Twitch will allow viewers to pay to advertise their favorite streamers

Twitch is adding a new feature that allows viewers to pay money to advertise their favorite streamers on the site.

The new Boost feature gives viewers the ability to purchase a set number of “Boosts” for a streamer. Each Boost will highlight the streamer’s channel by adding it as a front page recommendation for another Twitch user.

Reading a statement prepared in Twitch’s latest Community Patch Notes feed, Product Manager Jacob Rosok said Twitch will test the new feature with a number of Twitch streamers.

“What we’re doing with Boosts is giving viewers the ability to purchase super high visibility promotions for their favorite creators, and those types of placements come at a cost,” Rosok said.

“We think this is a great way to show our support. Additionally, creators have told us that it is difficult to get their name known, that it is difficult to try and use different forms of social media to develop their channels, and we hope that [this is] a more direct way for a viewer to help a creator do this.

“It’s no secret that viewers are there to support their creators, and we believe paying to help a creator grow their community will be worth it for their followers.”

Rosok also gave more details on how the Boost process works. Boosts will only be available for purchase for a 10 minute period, during which viewers can purchase as many Boosts as they want.

“During the Boost purchase period, community members can pay to get the Boost as big as they want,” Rosok said.

“Buying every member of the community will add more front page recommendations for creators. We’ll call the community that made a purchase and show exactly how many recommendations the community has unlocked as the purchases arrive.

Rosok claimed the decision to add the Boost feature was based on a similar community challenge that took place last December, which resulted in the purchase of over 100,000 streamer referrals.

However, these were instead purchased with Channel Points, which are earned by participating on Twitch, rather than with real money. The notable difference this time around is that viewers are now paying real money to give their favorite streamers extra exposure.

The response to the news was mostly negative on the Twitch chat accompanying the stream, with some viewers calling it “pay to win” and saying that “it looks like a seizure of money”.