To make that much per year on Twitch, assuming you aren't bringing in money from sources not included in this data, you'd have to be one of Twitch's top 1,322 streamers right now.
At 1,000th place, a streamer makes around $85,000 per year-what a junior software engineer might make in California, depending on where they're hired.Īccording to the US Census Bureau, the median US household income in 2020 was $67,521. When you get into the 400s, streamers are making less than $150,000 per year from direct Twitch revenue, somewhere in the range of an optometrist. At 200th, the yearly gross income is around $270,000. A longer copy of the unverified list seen by PC Gamer shows that the 100th most successful Twitch streamer makes approximately $400,000 per year from Twitch payouts. The revenue drops off pretty quickly as the list goes on. The data does at least confirm estimations of how much money a person can make directly from streaming on Twitch, and it's a lot-although only a tiny percentage of streamers are making 'quit your job' money. You'd need to be in the top 0.015% of all streamers to make the median US household income from direct Twitch streaming revenue. This leaked ranking of the top Twitch earners shouldn't be treated as definitive, then. They can also negotiate their own sponsorships, sell merch, use affiliate links, and so on.
Those are just some of the many ways streamers make money. From what we've heard and our knowledge of Twitch, the unconfirmed figures represent each streamer's cut of revenue earned from channel subscriptions, in-stream ads, Bits (one-cent tokens viewers can tip streamers with), and possibly Twitch's built-in "Bounty" system, which connects streamers with sponsorship opportunities. The numbers have not been disputed for the most part, but they don't necessarily reflect each streamer's actual total income.