Can You Lose Your Affiliate and Partnership Status on Twitch?

Losing Affiliate or Partnership status can be a big blow to a streamer. Many streamers treat streaming as their day-to-day job. If they lose their Affiliate or Partnership status, they will have no money to pay their bills and support their lives.

Can You Lose Your Twitch Affiliate Status on Twitch?

You can lose your Twitch affiliate status, but it will be hard. The only reason why you lose your Twitch Affiliate is you stop streaming months or you break Twitch Terms of Service. You can also lose Affiliate status if you stream on other streaming platforms like Facebook Gaming and YouTube

According to Twitch Affiliate Agreement, there is exclusivity for “Live Twitch Content” clause. It means you must not stream broadcasted Twitch content to another similar streaming platform

You can still use another platform for streaming as long the broadcasted content is different

So, if you stream Game X Match A on Twitch, you can still stream Game X Match B on Facebook Gaming in this instance. You can’t stream both Game X Match A on both platforms

You can view the Twitch Affiliate agreement on this link

The main takeaway of Affiliate agreement is:

1. You can stream on another platform, as long the stream content is different on both platform
2. Don’t remain inactive for more than 12 months
3. Don’t break Twitch TOS

Twitch Affiliate is hardly an achievement these days. Many streamers treat Affiliate as a stopgap to become a Twitch Partner.

So, can you lose Partner status on Twitch?

Can You Lose Your Twitch Partner Status on Twitch?

Yes, you can lose your Twitch Partner. Unlike Affiliate, Partners have their own negotiated Partner agreement or contract. So, each Twitch Partner will be treated differently. But Twitch Partner’s contract is not that harsh. As long you don’t break Twitch TOS and Partner agreement, you won’t lose your Twitch Partner status

Twitch partner is a bit stricter than Twitch Affiliate. You are not allowed to have an active streaming account on another streaming platform.

You can still use YouTube without getting punished as a Partner. You can’t stream on YouTube as Twitch Partner. What you can only do is upload the video after 24 hours of the time you were streaming. As long you are not streaming, you are not breaking the Partnership contract

Can You Lose Twitch Affiliate and Partnership Status by not getting enough viewers?

You can’t lose Affiliate and Partnership status if you get a little number of viewers during a stream. There is no agreement and contract by Twitch that forces you to get a thousand viewers per month on Twitch. Twitch understand that it will be hard to maintain the number of views, follower, and subscriber forever on your channel

Just like I stated above, Twitch partnership contract won’t force you to get X number of views and subscribers.

Even if you only get 10 viewers a month, as long you don’t stop streaming and become inactive, you can keep your Twitch Partner status

There are many Twitch Partner that have only average less than 100 views per stream. In case you don’t know, there are 27.000 Partners on Twitch. So not all Partner have thousands of viewers during the stream

What you must not do as a Twitch Partner is don’t break the Twitch Terms of Service.

Can You Lose Twitch Affiliate and Partnership Status by Not Streaming?

You can lose your Affiliate and Partnership if you decided to stop streaming. But Twitch rarely ends a contract if you are inactive for only for few months. The maximum of how long you can inactive on Twitch is 1 year or 12 months. It’s better to keep using Twitch account as a viewer even if you stop streaming so your username not removed

According to Twitch Affiliate Agreement Section 4.1, Twitch can close terminate your affiliate and partnership participation if you stop streaming for more than 12 months

Partnered Channel may have an exclusive contract that has different rules for the inactive period. So carefully inspect your contract to know how long you can be inactive on Twitch

If you have any real-life problem that forces you to stop streaming for months, nothing wrong will happen. As long you don’t pass the time period determined on your contract, Twitch won’t terminate your Affiliate and Partner participation

You can still be active on Twitch as a viewer or stream at a shorter period of time to make Twitch still think you are an active streamer.

Can You Lose Twitch Affiliate and Partnership Status by Not Getting enough Money?

You need to do at least get one payout every year, which is $100. If you earn less than $100 in 1 year, Twitch can consider terminating the contract. But never in the history of Twitch, streamer lose their contract because they don’t make enough money. According to Twitch, they will consider activity more than your earning

Even though you won’t lose your account if you earn less than $100 in 1 year, you need to reconsider your strategy. It’s too little money for the amount of effort you put into streaming

Can You Lose Affiliate and Partnership Status by Breaking Twitch’s TOS?

Yes, it is a guarantee that you will lose your affiliate and partnership if you break Twitch Terms of Service. Breaking the Terms of Service can also lead to a temporary suspension of your Twitch account or even a permanent ban if it serious or repeated violation.

Breaking the Twitch Terms of Service is the reason why most streamers lose their Affiliate and Partnership status.  

Many streamers accidentally post nudes, stream sexually suggestive content, saying a racist word, and many more that the TOS forbid streamers to. And then they get banned and never recover their account

Which is sad, because I believe everyone deserves a second chance.

So don’t think Terms of Service is a joke. It can make you lose your Twitch account if you do not seriously abide by the rule

You can view Twitch Term of Service at this link

Can Twitch suddenly terminate your Affiliate or Partnership contract?

Yes, Twitch at any time can end your contract without any reason to uphold the termination. But Twitch almost never does this. Streamers that lose their contract usually either break the TOS or switch to a competitor streaming platform. There is no benefit on Twitch to break an Affiliate and Partnership contract without any reason

Maybe you once hear the story of Dr Disrespect that suddenly get a permanent ban from Twitch. Many news websites cover this topic and many rumors circulate why he was getting a ban without any notice

As an outsider, we will never know the actual reason why Dr Disrespect is getting ban.

But what we all know that this rarely happens to most Twitch Affiliate and Partner

Can I terminate my streaming contract with Twitch?

Yes, if you ever decided to stop streaming on Twitch, you can terminate your contract with Twitch. It’s not recommended unless you want to switch to another streaming platform like Facebook Gaming and YouTube. You don’t need to terminate your contract if you want to stop streaming for a few months.

If I Lose Affiliate or Partnership status on Twitch, Will I Lose My Twitch Account?

If you lose your affiliate or partnership deal, your Twitch account will still remain active. Unless you were removed because you break the Twitch Terms of Services, which leads to permanent suspension of your account. You can still lose your account if you remain inactive for more than 1 year

Can You Lose Twitch Affiliate and Partnership by Streaming on Another Platform?

For Twitch Affiliate, as long you are not streaming in two or more streaming platforms at the same time, it’s okay to stream on another platform. The streaming content must different so it’s not plagiarism, even if the content belongs to you. Twitch Partner must not stream in another streaming platform, or else they can lose Partnership status on Twitch

It may be confusing, but Twitch Affiliate can still stream on another streaming platform like Facebook Gaming and YouTube

But there is still restriction. You can’t stream the same content you stream on Twitch to other platforms. So basically, you can’t multi-stream if you have an Affiliate on Twitch

For Twitch Partner, you can only use Twitch as a streaming platform. You can still upload VODs and stream on YouTube 24 hours after the stream ended

Because Twitch Partner can only stream on Twitch, if you decided to switch to Facebook Gaming or YouTube, you need to terminate the agreement with Twitch instead of letting Twitch ban you due to a breach of contract

If your career on Facebook Gaming or YouTube failed, you can still switch back to Twitch. According to The Verge, Ninja can still return to Twitch after Mixer shut down

Can You Re-Apply to become a Twitch Affiliate and Partner?

As long you left the affiliate and partnership program with good terms, without breaching the contract, you can still re-apply to become Twitch Affiliate and Partner. A famous example is Ninja who left Twitch to become a Mixer streamer then return to Twitch. According to Polygon, now Ninja is back on Twitch with an exclusive partnership deal