Twitch Prime is the latest perk for Amazon Prime subscribers, providing ad-free viewing and other features to the popular video livestreaming service. Those with an Amazon Prime membership, which costs $10.99 USD monthly or $99 annually, automatically have Twitch Prime alongside standard Prime features such as two-day free shipping and video streaming. Since Amazon acquired Twitch for $970 million in 2014, a deeper partnership between the two was bound to happen.
“We thought about what that might look like, and set to work designing and building something that would benefit the whole community,” Twitch’s Robin Fontaine writes. “We wanted to give you something filled with lots of cool free stuff that would make Twitch fans happy.”
Twitch Prime will include “free game loot” monthly such as a new Hearthstone hero or an indie game, and discounts on “new-release box games” sold by Amazon during the pre-order period until two weeks after launch. Linking an Amazon Prime account to a Twitch account adds exclusive emotes and chat badges, ad-free streams, and one free channel subscription every 30 days.
The new service will be replacing Twitch Turbo in countries where Twitch Prime is launching (U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Spain), though Turbo will not be discontinued in other countries. Fontaine notes in the FAQ that existing Turbo members can keep their subscriptions, but “considering everything included with Twitch Prime, we hope you’ll consider upgrading.” Turbo also provided ad-free streams and exclusive emoticons for $8.99 a month.
Current Amazon Prime members can link their accounts on the Twitch Prime website, or non-members can sign up for a 30-day free trial.