Revenue splits remain the single biggest lever in streaming economics, and 2026 has made the differences between platforms stark, according to comparative research from ShaneTheGamer and platform analysis from EvolvedLotus.

The headline numbers: Kick pays creators 95% of subscription revenue (about $4.74 per $4.99 sub). YouTube pays 70% on channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Super Thanks. Twitch pays a standard 50/50 on subscriptions — about $2.50 per $4.99 sub — with 60/40 available at 100 Plus Points for three consecutive months and 70/30 at 300 Plus Points, meaning the better rates are earned, not default.

Patreon’s flat 10% platform fee plus processing leaves creators roughly 87% on web signups, while OnlyFans’ 20% cut and Snapchat’s roughly 40% effective take (after its 60/40 split in the platform’s favor) sit at the expensive end. Apple’s up-to-30% in-app purchase commission can stack on top of any of these for iOS signups.

The splits interact with audience size in ways that matter. Kick’s 95/5 looks unbeatable per subscriber, but its ~660,000 average concurrent viewers are a fraction of Twitch’s ~2.5 million, and YouTube’s 2 billion+ logged-in users dwarf both. A 50% split of a large audience can beat a 95% split of a small one.

EvolvedLotus’s analysis of Twitch’s small-creator problem adds context: the platform spent 2026 describing retention tools as discovery tools, while Kick’s headline economics — including hourly pay through its Creator Incentive Program — are gated behind Verified Partner status and roughly 50 average concurrent viewers.

The takeaway for creators: compare splits against your actual audience, not in the abstract. Pick the platform where your viewers already are, then stack direct revenue — memberships, tips, digital products — on top, because no split beats owning the customer relationship.