X is making a serious push to become a destination for live video, launching a new tool called Live Studio and pledging $1 million in creator payouts to attract streamers to the platform. Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced the tool on X with a demo showcasing how it works.
Stream controls, real-time analytics, and a $1 million payout
Live Studio lives inside X’s Creator Studio, giving streamers a dedicated command center for going live. Creators can control who gets to watch, with audience spanning everyone on the platform, verified accounts only, followers, or paid subscribers. Setting up a stream is pretty straightforward, with Live Studio making it easy to add a title and thumbnail and even allowing users to schedule streams. During a broadcast, the tool also surfaces real-time data including viewer count, geographic breakdown, and which devices people are watching on.
Alongside Live Studio, Bier announced that X will allocate $1 million to creators who go live in the upcoming payout cycle, though he did not outline how the money will be distributed. At this point, it’s unclear whether payouts will be based on viewership, engagement, or some other metric.
X’s subscription wall and shaky track record
Live streaming on X has a catch. As Engadget points out, the feature is only available to users paying for an X Premium subscription, which starts at $3 a month. That barrier limits the pool of creators who can participate from day one. On top of that, X has a spotty record with live events, with high-profile streams on the platform crashing under the weight of demand.
The lack of payout transparency makes it hard to weigh X’s live streaming push against rivals like Twitch, which has a solid creator economy built around subscriptions, ads, and tips that gives streamers a predictable income. Creators interested in a share of the $1 million payout should wait for X to publish the specific before committing to streaming on the platform.