My name is Joao Caralinda and I’m a Twitch streamer. At first I was never big on the idea of streaming on Twitch. Playing a video game live in front of complete strangers? Not knowing what to say? I always felt a bit awkward about the idea. Besides that, I don’t have time to play video games to entertain others. I have a full-time job.
But ever since the COVID pandemic, things have been a bit slow at work. As a driving instructor I was only allowed to teach essential workers; and living in a small town in the middle of Lincolnshire there aren’t a lot of them to teach.
That’s when my childhood friend Lucas Santos told me he was getting into Twitch streaming. I decided to have a look at one of his streams to show my support and to just have a chat, and I found the whole experience quite fun. Lucas encouraged me to start streaming as well. He told me how much fun he was having playing video games. I’d be able to have conversations with friends and strangers, and also having the possibility of getting paid while doing it.
Now it is very important that I say this: do not go into Twitch streaming with the sole intention of getting paid. The road to getting paid while playing video games is a long and slow one, which is a good thing. You must enjoy playing games and chatting to people to make it as a streamer. This way it discourages the people who are just trying to make easy money. I love video games and I love chatting. Doing it on stream is the equivalent of having your friends over and just having fun conversations while you play.
There are three stages to Twitch streaming: being a streamer, an affiliate and a partner.
As a streamer, you will be able to stream, and people will be able to chat and follow you. You won’t receive any income from Twitch but viewers can send you donations if they like. All donations are yours to keep. This is the lowest level of streaming.
To reach the level of affiliate you must have 50 followers and you must stream for at least eight hours over seven days a month, with an average of three viewers per stream.
Once you reach affiliation, you will be able to start earning some revenue in the form of ads, bits and subscribers. Viewers can give you bits, which is the currency on Twitch. One bit is the equivalent of $0.01. You can have ads on your stream which – if you go by views – means more like $0.25-$1.50 per 1,000 views.
Lastly, viewers can subscribe to your channel, which will cost them $5.00 a month. But Twitch will take 50% of that, giving you $2.50 per monthly per subscription.
Now if you really want to be serious about being a professional streamer and make a living out of it, you will want to become a Twitch partner. To reach that level you must stream a minimum of 25 hours over 12 days in a month, with an average of 75 viewers per stream.
As a partner, you will earn your revenue the same ways as an Affiliate. The difference is that as a partner Twitch will recommend your stream to viewers on the website. More viewers means more revenue. There are also more opportunities to get sponsorship from gaming companies and to take part on gaming events.
One of the most famous streamers out there is Ninja, whose net worth is approximately $25 million.
I am currently working my way to becoming an affiliate. I love streaming just for the simple fact that I am hanging out with my friends and making new ones every time someone stumbles upon my stream. I feel like I’m creating a community where people can come to just blow off some steam, or have silly or deep conversations. For now I am streaming twice a week just for fun; but hopefully in the future I will be able to do the hobby that I love while earning money at the same time.
If you like video games or you just want to have a chat, come and join me on Twitch every Tuesday and Saturday from 9PM to 12PM. Username: JCaralinda
