>>9180981>>9181479In terms of revenue its actually very good. One of the best features that twitch has ever added to encourage spending.
It's basically feeding into people's parasocial tendencies. Part of twitch culture is making channels feel like a "community". By donating subs high paying whales feel like they are gaining status while simultaneously growing the group. Sub gifters often fight with each other to become the top. The image I posted is a small indie vtuber who averages 20-30 CCV. See the major difference between 3rd and 4th place.
As for growing the audience this has more to do with psychology. If you were a twitch watcher that enjoys 10 different channels for example but one of them you were randomly gifted a sub then it'll definitely give you a reason to pick certain streams over others.
Gifted subs are also a way to give viewers a trial of membership benefits. Getting users to try out the emotes/membership streams while also playing into FOMO when they will lose their membership streak badge can encourage repeat spending. A superchat is often a one time deal however a gifted sub has the chance of converting a nonpaying user to a long term sub/member.
Finally gifting subs is the best way to involve the streamer to gamble their own money for the sake of chat entertainment. Its very common for streamers to do challenge where they say something like "If I don't beat this in an hour im gifting 20 subs" this encourages viewers to join the channel for the chance to win subs while also increasing the stakes proving more entertaining content all around.
