To enable Drops on Twitch as a streamer, open your Creator Dashboard, select Viewer Rewards and then Drops (the page lives at dashboard.twitch.tv/drops), switch the Drops toggle on, and go live in the category of a game whose Drops campaign is running and open to your channel. Twitch then adds the Drops Enabled tag for you. You do not type that tag yourself, and since Twitch rebuilt Drops in 2023 you no longer need to link your own game account for a campaign to appear on your channel.
Whether a campaign appears at all is not your call. Game developers and publishers create Drops campaigns, pick the game category, set the dates and the rules viewers must meet, and decide whether every channel streaming the game can take part or only a list they choose. This guide covers the settings, the eligibility conditions and the rules for streaming with Drops on, then gives you a readiness checklist and a short explainer you can paste into a panel for viewers.
Who controls what in a Drops campaign
Twitch's Drops overview for developers describes Drops as a way for game developers to grant in-game rewards to viewers when streamers play their game. Developers can also use a feature called Creator Campaign Access, which developers often call a streamer allowlist, to name the creators who may offer a campaign; when no creators are added, the default is that any channel can take part. The viewer side has three separate steps, according to Twitch's help article on how to earn Drops and in-game rewards: earning and claiming happen on Twitch, while delivering the item into the game is the developer's responsibility.
| Party | What they control | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Game developer or publisher | The game category, the campaign dates, the rewards, the watch-time or subscription rules, and which channels may offer the campaign | The campaign card under Viewer Rewards > Drops, plus any Drops page the publisher runs |
| Twitch | Progress tracking, the Drops Enabled tag, the claim step and each viewer's Drops Inventory | The banner and Drops icon in your chat while a campaign is active |
| You, the streamer | The global Drops toggle, opting out of single campaigns, your stream category and being live | Creator Dashboard > Viewer Rewards > Drops, and Edit Stream Info in Stream Manager |
| Your viewers | Linking their game account, watching live, claiming rewards before the deadline | Their Drops Inventory and the Drops & More panel in your chat |
Turning Drops on, off, or off for one campaign
- Click your profile picture and open the Creator Dashboard.
- In the left-hand menu, expand Viewer Rewards and select Drops.
- Switch on the Drops toggle at the top of the page. This is the global setting for your channel.
- Scroll through the open campaigns. Expand any campaign you do not want on your channel and switch that one off; the others stay on.
The streamer questions at the end of the same Drops help article confirm each step: turning the toggle off stops your viewers earning progress on your channel, you can opt out of individual campaigns while staying in others, and connecting or disconnecting your game account no longer changes whether your channel participates. Twitch's Creator Dashboard guide puts the consequence plainly: if Drops are disabled on your channel, your viewers are not eligible.
Old advice still circulates that streamers must link a game account, such as a launcher login, before Drops can appear on their channel. That was true once. Twitch's 2023 developer forum post on improving the flexibility of Drops announced that streamers would no longer need to link for campaigns built on the new version, and the current help article agrees. You still need a linked account to earn Drops yourself as a viewer.
Why Drops might not appear on your stream
Twitch's help article lists the conditions for the automatic Drops Enabled tag: there is an active campaign for the game, you are streaming that game, you have opted in, your stream category is set to the game, and your channel is eligible to offer the campaign. If one condition fails, the tag does not appear. Work through the likely causes in order:
| What you notice | Likely cause | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| The campaign shows in your dashboard but not on stream | It has not started yet | The campaign status and start time; upcoming campaigns are visible to creators before launch |
| No tag even though you are playing the game | Your category is still set to something else, such as a pre-show chat category | Edit Stream Info in Stream Manager, and switch the category to the game itself |
| Other channels have Drops and yours does not | The publisher limited the campaign to an allowlist that does not include you | The campaign description, or the publisher's creator programme page if it has one |
| Drops stopped partway through a campaign | The global toggle or that campaign's own switch is off | Viewer Rewards > Drops, both the top toggle and the expanded campaign |
| The campaign has vanished from your list | It ended, possibly earlier than you expected because its times were set in UTC | The end date converted to your time zone, and the next campaign's dates |
| You cannot see your own progress when testing | Viewers cannot earn Drops from their own channel while streaming | Ask a viewer or a moderator to confirm what appears in chat |
Timing details come from Twitch's Drops Campaign Guide, which tells developers that campaigns run for a maximum of 28 days, that times are entered in UTC, and that once a campaign is live, channels streaming the game show the Drops Enabled tag and followers of those streamers may get a notification encouraging them to tune in. It also says the campaign description a developer writes appears on the Drops page of each creator's dashboard, so that description is the first place to look for any conditions the publisher has added.
Rules for streaming with Drops on
Drops attract viewers who want a reward, which is exactly why Twitch polices how they are earned. Its Community Guidelines say Drops are meant to be earned during live gameplay with your community, not through static images, rebroadcasts of old VODs or footage, or streams where you are not interacting with anyone. A short break behind a temporary “be right back” screen during a game with Drops is given as an allowed example; using VODs or static images with the core purpose of “Drop farming” is given as a prohibited one. The same guidelines list cheating the Twitch rewards system, naming Drops and channel points, among banned spam and malicious conduct.
Labelling matters as well. The guidelines expect you to choose the category and tags that best describe your stream, so switch categories when you switch activity rather than leaving a Drops game selected during a chat segment. Twitch's article on content classification labels says the Mature-Rated Game label updates automatically when you change game mid-stream, but other labels, such as those for violent or graphic content, remain your job.
Twitch does not ask for a special title or tag to run Drops. If you mention Drops in your title or go-live notification, make sure the campaign is live on your channel when you do, and name the rewards accurately; a title promising rewards that viewers cannot earn on your stream misleads the people you most want to keep.
What your viewers need to know
Most Drops questions in chat are about the viewer side, and the How to Earn Drops article answers them. The points worth repeating to your community:
- Link the game account first, from the campaign in the Drops Inventory, and confirm the link shows as connected on both Twitch and the game's site.
- Only live viewing counts. VODs, replays and clips do not earn progress.
- Progress builds on one campaign at a time, and watching two Drops streams at once does not speed it up; switching channels mid-way keeps the progress.
- Ad blockers can stop progress tracking, so the article suggests disabling them and refreshing.
- For subscription Drops, Prime subscriptions and renewals of existing subscriptions do not count; new paid or gifted subscriptions must be bought while the channel is live in the right category during the campaign.
- The same Twitch article says unclaimed rewards can be claimed from the Drops Inventory for up to 7 days (168 hours) after the campaign ends.
- Delivery into the game is the developer's job, so missing items go to the game's support team, not Twitch's.
- Drops do not work in console or smart TV apps, and age-restricted or managed game accounts may be blocked from linking.
Adapt this panel or chat-command text for each campaign:
Drops are on for [game] until [end date and time in your time zone]. To earn them, link your [game] account from your Twitch Drops Inventory, watch while I am live (VODs do not count), then claim the reward in your inventory. [Publisher] delivers the items, so contact their support if something does not arrive.
Drops readiness checklist
- Confirm the campaign appears under Viewer Rewards > Drops, and note its status, start and end.
- Check whether it is open to every channel streaming the game or limited to named creators.
- Convert the start and end times from UTC and add the sessions to your Twitch schedule; our guide to the best time to stream on Twitch explains how to plan around campaign weeks.
- Switch on the global toggle and switch off any individual campaign you do not want on your channel.
- Set the category to the campaign's game before you go live, and change it whenever you switch to something else.
- Read the campaign description for reward names and any extra conditions the publisher has set.
- Prepare the viewer panel and a chat command using the explainer above.
- Plan genuine live gameplay for every session, keeping the be-right-back screen for short breaks only.
- Apply any content classification labels the game's content needs beyond the automatic mature-rated label.
- Ask a moderator to confirm that the banner and Drops icon show in chat in your first session.
- After the campaign, compare follows and subscriptions with a similar earlier period in Channel Analytics.
That last step matters because Twitch does not attribute subscriptions to Drops for you. Its help article says you cannot directly see how many subscriptions came from subscription-based Drops, and suggests comparing the campaign period with earlier ones in Channel Analytics instead. It also confirms that subscription revenue from Drops purchases is paid at your usual revenue share.
Drops are viewer rewards, not a sponsorship
Turning on Drops does not create a deal between you and the publisher, and no campaign fee comes with it. If a publisher offers to pay you, or to give you something of value, to play their game during a campaign, that is branded content with its own disclosure duties, covered in our guide on how to get sponsored as a streamer. The developer documentation notes that allowlisted campaigns are often used for co-marketing with specific creators or a company's own creator programme, so a publisher that runs regular campaigns in your category is worth approaching with a proper offer. Our streamer sponsorship proposal template gives you the structure, and the clips you collect during a campaign make useful proof, as our guide to promoting your Twitch channel explains.
Limitations
This guide reflects Twitch's help and developer pages as they read today, and Drops have changed more than once; the 2023 rebuild alone altered how streamers join campaigns. Each publisher sets its own rewards, rules and eligibility, so we cannot tell you whether a particular game's campaign will include your channel, and Twitch's pages cannot either. Help articles can also lag behind the dashboard, so if a menu name differs from what you see here, follow the dashboard. Problems with items arriving in a game sit with the publisher's support team, which is outside Twitch's control and outside this guide.