Twitch just killed the Affiliate gatekeeper. Every streamer can monetize now.

Twitch just blew up the wall that kept new streamers from earning a single dollar for the better part of a decade. On May 13, the platform flipped on subs, Bits, emotes, badges, and Channel Points for every eligible streamer worldwide, no follower count required, no Affiliate gate. Then in early June it cut the Affiliate bar itself roughly in half. Day-one monetization is now the default on the biggest livestreaming platform in the world.

What actually happened?

The shift landed in a post titled "Monetization for All" on the Twitch Blog. Subs, Bits, emotes, badges, and Channel Points, the suite that had been locked behind Affiliate status for nearly a decade, rolled out to every eligible streamer globally over the course of the following week. Streamers opt in directly from the Creator Dashboard.

Less than a month later, Twitch lowered the Affiliate criteria too. The new bar is 4 hours streamed across 4 different days, 3 concurrent viewers on those days, and 25 followers, per Dexerto. That is half the old requirement on every dimension, and Twitch threw out the average-CCV requirement entirely, conceding it penalized streamers who chose to stream more.

This is the biggest structural change to Twitch's monetization architecture since the Affiliate Program launched in 2017. For nine years, the deal was the same. Stream into the void until enough strangers showed up, then collect support. The new deal is community-funded from minute one.

Why does this matter for creators?

Twitch has roughly 7 million monthly streamers, and only about 920,000 of them earn any income, per Affinco's 2026 data. The 50-follower, 8-hour, 7-day average-CCV gate was the bottleneck. Removing it means the other 6 million can flip on subs and Bits today, build a tip jar, and grow a community without performing for a status milestone first.

The signal was visible months in advance. Across all of 2025, only ~7,500 streamers hit Partner status, an average of 625 per month, according to livestreaming analyst Zach Bussey. In January 2026 that number nearly doubled to roughly 1,225 new Partners in a single month. Twitch was widening the funnel before it made the policy explicit.

The competitive context matters too. Kick has spent nearly three years recruiting Twitch's middle class with a 95/5 split and instant monetization. The old 50-follower / 8-hour gate had become indefensible. Lowering the bar to 25 followers and 4 hours is, in effect, Twitch conceding the ground.

"At Twitch, we know that streaming takes a lot of time, creativity and effort, and we want creators to have access from the start to tools that help them develop their community. Twitch's monetization ecosystem is fundamentally built on community participation."

Mike Minton, Chief Product Officer, Twitch

Where does this go from here?

Here is the catch buried in the fine print. Access does not equal a payout. Pre-Affiliate streamers can collect subs and Bits from day one, but they cannot withdraw a cent until they reach Affiliate status and clear the $50 minimum payout threshold, per StreamScheme. To soften the wait, Twitch launched "Spendable Balance" in the US, a feature that lets non-Affiliates spend their earned balance on Bits and gift subs inside the platform, but not cash it out.

The bigger structural number Twitch did not touch is the split itself. The standard Affiliate sub is still 50/50, with 70/30 reserved for Plus Program Partners who sustain 100 concurrent viewers for three months. Meanwhile, Kick is running a 95/5 split that returns roughly $4.74 of every $4.99 Tier 1 sub straight to the creator, per EarnifyHub. "Monetization for all" got every streamer to the starting line, but the prize money on that line has not moved in years.

What does Fanvault think?

This is Twitch finally admitting that "who deserves to be paid" was the wrong question, and that question had been costing it the next generation of streamers for years. The harder question is what fraction of every fan dollar actually reaches the creator, and Twitch's answer is still 50 cents at best. Fanvault was built on the other answer. The platform takes 8% across subs, paid DMs, tips, wishlists, and storefront auctions, and pays the creator 92%, with no follower gate, no Plus Program tier, and no waiting period to receive a payout.

Twitch finally opened the door. The room behind it still costs half your money to stand in.