Twitch is raising subscription prices for the first time (in this country, the increase is 343%)

Twitch is increasing its channel subscription prices for the first time, according to Engadget.

A little over a month ago, Twitch announced that one in three of its employees would have to carry out a wave of layoffs of 35%.

Over two rounds of job cuts, Amazon's Twitch laid off about a thousand workers in total. Moreover, in 2022, Amazon launched its own workforce reduction, which affected some 27,000 positions across the company, and parallels with the “Red Wedding” episode of “Game of Thrones » have been established.

Prior to this, Twitch announced that it would cease operations in Korea (South Korea, not North Korea, duh!) in February 2024.

The Amazon-owned streaming platform says it has suffered “significant losses” due to high local costs. The company specifically highlighted the high network fees in the country. Korea has introduced legislation that would force major content providers to pay to use the country's networks.

Apparently Twitch is having money problems.

Now, the platform says that “updating prices in multiple countries” will “help streamers' revenue keep pace with rising costs and reflect local currency fluctuations.” The first markets to feel the impact of these changes are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Turkey.

Starting March 28, Tier 1 and Gift Memberships will be more expensive in the UK, Canada, and Australia. A basic/gift subscription increases from £5 to £6 in the UK, from $7 CAD to $8 in Canada, and from $8 AUD to $9 in Australia. Tier 2 and Tier 3 prices will remain the same in these countries.

In Türkiye, Twitch is significantly increasing the price of all three tiers. For example, a Tier 1 submarine will soon cost 43.90 lira ($1.42) instead of 9.90 (32 cents). Don't be shocked by these numbers: the value of the Turkish lira has fallen over the past decade. However, a 343% jump is no fun if you're the one paying for it.