Twitch releases highly-anticipated Channel Points system for partners and affiliates

Content creators on Twitch are about to have a lot more ways to customize how they interact with their chat room this holiday season following the release of the platform’s Channel Points system. 

At TwitchCon this year, the streaming service unveiled the premise behind Channel Points. As a way to give streamers more power to connect with their audience in an authentic, customizable experience, Twitch revealed plans to allow streamers to give points to viewers for a range of things from following the channel to chatting during a stream and even just watching the channel at all. 

Points accumulated by viewers can be redeemed for various channel perks that are to be set by influencers themselves. Points can be used to do things like highlight messages that you make in chat to increase the likelihood that the influencers read them or give you access to subscriber-only emotes, even if you aren’t a sub. 

Streamers will now have the ability to customize those rewards, making them cost more or less points or even adjusting them to be more specific to what the streamer feels his or her audience would appreciate. 

Twitch’s unveiling of Channel Points came shortly after Ninja’s exodus in favor of Microsoft’s streaming platform, Mixer. Earlier this year, Mixer released a similar system including a currency called “Embers” that allowed streamers to reward viewers for actively watching their channel, even if they weren’t necessarily spending money on a subscription or donations. 

During the keynote at TwitchCon, CEO Emmett Shear said that the decision to implement this system came because the platform wanted to reward viewers who are loyal Twitch viewers but don’t have the means to donate massive amounts of money or even subscribe to their favorite channels.