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Twitch is raising subscription prices again. Streamers are not happy.

Twitching has never been profitable, and now it is passing that problem on to viewers by raising subscription prices again. US users just saw the price increase for Tier 1 mobile subscriptions from $4.99 to $5.99 in Julyand now it increases by another $2, making a Tier 1 subscription for every streamer a whopping $7.99 per month.

That's $100 per year for a basic channel subscription, which gives the subscriber access to things like exclusive emotes and ad-free TV. $100 per year per creator.

There is one thing to consider: While the previous $1 change affected the entire site, both on desktop and mobile, this $2 surcharge applies only to mobile and is a response to Apple And Google30% discount when paying via iPhone And AndroidsPlatforms and app developers have been fighting this cut for years, but that's not going to change anytime soon, so mitigation is the only way to survive. And Twitch's mitigation method is to raise subscription prices.

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If you do the math, for a $7.99 subscription purchased on a mobile device, about $5.59 now goes to Twitch, which then splits the money either 50/50 or 70/30 with streamers. (Read more about this controversial practice here.) With a 50/50 split, the streamer earns $2.80. With a 70/30 split, they earn $3.90. Before July, they would have received $1.74 and $2.40, respectively.

To be clear, we obviously believe that creators should make good money from their content, but such a significant increase in subscription prices in such a short period of time is likely to cause price shock among both existing and potential subscribers, leading to an overall decline in subscriptions among streamers – at least temporarily.

Twitch doesn't publish data on how many subscriptions come from mobile and how many from desktop, nor do we know how many people would be willing to bypass the premium on mobile by switching to desktop and purchasing there, rather than buying nothing at all.

Be that as it may, streamers are also concerned:

The US is just one of 40 regions where this price increase will apply starting October 1.

As you can see from the embedded tweets, streamers are concerned about whether their viewers can afford these increased prices, so they encourage them to donate instead. Twitch still gets a cut of the donations they receive using their onsite currency, Bits, but Twitch takes that cut away from viewers by charging $1.40 to buy 100 Bits, even though 100 Bits are actually worth $1 to streamers. So streamers always get $1 for 100 Bits donated, and donors pay a $0.40 markup into Twitch's pocket. This markup decreases the more Bits a viewer buys.

Many streamers argue that this will affect smaller creators more. We suspect that streamers of all sizes could see a drop in subscriber numbers, but any drop will have a lesser impact on the revenue of Twitch's most subscribed streamers Kai Cenat, JynxziAnd HasanAbiwho, according to Twitch Tracker, have 122,000, 103,000 and 71,000 subscribers.

It should also be noted that this change was made shortly before SUBtemberTwitch's annual platform-wide subathon. During this time, Twitch actually takes a hit for streamers: subscriptions are sold at 25-30% off, but streamers are still paid full price.

It is possible that this decision is being made to phase in the price change gradually, as people will pay a reduced price throughout September and then face a price increase in October.

Whatever the outcome of this change, it seems to be a clear indication that Twitch is in trouble. Thanks to a Wall Street Journal According to reports from earlier this month, we know that employees are concerned that the owner Amazon will turn Twitch into a “zombie brand” that languishes without support. Perhaps the company is hoping this price change will save it.

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