With a rising number of high-profile creators ditching Twitch in favor of exclusivity deals on YouTube, it’s become increasingly necessary to understand the features of each platform. They don’t necessarily make it easy on viewers either. While “subscribing” on Twitch has financial implications, doing the same thing on YouTube is as easy as clicking a button.
On Twitch you can “follow” streamers to get updates on when they go live and have them appear in a space carved out specifically for all of the streamers you have an interest in. While YouTube has a similar feature, instead of it being “follow” it’s “subscribe.”
Meanwhile, on Twitch, viewers pay money to “subscribe” to streamers. On YouTube, the parallel is called becoming a “member.” While each platform has some slight differences, the overall idea is similar; viewers pay money monthly to support the channel, and in return, they get varied benefits that can be different depending on the streamers.
What comes with a Twitch subscription?
Subs on Twitch can be purchased in a variety of ways. First and foremost, viewers can pay for them with money. The base cost of a Twitch sub is $4.99. A Tier 2 or Tier 3 sub can be purchased for $9.99 or $24.99 respectively.
Viewers can also subscribe to one channel per month by connecting their Amazon Prime account to Twitch. Additionally, viewers can get subs without paying if another generous viewer gifts subscriptions to any given channel’s community.
Perhaps the most significant benefit to viewers that subscribe to a channel is an ad-free viewing experience. Twitch has become increasingly filled with video ads that come when a viewer enters a channel as well as at other times that are determined by a streamer themself. The best way to avoid those delays and breaks in content is by subscribing.
The other most notable perks for subs are customized emotes that are created by the streamer, oftentimes with help from designers, and sub badges. A sub badge shows up next to a person’s name when they type on chat. They can scale depending on how long you’ve been a subscriber, and they signify that you are an active supporter of a channel.
Many creators have other perks, like subscriber-only discord communities, but here are all of the Twitch-specific benefits:
- Ad-free viewing
- Custom channel emotes
- Subscriber badges
- Ability to type during sub-only chat mode and view subscriber-only streams
- Channel point multipliers
- Animated emotes
What comes with a YouTube channel membership?
Similar to Twitch subs, members of a YouTube channel can receive scaling “Loyalty” badges as well as a slew of customized emojis that can be used in the channel’s live chat during a broadcast.
Viewers can also type in chat when broadcasters set their comment section to “members-only.” Additionally, creators can give members exclusive access to various forms of content, similar to the way Twitch streamers can do sub-only streams.
Ultimately, the difference between a Twitch subscription and a YouTube channel membership is almost negligible. Most of the perks for each are nearly identical.
The most noticeable difference is that on Twitch, the increased volume of advertisements on channels has made the ad-free viewing experience for subscribers a must-have for people that watch a channel on a daily basis. However, YouTube streams don’t have intrusive ads so it’s not an issue that might drive someone to open their wallet.
