X Scraps Revenue Sharing Program for New Original Content Rewards System

TL;DR

• X is officially winding down its Ad Revenue Sharing program, admitting the engagement-based payout model incentivized rage-bait, spam, and reply-farming instead of quality content.
• Its replacement, Original Content Rewards, will pay creators based on the performance and value of their own original posts — including Premium subscriber engagement, video views, and time spent — not ads shown in replies.
• The shift is a major blow to copy-paste and aggregation accounts while rewarding creators who post exclusive, high-performing original content, with the transition taking effect in the coming weeks.

The Payout Model That Broke the Platform

When X, formerly Twitter, launched its Ad Revenue Sharing program in July 2023, it was pitched as a way to let creators directly benefit from the conversation they generated. The formula was simple: if you were a Premium subscriber with enough followers and impressions, you got a cut of the ad revenue from ads served in the replies to your posts.

In practice, that model created a perverse incentive structure. Because payouts were tied to overall engagement and impressions on ads in replies — not the quality of the original post — the system was quickly gamed. The platform was flooded with engagement farming, rage-bait, controversial hot takes, and low-effort copy-paste accounts designed to do one thing: maximize replies at any cost.

X itself has acknowledged the misalignment. In announcing the change, the company said the old system rewarded content that drove arguments in the comments rather than content people actually valued, diluting the experience for users and advertisers alike. The result was a timeline that often prioritized outrage over originality.

How Original Content Rewards Will Work

The new system, called Original Content Rewards, represents a fundamental philosophical shift in how X wants to monetize creativity. Instead of paying for the conversation around a post, X will now pay for the value of the post itself.

While full eligibility details are still rolling out, X has outlined several core pillars for the new program:

Payouts Based on Premium Engagement: Rewards will be calculated based on meaningful engagement from Premium subscribers on a creator’s original content, rather than all impressions. This includes metrics like views, likes, reposts, and replies from paying users, which X sees as a higher-quality signal.

Focus on Originality and Video: The system is designed to explicitly reward original content. Text posts, long-form articles, and especially native video and live streams are expected to earn the most. Reposted, lightly edited, or AI-scraped content will be devalued or demonetized entirely.

Quality Over Quantity Signals: X says it will also factor in more nuanced signals like watch time for videos, time spent on articles, and follower growth from content, moving away from raw impression counts. The goal is to reward content that keeps users on the platform longer, not just content that makes them angry enough to comment.

Creators will still need to be Premium subscribers and meet follower and engagement thresholds to qualify, but the application process will be migrated to a new dashboard under the Monetization tab.

What This Means for Creators and Publishers

For creators, this is not just a name change — it’s a complete reset of the playbook for earning on X.

The biggest winners will be creators who already focus on original, platform-native content. Video creators, long-form writers, podcast hosts, and commentators who build a loyal, paying audience will likely see a significant increase in earnings. X is clearly trying to compete with YouTube and TikTok by incentivizing content that is made for X, not just cross-posted to it.

The biggest losers will be the aggregation and engagement-farming accounts that thrived under the old system. Accounts that built large followings by reposting viral memes, news headlines without added context, or asking divisive questions like “What’s your most unpopular opinion?” to farm replies will see their revenue collapse. Publishers who primarily use X to link out to external websites may also need to rethink their strategy, as external links without native original content are expected to be weighted lower.

Is This Finally a Sustainable Creator Economy?

For advertisers and everyday users, the change could be a welcome fix. By tying payouts to content that Premium users actually watch and value, X hopes to clean up the timeline, reduce spam, and make the platform more brand-safe.

For X, the stakes are high. The Revenue Sharing program was a key part of Elon Musk’s pitch to make X a creator-first platform and keep top talent from leaving for rivals. If Original Content Rewards succeeds in rewarding quality, it could finally deliver on that promise. If the payouts are lower or the algorithm feels opaque, it risks alienating the very creators it’s trying to keep.

X says Revenue Sharing payouts will continue for a short transition period before being fully replaced by Original Content Rewards later this month. Creators currently enrolled will need to agree to the new terms to remain eligible.

AndroGuider Team

Articles written by the AndroGuider team. We try to make them thorough and informational while being easy to read.