What’s New on Twitch? Here’s the Scoop
Twitch just rolled out its latest Patch Notes for August 2024, and there are some significant changes you’ll want to know about. Whether you’re looking to maximize your earnings, keep your community safe, or just stay updated, here’s what you need to know.
1. Subtember Returns (With Some Changes)
Subtember is back, but this year, it’s starting early and running from August 29th to October 1st. Here’s a breakdown of the discounts you and your community can expect:
- All Month Long: 25% off 1-Month + 3-Month Subs.
- All Month Long: 30% off 6-Month Subs.
- All Month Long: 20% off merch with code: TWITCHSUB20.
- September 12-17: Cheer 300+ Bits, Get 10%+ Bonus Bits.
- September 26-October 1: Gift 5 Subs, Get 1+ Bonus Gift Sub.
Why It Matters: Subtember is a great opportunity to encourage your community to subscribe or gift subscriptions. Even though they will be getting more for less, don’t worry—you will still be getting the same payout as a full-priced subscription.
2. Mobile Sub Price Increase
Starting October 1st, Twitch is increasing the price of subscriptions on mobile. Here’s why:
- App Store Fees: The higher price on mobile is largely due to the fees charged by app stores, which Twitch says they need to pass on to maintain the same revenue share for streamers.
- Impact on Streamers: The price increase follows a similar hike on the web, which Twitch claims has resulted in streamers earning more overall. However, some streamers have reported a drop in recurring subs and gifted subs since the web price increase.
- Sub Bundle Experiment Results: Twitch also ran an experiment offering discounts on gift sub-bundles in 40 countries. The results? More gift subs were purchased, and streamers made more money overall, but the discounts were shared between Twitch and streamers, which might not sit well with everyone.
Why It Matters: While Twitch is framing this as a way to help streamers earn more, higher prices could lead to fewer subscribers, especially on mobile. Keep an eye on your numbers to see how this affects you.
3. Nudges Experiment: A Pause Before You Post
Twitch is testing a new feature aimed at reducing harmful chat messages. Here’s how it works:
- Pause Before You Post: If a message you’re about to send could be considered offensive or disrespectful, a popup will ask you to pause and reconsider before sending it.
- Goal: The aim is to decrease harassment and promote more positive interactions in chat. The feature is still in the experimental phase, so it is unclear whether it will be rolled out widely.
Why It Matters: While this could help reduce toxic behavior in chat, it’s another layer of moderation that some users might find annoying. If this feature rolls out more broadly, keep an eye on how your community reacts.
4. Clips: New Sharing Options
Twitch is giving streamers more control over how their clips are shared:
- Automatic Hashtags: Your Twitch channel name will automatically be added as a hashtag in viewers’ posts, helping you reach a broader audience.
- Share to TikTok/YouTube: Streamers can now enable or disable the ability for viewers to post clips directly to their own TikTok or YouTube channels.
Why It Matters: This could be a great way to get discovered by new viewers, but if you’re concerned about how your content is shared, you can adjust your settings to disable it.
5. Safety & Moderation Tools
Twitch continues to roll out updates to keep your community safe:
- AutoMod Expansion: A new topic has been added to AutoMod to catch sexually harassing language. If AutoMod is set to level 2 or higher, this will be enabled by default.
- Test Your AutoMod Settings: You can now test your AutoMod settings by sending a sample message to see if it gets flagged.
- Suspicious Users: A new machine learning model is being tested to flag users who might be there to cause trouble, beyond just ban evaders.
Why It Matters: While these tools are designed to keep your chat safe, they’re not foolproof. Regularly test and adjust your settings to ensure they’re working as intended.
6. Ads Manager Gets a Facelift
Twitch is rolling out a new version of Ads Manager aimed at making ad management easier:
Ad Density Slider: A new slider lets you easily adjust the number of minutes of ads you want to run per hour. The interface also shows how this affects your revenue share.
Simplified Interface: The new design brings all key features to a single page, making navigating easier.
Why It Matters: While the new interface might be more straightforward, remember that too many ads could drive viewers away.
7. Drop-Ins: A Quick Recap
We covered Drop-Ins in detail last week, so I won’t go too deep here. In short, Drop-Ins allow streamers to collaborate more easily by “knocking” on each other’s channels to join streams. However, the biggest complaint is that Drop-Ins can’t be permanently disabled—you’ll need to turn them off for each stream.
Want more details? Check out last week’s newsletter for a deep dive into how Drop-Ins work and how to manage them.
🔥 Pete’s Content Corner
Delve into my weekly selection of content creation highlights—handpicked videos, podcasts, and tweets that promise to captivate, educate, and entertain.
- Cristiano Ronaldo shattered YouTube records by surpassing 1 million subscribers in under 90 minutes after launching his personal channel, where he shares an intimate look at his life and family.
- StreamElements has rolled out the beta of Ground Control, an all-in-one app designed to keep streamers organized with customizable layouts, multi-chat, and a multiplatform activity feed.
- Samantha “Rivers” Rivera took home the Streamer of the Year award at the Esports Awards, outshining heavyweights like KaiCenat and IShowSpeed to become one of the top Spanish-speaking streamers on Twitch.
