In-stream or Twitch drops have become a popular ‘gift’ to committed esports viewers. They’re meant to reward spectators who spend their time watching their favourite esports tournaments and cheering their teams. It can also be a nice consolation prize if your favourite team loses. But Twitch drops aren’t just related to esports; in fact, game publishers often use promotional periods before a beta test begins to offer up beta keys to viewers, if they watch the publisher’s Twitch stream. So, with all that in mind, what are Twitch drops actually and how do they work?
Twitch Drops include rewards for watching Twitch streams of game publishers or esports tournaments.
In order to claim Twitch Drops, you will have to connect your Twitch and game accounts.
Drop campaigns change frequently and there are always more than 10 games with valid Twitch drops.
Simply put, Twitch drops are rewards you get for watching specific Twitch streams. But there are a couple of nuances associated with them and it’s a good idea to understand them fully so you can maximize your chances. Twitch partners with various game developers and/or publishers to make the drops reality, so you can expect a lot of variety between different games. For instance, World of Tanks has three types of drops: Guaranteed Drops, Mystery Drops, and Mission Drops. Let’s explain each type (remember, these are specifically for WoT):
In essence, Twitch drops can give the viewer items, skins, or other in-game mechanics just for watching a live stream. There are also multiple tiers of rewards that are related to your viewing time; as long as you are watching the stream, you’ll continue gaining points toward unlocking the next drop tier.
While the process of earning and claiming Twitch drops is pretty simple, there is some preparation work to be done. This is divided into three segments:
It goes without saying that you need a Twitch account to make this work. But in case you don’t have one, go ahead and create it via the registration process. After that, you’ll have to connect your account with your game(s) of choice. No matter which game you pick, it should have an option to connect an account through Twitch (provided there are drops for that game). You’ll have to enter your credentials to log in, but once that’s done, you will be able to gather progress to the drops and claim them.
If you want to know which games and streams are currently part of a drop campaign, Twitch has a handy section with all the info you need.
You’ll be greeted with a collection of information pertaining to the chosen drop campaign. We’ve taken the upcoming Civilization VII (which is currently in Early Access) as an example of what you’ll see.
For this particular campaign, you’ll have to watch for 30 minutes to get the reward banner. And they even made it easier for you to connect the game with Twitch thanks to the purple ‘Connect’ button at the bottom!
After completing a campaign milestone, you’ll receive a notification that the reward is ready to be claimed. If you fail to do so before the campaign ends, you’ll have to wait for 7 days, after which the rewards will appear in your Drops Inventory.
The list of available games changes frequently and is at the discretion of Twitch and the game publishers. However, there are plenty of games in whose drop campaigns you can participate in so there’s a lot up for grabs as well. Usually it’s a mix of various genres like RTS, Simulation, Sports, MOBA, etc.
Currently, some popular titles include Elite: Dangerous, Planet Coaster 2, Genshin Impact, Lost Ark, League of Legends, CoD: Warzone, Path of Exile 2, and THE FINALS.
Unfortunately, you will have to be diligent with claiming rewards because they do expire. Each Twitch drop will have a ‘claim-by date’, after which it will be lost from your inventory forever. The best thing to do is redeem it as soon as possible, because there were also some rare instances when the drops disappeared from viewers’ inventories days, or even weeks before the claim-by date.
The time constraint is nothing extreme as most campaigns last for up to a month so you’ll have plenty of time to claim your rewards in time. Just make sure to keep an eye on the date and don’t miss it!
The first Twitch drops were rolled out in 2017 for SMITE and Paladins. It goes without saying that the first campaign was wildly successful since the entire system evolved quite a lot since then.
In May 2020, Valorant led the “Drops” charge by offering free beta access keys on Twitch. Here at Esports.net we managed to get a Valorant key early in the giveaway thanks to Riot Games and Summit1G and then we played over 300 games. The Valorant beta key drop was hugely popular but it came to an end when Riot Games released the full version of the game.
Publishers and streaming platforms have been working hard to improve the watch experience for viewers and attract more to their own platforms or games. But the age of Twitch drops is not yet over, as evidenced by the sheer number of available drop campaigns that are active on a regular basis.
Though Twitch drops certainly incentivized new Valorant fans and generally in-stream drops are attracting attention. There is a danger that spectators are watching purely to gain their reward, perhaps generating unduly inflated audience figures rather than engaged repeat viewers. Inflated numbers might give a false sense of security about the quality of the stream, even for premier broadcasts.
There’s also an argument to be made that drops are ruining things for passionate streamers, just like TV ads used to do for watchers. Both arguments could go either way; those dropping into streams looking for freebies might decide to return just for the content.
Advertising and media rights revenue is a major contributor to esports net worth. Streaming is just one offshoot niche to esports popularity, with esports betting being another that’s attracting the attention of fans new and old.
At the end of the day, the only thing you need to give in order to get these drops is your time. Well, sometimes your subscription but those drops are even more high-end than the ones given out for just your viewership. So since you’ve got nothing to lose, you may as well check out a few active campaigns related to your favourite games and turn on the streams.
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