'What is Twitch Prime?': The best features of Twitch's popular membership program, which comes bundled with Amazon Prime

• Twitch Prime is a premium membership for Twitch users, which comes bundled with both Amazon Prime and Prime Video subscriptions.
• Twitch Prime members receive free games, in-game content, free subscriptions to their favorite channels, and more.
• When you subscribe to Twitch Prime, you'll also gain a special badge that displays next to all of your chat messages.
• To join Twitch Prime, you need to have either an Amazon Prime or Prime Video account — the services can't be unlinked.

Twitch Prime is a monthly subscription service that exists as an offshoot of Amazon Prime. Twitch Prime allows you to access premium content on Twitch that isn't accessible to most Twitch users.

If you're a big fan of Twitch, or even gaming in general, you might want to look into getting Twitch Prime. It'll earn you a wide range of benefits.

Here's what you should know.

Twitch Prime, explained

As stated, Twitch Prime is a monthly subscription service. To join, you'll need to have either an Amazon Prime or Prime Video account — these cost $12.99 per month and $8.99 per month, respectively.

Once you join, you gain a number of immediate benefits.

It usually costs $4.99 to subscribe to a Twitch channel for a month, but Twitch Prime lets you subscribe to one channel for free every month. Subscribing to a channel lets you unlock exclusive emotes, subscriber-only chats, and more. If you're lucky, the streamer might even give you a shoutout.

Whenever you send a chat message, no matter what channel it's on, your messages will be accompanied by a small icon that looks like a crown. This is a badge that's exclusive to Twitch Prime members.

Certain emotes, like KappaHD and FortBush, can only be used by Prime members. They'll be listed under "Unlocked" in the Emotes menu.

Every month, popular games like "League of Legends" and "Warframe" will offer exclusive in-game content for Prime members. This can include skins, loot boxes, downloadable content, and other bonuses. The items offered change each month.

This in-game loot can be gifted to friends, even if they don't have Prime.

You'll also have your pick from a wide range of free games, which can be downloaded and played in minutes.

If you're interested in signing up for Twitch Prime, signup should only take a few minutes. Check out our article on how to sign up for Twitch Prime, and get back to streaming.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• How to change your Twitch username in 6 simple steps, and rebrand your streaming channel

• How to get Twitch Prime, Twitch's membership service with access to free games and exclusive features

• How to subscribe to a channel on Twitch to show your support and unlock exclusive features

• How to change your profile picture on Twitch in 2 ways, or edit your current picture

• How to host another channel on Twitch, either manually or automatically

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