There are numerous ways that you can support a streamer on Twitch, including by donating and subscribing. But there’s one particularly unique way that Twitch lets viewers give to creators as well—Bits.
Twitch’s “Bit” system is a way that viewers can spend little to no money and “cheer” in a channel’s chat with unique “Cheermotes.”
For every one Bit that someone uses to cheer in a chat, that channel receives $0.01. Bits can only be donated to channels that have Affiliate or Partner status and many streamers have customized ways to display those who have cheered the most on their channel.
With Bits being worth as little as they are, cheering on Twitch can be compared to something like putting change in a tip jar at your local coffee shop. Sometimes a customer might throw a lump sum of cash into the jar, but people can give extremely small donations as well.
How to get Bits
Bits can be added to your Twitch account in a couple of different ways.
First, you can purchase them with real-life money. You can use and buy Bits by clicking on the diamond icon in the chat box of any stream.
If you’re looking to purchase Bits, there’s a “Get Bits” button on the pop-up that appears whenever you click the Bit icon in a channel’s chat window.
Clicking that button will show you all of the options for purchasing Bits that range from 100 to 25,000 Bits. Buying Bits isn’t a $0.01 for one Bit tradeoff, though. Right now, 100 Bits costs $1.40.
There are also discounted rates for people purchasing large sums of Bits.
Viewers can also get Bits by watching advertisements on Twitch. In the same place where you buy Bits, there’s a button at the top of the pop-up that says “Watch Ad.” Clicking that button will load an interactive ad.
After watching and interacting with the ad, your account will receive five or more Bits. This can be done repeatedly, but there’s a cap on the number of times you can “Watch Another” ad in a short period of time.
How to use Bits
To use the Bits you’ve just earned or purchased, you can simply type “cheer” followed by the number of Bits you’d like to donate to the channel.
If you’d like to have a customized emote that goes along with your cheer, you can click the diamond-shaped icon where you’d type a message in chat. Clicking the icon will bring up a number of emotes that you can cheer with on a given channel.
After selecting the emote you’d like to cheer with, you’ll be prompted to select how much you’d like to cheer. Selecting options that require more Bits will typically have a more animated emote.
Source: https://dotesports.com/streaming/news/how-do-bits-work-on-twitch
