Brazilian Twitch streamers are banding together to protest price changes they say are negatively impacting their income. The streaming platform recently made changes to its pricing in an attempt to better reflect local incomes, rather than the one size fits all policy they it before, but not everyone is happy.

Specifically, the cost of a sub in Brazil has gone from 22.99 BRL to 7.90 BRL, which equates to a drop from $4.39 down to $1.53 a month, and streamers are seeing a significant drop in income as a result. Matheus "Picoca" Tavares, a streamer and influencer for paiN gaming, tweeted recently about the issue, urging other streamers to join his "Syndicate of Streamers" to "discuss the future of the platform".

The streamers' dissatisfaction sits in stark contrast with Twitch’s public proclamation that their localized pricing has led to an increase in sub numbers elsewhere, and suggests that Twitch may have misjudged the change required for the Brazilian region. It may be that time sees an adjustment, with more subs meaning streamers see their income stabilize or even increase, but it seems in the short term that the reduced cost of subs hasn’t created a better environment for streamers in that part of the world.

Streamers want a bigger cut

Elsewhere, a growing movement is asking Twitch to reconsider the 50/50 split talent receives at present for streaming on the platform, with one Twitter user claiming that "all streamers" are tired of only taking 50% of sub fees. That claim is obviously entirely unverifiable, but would equally make perfect sense given the top-heavy nature of earning on the platform, with the top 1000 streamers accounting for over 50% of all views on the site.

Previously this was something you had to live with as talent, but the increasing options for streamers mean that Twitch has competition now, and creators have the choice to move if they feel they can make more elsewhere. YouTube streamers are given 70/30 across the board according to that platform, although users have criticized poor functionality in comparison to Twitch, and those numbers do come with other mitigating factors like audience size at present.

Previously useful methods for increasing sub split have been made impossible by Twitch’s change to localized sub pricing, and some streamers do make more than 50%, with the biggest streamers taking closer to 80% of sub income. We spoke to Gareth Harry of Zygo Media, who works with multiple big stars of Twitch, about the topic of sub split and why it might be hard to increase your cut if Twitch is your only source of revenue.

“While I would love for creators to get a bigger slice of the pie, it's difficult to see this happening on Twitch anytime soon”, Harry told Inven. “Comparing Twitch's 50/50 to the 70/30 that YouTube shares with its creators doesn't work in isolation, with the key difference between the two platforms being that YouTube has a superior method for monetization while you're not live, where the primary monetization method for Twitch is sub revenue.”

Harry echoes the thoughts of other experts when it comes to ways Twitch streamers can potentially increase their incomes while the split remains as it is. “My advice [to streamers wanting a bigger cut] would be to diversify and reduce your reliance on Twitch as a sole source of income. Start spreading your content around to the various platforms that are available to you. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube all have monetization methods.”