The monthly price for ad-free viewing on Twitch is about to go up. Twitch Turbo is jumping from $8.99 to $11.99 in the United States.
The price increase isn’t limited to the U.S. though, with prices going up across the globe for that ad-free viewing. Twitch Turbo subscribers were notified about the price increase in an email yesterday, with Twitch Support documents now showcasing the price increase for various countries. Current subscribers will continue to pay the $8.99 rate for three more months.
“If you don’t renew within the next three months, your Turbo subscription will stop renewing on August 31, though your benefits may extend into September depending on your sub renewal date,” Twitch told its users. Many users are unhappy that a $3 price hike brings no new features. Meanwhile, some users are reporting as much as a 60% price increase in their region.
“I paid for Turbo because it was relatively cheap and worked 99% of the time. A casual 60% price increase in my region means I’ll go back to adblocking and throwing a couple of dollars at the streamers I watch every month,” one user wrote on reddit about the news of a Twitch Turbo price hike.
“$11.99/month? Are they nuts? At that rate, I can subscribe to YouTube Premium and access a much wider array of content. And to be completely honest, the only reason I kept Twitch Turbo around was that it was cheaper than the price of two Twitch channel subscriptions. I will not be renewing,” says another.
The rising cost of subscriptions has many people across the globe paring down their entertainment budget. Spotify decided not to raise prices yet, despite its competitors Apple Music and YouTube Premium doing so.
“We’d like to raise prices in 2023,” Daniel Ek told investors during the Q1 2023 earnings call. But he cautioned the decision will revolve around ongoing negotiations with label partners. “When the timing is right, we will raise it and that price increase will go down well because we’re delivering a lot of value for our customers,” Ek continues.