Twitch has come up with a way to save viewers money by lowering the pricing on subscriptions. Just not for users in the US. Twitch says the changes to pricing on subscriptions is a move to align with local cost of living around the globe.
And to that end, it will begin to roll these changes out very soon. The broader scope of these changes is to match the pricing to costs of the region. And it will impact both streamers and viewers. For the viewers, they get a less expensive subscription for the streamers they watch every single month.
Even if it’s just one. But even at one, any money saved is money in the bank. Currently, subscriptions are set at a price of $4.99. That price is roughly the same for each region around the world where Twitch operates. Localized in their currency. Which Twitch says makes it hard for some viewers to support their favorite streamers.
For example, Latin America’s active user numbers who support creators is 80% lower than in the US.
Twitch will lower pricing on subscriptions starting May 20
Starting this week, Twitch is lowering the sub fee for all viewers in Mexico and Turkey, specifically on May 20.
It will then begin to roll out the changes to other countries around the globe. Though this won’t start happening until a bit later in the year. According to Twitch, that’ll be sometime in Q3 of 2021. It will include most countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
The price of subscriptions will also adjust for new subs, existing subs, and gift subs. So basically across the board with no one left out.
This will impact streamer revenue since prices will be cheaper
While the viewer side of things will be saving money, streamers could end up making less. Because the subscription prices will be lower, streamers will need more subscribers to meet what they were at previously.
However, Twitch has a plan in place to counteract this. For the first three months of these changes, it’ll cover the full difference of baseline and prime sub channel revenue for streamers. Every three months after that, Twitch will lower the incentive revenue adjustment by 25%.
This adjustment period is intended to give streamers time to acquire more subs, and will last a full calendar year before incentives are gone. Luckily for streamers, Twitch says early tests proved promising. When tested in Brazil, lower sub prices more than doubled subscriber count and the revenue of the streamer.
That isn’t to say that will be the case for every streamer where these changes happen. But it’s a promising set of changes that seems to have the capability to benefit all involved.