TL;DR Takeaways by Hatchet:
- Twitch Drops are a must for game publishers: In a given year, over 15% of all hours watched on Twitch can come from Drops-enabled streams
- Twitch Drops can be used to celebrate a launch, reward fans with early access keys, or keep the community engaged for live service titles
- Which streamers you partner with and what rewards you offer provide the greatest opportunities for customization to stand out from the competition
In the modern gaming space, developers need to constantly update and promote their live service games to keep the player base active. This is where Twitch Drops come in.
For the uninitiated, Twitch Drops are in-game loot that viewers can obtain by tuning into their favorite streamers during special Twitch Drops campaigns. Initiatives like Twitch Drops drive traffic to streaming platforms and kick off a cascade of renewed interest, such as players talking about the latest changes, mentioning the game on socials, and jumping back onto servers. While community days, competitive streamer showdowns, and watch parties all have their own merits, Twitch Drops offer a tangible reward for the loyal player by handing out free gifts.
In this article we’re covering the basics of Twitch Drops, how developers can use Twitch Drops campaigns to reignite their player base’s passion, and some key tips to remember when putting your Twitch Drops campaign into action. We’ll also be providing examples of past Twitch Drops campaigns with each step to bring the process to life.
Six Key Steps for Starting Your Own Twitch Drops Campaign:
- Understand The Impact of Twitch Drops
- Analyze The Benefits
- Craft Your Rewards
- Partner with Streamers
- Launch Your Drops Campaign
- Keep The Campaigns Coming
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Understand The Impact of Twitch Drops
Twitch Drops are no longer some groundbreaking way to bring gaming communities together: They’re a standard fixture of game launches and live service game event calendars alike. Over a 12-month period from November 2024 to October 2025, Twitch Drops streams account for 15.7% of all viewership on Twitch. That figure represents a whopping 45.6% of all Twitch viewers engaging with Drops content, backing up the idea that gamers flock to Twitch to celebrate news around their favourite titles. While Twitch Drops aren’t exactly some novel activation method anymore that game publishers can lean on to appear savvy, their ubiquitousness has made them far easier to implement and more accessible for the average viewer.
And, of course, Twitch Drops viewers are real, playing gamers. Since the primary incentive to watch these streams is in-game loot, publishers can be sure that the majority of viewers tuning in represent engaged members of their game’s community. Furthermore, we now have enough data across campaigns for many different types of games to show a link between the number of streamers participating in Twitch Drops campaigns and the total hours watched for those titles (you can check out our full analysis on the data above here). Putting that all together: Partnering with more streamers means more viewership from active players, which means better reach for your latest announcement or game launch.
Analyze the Benefits of Twitch Drops for Your Game
As much as we love to espouse the power of Twitch Drops though, you should first decide if a Twitch Drops campaign is the right strategy for your specific case. For some practical reasons, many games aren’t well-suited to Twitch Drops. For example, live service games are generally best for Twitch Drops as they have an array of customizable elements that can be used as rewards. Additionally, live service games experience waves of popularity, and Twitch Drops can help spur renewed interest in your game.
Thinking about benefits also means planning how you will review the performance of your Twitch Drops campaign after it’s over. Tracking the increase in viewership and how many Drops were claimed during your campaign shows engagement from viewers beyond the loyal fanbase that typically watches your game’s content.
What Works: Hunt: Showdown 1896’s Launch
The Twitch Drops campaign for the expansion launch of Hunt: Showdown 1896 was a phenomenal success, raising the daily hours watched from a baseline under 100K to over 800K for an entire week! Given that the goal was to reignite the passion of existing players upon this new expansion’s release, the Drops campaign could be considered a resounding success.
Craft Your Twitch Drops Rewards
Once you’ve decided that a Twitch Drops campaign is the right path for you, you’ll need to craft interesting incentives to pull viewers on board. Exclusive Twitch Drops can act as a badge of honor for seasoned veterans of the game, showing their engagement with the community. For newcomers to the game, Twitch Drops offer an inexpensive and effortless way to obtain premium-looking skins and rewards that may otherwise seem like a far-off prospect.
Twitch has a number of suggestions for maximizing the attractiveness of your rewards, but we’ll go over just a few here. While weapon skins, outfits, and in-game currency are nice go-to loot for a Twitch Drops campaign, you can also offer new emotes, titles, or emblems. If you’re really willing to put in the time, you could even offer whole new game content or, in specific cases, beta access keys for devoted early adopters.
Once you’ve got a nice range, try to scale up the quality of your rewards to keep viewers watching. Maybe some in-game currency and a skin can be used early on to hook viewers in, but more dedicated fans who watch for 10+ hours can receive a premium outfit or new content. Twitch allows developers to set the duration for a reward between 15 minutes and 4 hours, so play around with what intervals you think will keep viewers watching.
What Works: Mecha Break’s Launch
Mecha Break faced a challenge: Trying to capture a Western audience for a Fighting Mech game. We walked through their full strategy in our article here, but one component stands out: Their multi-tiered Twitch Drops campaign. Thanks to increasingly attractive incentives for viewers that tuned in for multiple hours, a massive 19% of all Twitch Drops viewers watched for 3+ hours (that’s 179K viewers!)
Partner with Streamers to Amplify Your Twitch Drops Campaign’s Reach
While many viewers will be drawn in by the promise of in-game rewards, they’ll want to watch streamers who are familiar with your game, whose content is entertaining, and who will engage with the other aspects of your campaign (as discussed later). Therefore the key to success is knowing which streamers are the right fit for your content. As a first port of call, you can set your Drops campaign to a “category-wide” setting. In this mode, any streamer who labels their stream with your game can opt into your Twitch Drops campaigns. The advantage of this option is sheer numbers: You don’t have to search out every streamer playing your game, and smaller streamers with devoted followers will still be able to participate.
However, this blanket approach fails to meet the potential of a targeted Drops campaign. By instead partnering with specific streamers, you can collaborate with them to fine-tune your message and ask them to actively promote your Drops campaign. Reaching out ahead of time to coordinate your efforts also helps the streamer: It takes creative pressure off so they can focus on your game and the aspects you want highlighted most. Streamers who actively play your game regularly and get involved with the community are the best partnerships you can hope for: They’re not only well-known by fans, but they’ll advocate for updates to your game. Beyond this, you’ll want to reach streamers who have a similar core audience to yours.
By the way, if you’re wondering how to actually find the right streamers or reach out to them, we have a full breakdown of how to build your Creator Community right here.
What Works: inZOI’s Play with Early Access
Krafton made use of Twitch Drops to support inZOI’s release by providing advanced access to certain features of the game to viewers of enabled streams. We reviewed the full strategy here, but here’s the summary: On March 20th, viewers who obtained keys via a special Twitch Drops event were instantly able to access inZOI’s Creator Studio (character builder) and Build Mode features (3 days ahead of every other player). This strategy allowed international streamers from Rubius to Tumblurr to show off the game early to entirely different audiences.
Launch Your Twitch Drops Campaign
With all your prep work done, it’s time to launch the campaign! If it wasn’t apparent already, timing is everything for a Twitch Drops campaign. With so many active viewers, this is your time to make a big announcement: Try to line it up with a big occasion, such as a premiere, beta release, or a new trailer. You might even put together a Developer Diary stream to get players up to speed with the development process.
Your Twitch Drops campaign should be simple for viewers to find out about. Pick a clear, concise title that explains what the campaign is celebrating, what rewards are up for grabs, and details any associated promotional events. Once you’ve got the wording down, be consistent! Using the same terminology throughout your promotional material makes it easier for viewers to Google your campaign or find participating streamers on Twitch. Additionally, although most of the streaming community are familiar with Twitch Drops, try to provide guidance to your partnered streamers about how viewers can connect their accounts and redeem their rewards to avoid confusion and negative experiences.
What Works: Marvel Rivals’s Back-to-Back Pre-Release Twitch Drops
Marvel Rivals made their Twitch Drops unmissable by launching three different Twitch Drops campaigns one after another. Naturally viewership fell off with each subsequent edition as viewers cashed in their in-game loot and opted not to tune back in. However, taking all three campaigns together, over 4.7M hours of Twitch Drops streams were watched over the entire pre-release event, building up hype 4 months before the game even released.
Keep The Twitch Drops Coming
Twitch Drops aren’t a one-and-done affair. The purpose of Twitch Drops is to act alongside other online events to create a consistent discourse between the publisher and their players. By plotting out regularly spaced Twitch Drops, you’re reassuring the player base that support for the game is still very much active, there is new content constantly being released, and streamers are still finding new ways to have fun. Whether it’s a community event around UGC content or a creator-led competition, there’s always another reason to run a Twitch Drops campaign in conjunction with your game’s latest update.
What Works: Dead by Daylight’s Packed Content Calendar
Twitch Drops act as gap-fillers between major chapter releases for Dead by Daylight. In the past year alone, there have been five separate Twitch Drops campaigns to lure victims back to The Fog, which keeps the community bonded between major announcements like new IP collabs and celebrity cameos. We look at Dead by Daylight’s full event cadence and why it works so well right here.
Twitch Drops campaigns are effective ways to give value back to your community. Sure there’s the in-game loot to hook people in, but Twitch Drops provide more value than just that: They provide information about upcoming new developments in your game, they allow streamers to broadcast entertaining gameplay, they foster a sense of belonging among players.
Transparency is key, keeping your players informed about how the campaign works, how to get their rewards, and any other events they can jump in on. Use this opportunity to remind players about the social aspect of your game and they’ll keep coming back for more when you host future events!
Hatchet provides the data needed to guide your next Twitch Drops campaign:
- Learn which streamers are playing your game and what their audience looks like.
- Gain insights into your viewership data to better negotiate with streamers and sponsors for your Twitch Drops rewards.
- Explore the effectiveness of your social media campaigns to better understand what marketing strategies are reaching your audience.
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