YouTube Gaming now lets users sponsor creators. It was already possible to make money by streaming on this platform, but this new option works kind of like Patreon in that users who subscribe to a particular channel on YouTube Gaming can set up a monthly recurring payment that will automatically deduct from their account each month. There are differences between YouTube Gaming and Patreon though. For one, Patreon has multi-tiered pricing options for subscribers so they can choose how much they want to spend each month to sponsor the creator.
With YouTube Gaming the monthly recurring sponsor amount is just $4.99, though pricing will vary based on the location of the subscribers as it will be in their local currency. Patreon also lets creators set up and choose rewards for each tier, which can be anything they dream up, whereas YouTube Gaming rewards for sponsors include just a few different things like the ability to engage in sponsors-only live chat, as well as a digital badge denoting that users are a sponsor which shows alongside their name in the regular live chat. Badges, along with emoji that can be used in live chat are also designed by the creators. There will be possibilities for other rewards as well if a creator wants to set them up through available third-party services, though there wasn’t much detail about what all of those services are.
This is going to be a great new way for creators to earn additional money on their channels, but Sponsorship won’t be open to just anyone. There are some restrictions, such as needing to have at least 1,000 subscribers on your channel before Sponsorship can be set up, and your channel has to be monetized, which means it has to have at least 10,000 views across all your videos collectively. Other requirements include having your channel enabled for live streaming and you have to be at least 18 years of age, and the channel can’t just be a regular YouTube channel as it needs to be a “gaming” channel as noted by YouTube in its blog post. There are also certain locations which aren’t available for sponsorship, though it seems like the list of available countries which are supported by this new money-making feature is pretty long. The new sponsorship feature should already be live for eligible creators with a gaming channel who are looking for a way to earn some extra money while pumping out content that fans love.