Twitch is introducing another revenue-generating chat tool for streamers.
Its current creator monetization offerings include channel subscriptions (which start at $4.99 a month), donations/gifts (where viewers can give streamers straight-up cash), and cheering, which is done with an onsite currency called Bits.
Now, Twitch is adding “Hype Chat,” where viewers can pay to have their chat messages pinned for specific periods of time. And, unlike those aforementioned monetization methods, Hype Chat has a revenue split of 70/30. (We’ll get into that more below.)
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
Streamers can set up various pricing tiers of Hype Chat messages, and “the duration, character count, and visual design of the pin will depend on how much a viewer spends,” Twitch says. “[H]igher value Hype Chats will stay at the top of chat longer, have longer allowed character counts, and have more standout designs.”
Prices can range between $1 and $500, at streamers’ discretion. The highest minimum charge they can set is $100.
Messages will be scanned by AutoMod, and if it detects banned words/phrases or other potentially harmful material, it won’t let the Hype Chat purchase be completed. If something were to slip through, streamers and their mods have the ability to unpin messages they “deem harmful or unwelcomed,” Twitch says.
For now, Hype Chat is being restricted to Partner channels, because Twitch “think[s] Hype Chat will work best in channels that feature fast-moving chat.” It is, however, “working on a plan to roll [Hype Chat] out more broadly,” it says.
As for Hype Chat’s 70/30 revenue split, it’s a big deal, considering all the other monetization methods were dropped to revenue splits of 50/50 last fall. Twitch recently reintroduced a way for streamers to climb back to an overall 70/30 revenue split, but it requires maintaining 350 active, recurring paid channel subscriptions (gift + Amazon Prime subs not included) for three months straight.
It’s not clear if non-Partners will also have a 70/30 split when Hype Chat is rolled out to them, but since Affiliates were always on a lower revenue split than Partners, we doubt it.
