Twitch is the latest subscription offering to join a host of others in a price hike, joining the ranks of Spotify, Max, Peacock, Crunchyroll, EA, and others. Almost as significant is the seemingly parallel trend of Big Tech layoffs. Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, made its first increase for American subscribers on July 11, raising the Tier 1 subscription from $4.99 to $5.99.
The company made various statements in a support article, saying the subscription prices were adjusted for certain countries under Local Subscription Pricing. In a separate response, the company said that in the normal course of the revenue-sharing program, streamers would still receive 50 to 70 percent. Thus, they may make more money per subscription, which one could argue makes the price increase good for creators.
That said, the degree of additional earnings for streamers depends heavily on maintaining or growing Twitch’s number of subscribers. If people don’t like the price increase, they’ll lose paying subscribers, which could well erase the expected gains. Twitch has had long-anticipated US subscription pricing going into effect that was signaled months ago, in the wake of Canada, Australia, Turkey, and the UK prices being updated at the start of the year.
Layoffs Twitch faced major headwinds in 2024 well before the year’s midpoint. In January, it laid off an estimated 500 employees to cut costs and rightsize a more viable business model. CEO Dan Clancy admitted the company had never been profitable before. Twitch also cut in half the amount creators received for each Prime subscription. And Twitch disbanded its Safety Advisory Council, replacing its members with “Twitch Ambassadors,” who sound more like community volunteers.