Following an announcement earlier this year that Twitch would review the cost of subscriptions on a region by region basis, Twitch’s local team has confirmed that the cost of subscriptions in Australia and New Zealand will be dropping.
Australia and New Zealand are just two of the many countries where the cost for tier 1 subscriptions are being lowered. In Australia, the entry-level subscription will now cost $7.99 (down from $8.99), while New Zealanders will now pay $NZ7.99 (down from $NZ9.99).
It’s not the biggest drop following Twitch’s global review. The cost of tier 1 subs in Malaysia has dramatically decreased (from $MYR20.99 to $MYR7.99), and many countries like Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, the Philippines, Mongolia, Maldives, Indonesia, China, Cambodia and other places have had tier 1 sub costs halved or more.
Twitch’s argument behind the changes is that a lower entry cost will result in more subscriptions for creators, covering the drop in revenue from tier 1 subscriptions today. Mike Minton, Twitch’s vice president of monetisation, told Kotaku Australia that the changes followed feedback that it was too expensive for viewers to support their favourite streamers, and that Twitch would guarantee revenue for creators for 12 months after the new subscription pricing is in place.
“The response to our local sub pricing in Mexico and Turkey has blown us away,” Minton said. “Since launching in May, we’ve seen viewers gifting five times more subs, and more creators are earning sub revenue—we’re eager to replicate these results down under.”
The new pricing will go live in Australia “within the next week”, according to Twitch.
For creators impacted by the change, Twitch has promised to guarantee 100 percent of “all eligible creator’s recurring, Community Gifting, Single Gift, Multi-month and Prime sub revenue for three calendar months, including the month of the price change after they may be impacted by the price changes”. (In this case, the month of the price change will be July.)
After three months, Twitch will pay out 75 percent, then 50 percent, and finally 25 percent of sub revenue. Here’s the full breakdown:
- Months 1-3 = 100% of baseline
- Months 4-6 = 75% of baseline
- Months 7-9 = 50% of baseline
- Months 10-12 = 25% of baseline
As long as 20 percent of a streamer’s subscription revenue is impacted, they will be eligible for the payments. However, affected Twitch creators must do the following to receive payments:
- Creator must stream 85% of their baseline hours to remain eligible
- Creator must live stream a minimum of 5 hours; creators will be asked to stream no more than 200 hours per month if they normally stream this much
- Hours broadcast must be live (reruns do not count)
“Creators will not receive revenue adjustment payments in any month that they outperform their baseline earnings,” Twitch adds. Creators will be able to check their Channel Analytics dashboard to see whether their channel qualifies.
“We’re confident that the local pricing changes will boost our creator’s growth and revenue long-term,” Minton told Kotaku Australia in a statement.
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