.
That's a classy touch. They haven't been getting good PR for a long time, and this could have been handled worse. Let's see if it actually does boost viewership around the globe. It may at least help resolve the current monopoly problem within Twitch's ecosystem.
In Twitch's present state, only a small conglomerate of superstars are garnering a huge majority of the viewership, preventing as many smaller channels from 'breaking through'. Perhaps this price reduction can address that.
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