Top Streamers Are Reportedly Paid $50,000 An Hour To Play New Games

Streamers on Twitch can make a lot of money. How much money? Well, if you're top of the Twitch [...]

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Streamers on Twitch can make a lot of money. How much money? Well, if you're top of the Twitch food chain, you can apparently earn upwards of $50,000 an hour streaming new releases. The report comes way of Wall Street Journal, and has since been validated by Kotaku, who says their sources claim $50,000 isn't even the largest amount of money some publishers will dish out to certain streamers. As you would expect, it's mostly the big third-party publishers splashing cash on influence, such as Ubisoft, EA, Activision, and Take-Two Interactive.

"We've seen offers well over $50K an hour, as well as many six- and seven-figure deals for longer-term engagements," said Omeed Dariani, CEO of the Online Performers Group, while talking to Kotaku. "I can't share specific companies, as the payment terms are usually confidential. We had one offer from a AAA publisher that was $60K per hour for two hours. The broadcaster declined it—and the publisher came back with a 'blank check' offer, which was still declined."

Of course, it's not very surprising to hear streamers are making bank from publishers looking to promote their new games. If your game is top of Twitch, there's a good chance it's also selling well. Meanwhile, simply reviewing well and marketing on gaming websites and with TV spots doesn't generate the same engagement, at least not for certain types of games. If you want a very popular multiplayer game, you're going to have to get streamers streaming it. That's just a reality.

"Your game being top on Twitch is worth a lot now," added Adam Lieb, CEO of Gamesight, while also speaking to Kotaku. "The money Electronic Arts invested in Twitch influencers, he said, "they could have spent on ads on Twitch or IGN and it would not have made as big of an impact."

Again, if you've been keeping up with the times, none of this is very surprising. Heck, back in March it was reported that EA paid popular Fortnite streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins one million dollars to play and tweet about Apex Legends at launch.

There's no doubting the marketing upsides of having streamers playing your game. The question is: what's the return of investment for dishing out big stacks of cash to top streamers? I'm sure there's someone crunching the numbers making sure its a shrewd investment, but $50,000 an hour seems like a lot.

Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there.

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