In a nutshell
- Twitch Badges are small icons that appear next to user names in the chat window.
- Badges are used to identify Twitch staff, channel moderators, VIPs, subscribers and more.
- Twitch streamers can use badges to reward active community members, strengthen their brand and incentivize subscriber loyalty.
If you’ve ever watched a Twitch stream, you’ve likely noticed that some chat participants have little icons that appear in front of their user name. Those icons are Twitch badges. Let’s dig into what Twitch badges are, how they work and how you can use them to grow your Twitch following.
What is a Twitch badge?
On Twitch, a badge is simply a small icon that appears next to a user name. There are dozens of different badges to indicate things like VIP status or how long a viewer has been subscribed.
While only three such badges appear in the chat window at a time, you can click on a user name to cycle through all the badges associated with that account. Viewers can also toggle which badges show up when chatting.
Why badges?
The main use for badges is to distinguish different types of chat participants — chat moderators from regular viewers, for example. However, Twitch badges also offer a fun opportunity to reward your most loyal community members. Badges are seen as a mark of honor by many since they reflect a viewer’s status within the community.
Twitch chat badge Types
The most basic type of Twitch badge is the user-type chat badge. Some user-type badges appear sitewide and can only be assigned by Twitch. These include:
- Twitch staff: An employee of Twitch
- Admin: Personnel paid to enforce the Twitch Terms of Service
- Verified: Twitch Verified users
The last three are channel-specific:
- Broadcaster: The channel owner, a.k.a. streamer
- Chat moderator: A community member selected by the broadcaster to help keep the stream chat under control
- VIP: A community member recognized by the Broadcaster as a loyal member of the community; immune to channel moderation settings
Aside from the user-type badges listed above, chat participants can also earn chat badges. These badges include a Turbo User badge for Twitch Turbo subscribers and a Prime Gaming User badge for Prime Gaming subscribers.
Along with those, fans can also get Cheering Chat Badges and Sub Gifter Badges. Cheer badges come in tiers from one Bit (Twitch’s virtual currency) to 1 million Bits. Sub Gifter badges are tiered from one to 1,000. Leaderboard badges for both are also available to earn if enabled by the channel owner.
When to give out a badge
While you as a creator don’t have a lot of control over viewer badges, there are two badges that channel owners can award directly to community members.
First up is the VIP badge. This is a channel-specific badge meant to recognize your most loyal and trustworthy viewers — trustworthy because this badge makes viewers immune from the normal chat moderation settings. Don’t worry though, you can still moderate VIPs directly if they start to misbehave.
The other streamer-awarded badge is the Chat Moderator badge. This identifies your channel moderators so other viewers know who to seek out when you need to enforce your rules. Viewers with the badge have the power to time out and ban users as well as enable slow mode or Subscriber-only mode in chat. As such, make sure to only give this badge to people who you know are ready to take on this responsibility.
Subscriber badges
Subscriber badges, also known as Loyalty Badges, identify fans who support your channel monetarily as a Twitch subscriber. When a viewer subscribes to your channel, they automatically get the base version of your subscriber badge. Over time, the badge will evolve according to how long the fan stays subscribed. You can also add flair to your subscriber badges to indicate which subscription tier your fans belong to.
The best thing about subscriber badges is that, as a creator, you can customize the badge icon to match your channel branding. Streamers have gotten really creative with how their sub badges evolve to reward loyal subscribers. For instance, streamer xQc sticks with the gorilla face theme from his profile picture for his subscriber badges. The cute, pixel-art monkey badge evolves to be more and more demonic the longer the fan stays subscribed. Loserfruit takes a similar approach with a series of delightful fruit icons; her profile picture is a strawberry.
When designing custom sub badges, think about how you can use these badges to reinforce your channel branding. At the same time, make sure the progression of your badges offers a fun incentive that encourages fans to continue supporting your channel.
A final word on Twitch badges
For Twitch streamers, badges provide an easy way to recognize the most active and loyal community members. To make the most of Twitch badges, pay special attention to the Moderator, VIP and Subscriber badges. Try to use these badges in a way that complements your brand and helps your channel and community grow.