Twitch is the live-native platform with the deepest streaming culture and the largest concurrent audience for gaming, IRL, and chat content. Strengths: high audience expectation around live presence, mature subscription mechanics with sub badges and emote integration, strong chat-engagement tooling, established discovery via raids and the directory pages.

Weaknesses: the revenue split for non-Partners is structurally less favorable than YouTube Memberships or dedicated subscription platforms, the discovery algorithm heavily favors creators with existing momentum (which makes the cold-start problem harder), and the platform's content policies are stricter than Kick or TikTok in certain categories.

Eligibility: anyone can stream on Twitch immediately. The Affiliate program (sub revenue) and Partner program (better revenue split, additional features) require meeting follower and CCV thresholds maintained over a calibration window.

Best fit: gaming streamers, IRL streamers running consistent schedules, chat-driven streamers who thrive on community, and any streamer whose existing audience already lives on Twitch.