Twitch’s New Ad Rules Spell Trouble for Streamers

Twitch's New Ad Rules: What Streamers Need to Know

Twitch has recently announced new guidelines for branded content, which has caused controversy in the streaming community. Branded content is a crucial source of revenue for streamers, and the new restrictions could have major consequences for creators of all sizes.

The new rules include:

• Limiting on-stream sponsor logos to 3% of screen size.
• Disallowing burned-in video ads.
• Disallowing burned-in display ads.
• Disallowing burned-in audio ads.

Branded content is a major source of income for streamers, as the controversial 50/50 revenue split of September 2022 left them feeling exploited by the Amazon-owned company. Contracts with gamer-marketed soft drinks or gaming peripherals allow them to manually place banners into their streams, with the money from that partnership going directly into their pocket – not being split down the middle like the revenue from ads that play through Twitch.

The new rules could also seriously jeopardize charity streams held on the streaming service. Considering Summer Games Done Quick just raised $2.2 million for Doctors Without Borders, Twitch’s new ad rules should have charity streamers very concerned.

Twitch has released a series of tweets clarifying its branded content policy, saying the initial update “missed the mark”. However, the rest of the company’s tweets don’t effectively clarify the situation, and many streamers are still upset.