Twitch recently announced the return of SUBtember, its monthly concept that is basically a formula for viewers to receive awesome deals and incentives for subscribing to their favorite content creators once every September. And now, Zach Bussey, the renowned content creation news journalist, has revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that the purple platform is updating how it counts the 350 subscribers required to access the Partner Plus 70/30 allocation.
Apparently, it is retroactively being counted to include July and August whereas previously, every sub, regardless of tier, was counted as 1. This effectively means that Partners need 59 Tier 3 subs to unlock the 70/30 for an entire year while it has become much easier to 'upsell' existing subscribers than onboarding new subscribers.
Twitch has defined Partner Plus Abuse Criteria.
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) August 28, 2023
You may not:
➡️ Pay others to subscribe to you.
➡️ Create multiple accounts to subscribe.
➡️ Cheat, hack, bot, or tamper to give yourself an advantage.
In addition to the existing Community Guidelines.#TwitchNews #TOSgg pic.twitter.com/lpjuQARtRY
All this means that six-month Tier 3 subs offered during SUBtember, already around 100% on six-month Tier 3 subs ($105 spent), have become even more crucial as they get influencers significantly closer to the 350 mark.
Lastly, Twitch Partners will now be allowed to see the number of Partner Plus Points achieved daily on the Revenue analytics page under the 'Subscription' tab. More details on SUBtember can be found on the official page on Twitch while those looking for more info on the Partner Plus Program can head here.
Twitch is updating how they count towards the 350 Subs needed to get the Partner Plus 70/30.
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) August 28, 2023
It is being retroactively counted to include July and August.
Previously, ALL subs, regardless of tier, counted as 1. #TwitchNews #TOSgg pic.twitter.com/5lQXoH2ewE
Zach Busse, the founder of TOS.gg — a website covering all things streaming on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok — also revealed in another tweet that Twitch had defined Partner Plus Abuse Criteria. As per the site, in addition to the existing Community Guidelines, content creators falling under its purview cannot:
- Pay any other person or entity to subscribe to your channel
- Create, or have others create, multiple accounts subscribing to your channel for the purpose of qualifying for this program
- Engage in any cheating, hacking, botting, or tampering that gives you an advantage in qualifying for this program
The Amazon-owned platform clarified that:
"Any attempt to qualify for the program by using other accounts, identities, or by utilizing another user’s account may result in temporary or permanent disqualification from the Partner Plus program. Moreover, continued or widespread abuse may result in removal from the Partner program."
Before finishing off, it is worth pointing out that the share ratio of subs money has been a long point of controversy between Twitch and its content creators and users. Until recently, only designated streamers were allowed the 70/30 split, with most others falling under the 50/50 bracket.
It was in September 2022 that the world's biggest video streaming site platform announced a 50/50 revenue split for its top streamers. It marked a controversial reduction from the previous 70/30 split, and the company stood by this decision despite massive outrage from its influencers and users. What caused more furor was that a few handpicked premium streamers were allowed to retain the 70/30 revenue share option for the first $100,000 they “earned through subscription revenue.”
This was what was also followed when the new Partner Plus Program was announced this June. Any creator who meets the qualifications for the 70/30 split can utilize it instead of being chosen within a select bracket that enjoys premium partnership deals. Once again, there was a significant backlash, including from its partnered broadcasters, who called out this 'capitalist move' and just wanted every streamer under the Twitch umbrella to be brought under the same revenue split.
Things became especially heated when Streams Charts broke down the stats and revealed that only 2.5% of active partners will get access to the Partner Plus Program. Moreover, a meager 1066 streamers fit this feature's requirements based on stats from March to May. If that wasn't enough, the discontent around the firm went up a notch when it announced some massive changes to its branded content guidelines, which didn't sit well with its prominent influencers.
These online celebrities criticized and threatened to boycott the site, vowing to look for pastures anew. Twitch was quick to retract these changes, vowing to look at them closely, and there has not been much news since.