Expensive broadcast: revenues of Russian streamers exceeded 163 million rubles
The revenues of top Russian streamers reached hundreds of millions of rubles — in six months they increased to 163 million against 97 million a year earlier. By the end of 2025, they may exceed 320 million. The growth is associated with the popularity of games, an increase in the volume of advertising and the formation of a permanent audience. But the policy of the main Twitch platform remains a deterrent, constantly changing the terms and conditions for streamers.
How much did streamers earn on a foreign platform
The income of Russian streamers has reached new records. According to the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA), in the first six months of 2025, the 15 most popular authors on the Twitch platform earned 163.5 million rubles. This is almost 70% more than a year earlier, when their combined income was about 97 million.
The biggest income was shown by a blogger under the nickname buster, who earned about 26 million rubles. Its result increased by 36% compared to the same period in 2024. The GENSYXA streamer increased her earnings by more than 2.5 times — from 8.4 million to 22.2 million rubles, the ABA noted. The top five also included Recent (17.1 million), bratishkinoff (15.9 million) and Dmitry_lixx (12.6 million).
Advertising integrations remain a key source of revenue. For six months, 183 advertising placements were recorded by 15 leading streamers, compared with 145 a year earlier. The ABA notes that if the dynamics continue, the total income of Russian streamers by the end of 2025 may exceed 320 million rubles.
At the same time, experts pay attention to the vulnerability of the market.
"The Russian streaming segment is showing steady growth, but remains dependent on the unstable Twitch policy, where controversial blocking of popular authors occurs," the ABA emphasized.
How income growth is explained by experts
Restrictions on YouTube have played a significant role, due to which brands have become more likely to choose Twitch as a more predictable and "live" platform, says Vadim Bordiyan, founder of Influencio, a blogging platform.
— In addition, the live content format provides excellent engagement - streams can be cut into fragments and distributed on TikTok, VKontakte, YouTube. Due to this, the reach is growing, new viewers are appearing and, as a result, new integrations," he explained.
According to him, growth is also provided by content events: marathons, collaborations, tournaments, as well as attracting celebrities who were previously far from gaming. The expert recalled how singer Egor Creed and professional football player Fyodor Smolov joined streaming and almost immediately began earning money as top streamers.
— This is an indicator of market transformation. Streaming is becoming a mass media format," he stressed.
Artur Avakian, CEO of StreamPub (an influencer marketing agency that has been creating and implementing advertising campaigns and special projects on Twitch, YouTube and TikTok since 2016), in turn, believes that revenue growth is associated with the expansion of advertising budgets on Twitch due to the reduction in available formats for working with bloggers.
— Advertisers are particularly interested in the young audience of 16-24 years old, who actively consume content on Twitch and TikTok. This further enhances the attractiveness of the platform," the expert said.
According to forecasts, in the future, the main increase will be provided by increasing the number of integrations from less popular authors from the top 100. As successful cases accumulate and trust in the platform grows, budgets will be distributed more widely, noted Artur Avakian.
Streaming in Russia has become established as a stable career, and today more and more people consider online streaming as a stable source of income, added Elena Yashkovich, head of the influencer marketing department at Fistashki digital agency.
— The video advertising market is actively developing. It is estimated that about 91% of companies use video content to promote their products, which expands the demand for the content platform and indirectly supports the monetization of streamers, she said.
In her opinion, active monetization through subscriptions and donations, as well as partnership programs with brands, are becoming a noticeable driver of earnings.
Despite all the advantages of the platform, the monetization program is disabled for Russian streamers on Twitch, meaning they can only rely on direct advertising contracts, said Yaroslav Meshalkin, an expert on digital communications.
Recently, the platform has limited the broadcast quality to 720p, which also makes life difficult for both streamers and viewers. Twitch's actions are clearly unfriendly, although they are determined more by pragmatism than by a political position, he concluded.
Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on information Policy and federal coordinator of the Digital Russia party project, previously reported that Twitch's decision to limit the quality of broadcasts for Russian users was a step aimed at ousting the Russian—speaking segment from the global platform. Under the pretext of technical limitations, the service deprives millions of viewers of the quality of content they are used to. This is no longer just digital discrimination, but direct pressure on creators and users based on nationality. As a result, conscientious authors suffer, many of whom have been developing the platform for many years and attracting millions of viewers to it. According to him, it's time for Russian streamers and users to make a choice in favor of alternatives, primarily domestic ones.
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