New research reveals the platforms which take the biggest % cut from their creators and its bad news for Kindle, Twitch and YouTube creators.
To find out which platform might be best if you’re looking to take your career online, the personal finance experts at money.co.uk have analysed some of the biggest creative platforms to find out what percentage of earnings they take from their creators.
The platforms that take the highest commission from their creators
|
Rank
|
Platform
|
Platform Commission (%)
|
|
1
|
Kindle (books below $2.99 and above $9.99)
|
65%
|
|
2
|
Twitch
|
50%
|
|
2
|
Kindle Vella
|
50%
|
|
4
|
YouTube
|
45%
|
|
5
|
Kindle (books between $2.99 and $9.99)
|
30%
|
|
6
|
Amazon Appstore
|
30%
|
|
7
|
Steam
|
30%
|
|
8
|
Samsung Galaxy Store
|
30%
|
|
9
|
Microsoft Store
|
30%
|
|
10
|
Roblox
|
26%
|
For aspiring writers, getting your book published on Kindle is a great way to reach huge audiences, but depending on the pricing of your book, you could find yourself giving up a large portion of your revenue. For books priced below $2.99 and over $9.99, Kindle takes a 65% cut.
To make money on Twitch you first have to become a Twitch affiliate, but once you’ve done so you can start earning via ads, paid subscriptions, and donations from fans. However, this comes at a cost, with Twitch taking 50% of the subscription fee.
Another service that takes half of its creators’ earnings is Amazon’s Kindle Vella. Vella allows writers to have their stories published, which readers can then read by spending tokens, 50% of which Amazon keeps.
The types of platforms that take the highest commission from their creators
|
Rank
|
Platform Type
|
Commission (%)
|
|
1
|
Video
|
47.50%
|
|
2
|
Writing
|
37.50%
|
|
3
|
Apps & Video Games
|
23.50%
|
|
4
|
Subscription Services
|
9.60%
|
|
5
|
Marketplaces
|
6.75%
|
Of the platforms analysed, it was video hosting and streaming sites that, on average, took the largest cut from creators, at 47.5%. YouTube is perhaps the most popular platform for budding video content creators, and takes 45%, with Twitch taking the most, at 50%.
Apps like Kindle, Kindle Vella, and Tumblr’s Post Plus provide great opportunities for writers to have their work published and make money, however the commission taken by the platforms can be high, especially with Kindle, which takes a cut of up to 65%.
Budding developers can make a lot of money by having their app featured on stores such as Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, but doing so can come at a large cost. The average commission charged by these stores was 22.5%.
Further Study Insights:
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PewDiePie is YouTube’s most followed creator, with <110 million followers and estimated earnings of £10.2k per video and £44.7 million over the course of his career. However, after applying YouTube’s 45% creator fee, PewDiePie could be losing as much as £20.1 million.
-
Kids Diana Show (YouTube’s highest earning channel) has a total estimated earning of £88.7 million, £39.9 million of which YouTube takes as commission.
-
Each year the top YouTube stars could be funnelling as much as £229.7 million into YouTube’s pocket.
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Ninja is the most-followed name on Twitch and is estimated to have earned £3.7 million on the platform, but after Twitch’s fee, this drops to £1.9 million.
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From the 10 most popular streamers overall earnings, Twitch could have taken a total commission of £9.9 million.
You can view the full research including how much YouTube and Twitch earn from their top performing creators by clicking here.
I have also provided a Dropbox folder with relevant images here.
