SOOP (formerly AfreecaTV): what the platform is and how to stream on it

SOOP is a South Korean streaming platform that was called AfreecaTV until October 2024. The site lives at sooplive.com, the interface comes in five languages including English, and a foreigner can sign up with an email or a social account, no Korean phone number needed. You can stream through the built-in FreecShot app, the mobile app or OBS: OBS already has a ready-made SOOP service, and the key is taken from the external broadcast page. A streamer's main income is Star Balloon (별풍선), virtual "star balloons" that viewers buy for roughly 110 won apiece. There is no separate global version any more: in 2026 it was merged with the Korean one.

What SOOP is and where it came from

The platform grew out of the W service, launched in beta in May 2005 and soon renamed Afreeca. It is one of the first sites in the world where viewers paid the creator live through virtual gifts, long before bits on Twitch.

The rebranding happened in several steps:

When	What happened
March 2024	AfreecaTV Co. changed its name to SOOP Co.
April 2024	On the Kosdaq exchange the shares started trading under the name SOOP
June 5, 2024	Beta of the global SOOP platform launched for viewers outside Korea (sooplive.com)
October 15, 2024	The Korean AfreecaTV officially became SOOP (site sooplive.co.kr)
January 12, 2026	Start of merging the Korean and global versions into a single service
March 4, 2026	Start of the phased shutdown of the separate global version
March 24, 2026	The main domain changed from sooplive.co.kr to sooplive.com

In the same year, 2024, Twitch left Korea: on February 27 it ceased operations in the country because of high network costs. Its streamers split between SOOP and Naver's CHZZK.

BJ culture

For almost twenty years, creators on AfreecaTV were called BJs, short for broadcasting jockeys. After the rebrand they are officially called streamers, but the word BJ is still alive. A BJ is a host who builds the broadcast around talking with donors: thanks them for every balloon, does challenges for gifts, holds collab streams (합방) and team tournaments like 멸망전, which has been played since 2014 in StarCraft, League of Legends and Overwatch.

Audience

According to Mobile Index, at the start of 2026 SOOP has about 2.3 million monthly active users, and CHZZK about 3.5 million. However, Korean media estimate that SOOP has a more loyal core of viewers and longer watch time. There are about 30 thousand active streamers, and the audience is mostly Korean. Foreigners are drawn by esports, KBO baseball and billiards.

Korean and global versions: what changed in 2026

From June 2024 to March 2026 SOOP ran two services. In the global version there were Gems instead of balloons, and streamers got Affiliate and Partner statuses. The Korean one followed its own rules: Star Balloon and Korean streamer tiers.

In January 2026 SOOP announced the One SOOP strategy and merged both versions. Accounts, gems and subscriptions were moved to a single service based on the Korean version, and the global site was shut down in March 2026. There are five interface languages: Korean, English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and Thai. Old guides about gems and Affiliate on SOOP are out of date.

Sign-up: what a foreigner needs

For users from abroad, the SOOP help center describes two ways:

• regular sign-up — login, password, email, gender, date of birth and consent (or refusal) to marketing emails;
• via a social account — the same data, only without a password.

A Korean phone number and a Korean ID are not required. Login and password recovery for overseas accounts goes through email.

There are restrictions, though. Broadcasts and viewing marked 19+ are unavailable to accounts without real-name verification, and age has to be confirmed every year. SOOP also lists features that do not work outside Korea: the SOOP store, match predictions, advertising balloons (Ad Balloon), auto-renewal of subscriptions, some promotions. The AI services SAVYG and SARSA are available only with the Korean interface. We do not advise getting around these restrictions: verification with someone else's data is directly forbidden by SOOP rules.

How to start streaming on SOOP

There are three ways to go live.

FreecShot — the built-in studio

1. Log in to sooplive.com and click the camera icon (FreecShot) in the top right corner.
2. In the scene control block at the bottom, click "+ Add".
3. Choose a source: an external device for a webcam, or game capture for a game stream.
4. Fill in the title, category and broadcast language, then start the stream.

FreecShot has a Direct Streaming mode: with it you can show official SOOP broadcasts, sports and esports, on your own channel without a capture card.

From a phone

The SOOP app works on Android 8 and newer and iOS 15 and newer. Open the app, tap the broadcast button, set the title and category and go live.

Through OBS

1. On the SOOP site, open the external broadcast page (External Device Broadcast). It shows the server address and the Stream Name, which is your key.
2. In OBS open "Settings" — "Stream". Pick SOOP from the list of services (AfreecaTV in older OBS versions) or "Custom" and paste the server address and the key.
3. Set the output parameters to the platform limits (table below).
4. Click "Start Streaming" and check the broadcast on your channel.

Never show the key to anyone. If it has leaked, reset it on the same page and paste the new one into OBS.

Parameter	Value for SOOP
Codec	H.264 only
Video bitrate	up to 8000 kbps
Audio bitrate	up to 192 kbps
Keyframe interval	2 seconds
Profile	main
Resolution	1920×1080 recommended

The limits are taken from the built-in SOOP profile in OBS, the resolution from the SOOP help. SOOP does not publish a frame rate recommendation in text. For more on the encoder, scenes and audio, see our guide to setting up OBS for streaming.

Be sure to set the broadcast language in the stream settings. There are 17 options, and SOOP uses this tag to decide who sees your stream first. Since August 2026 the platform automatically translates chat if the viewer's language and the stream language differ, but translation works only for the five interface languages: Korean, English, the two Chinese variants and Thai.

Monetization: Star Balloon, subscriptions, statuses

Star Balloon (별풍선)

The star balloon is the main currency of support. A viewer buys balloons and sends them to the streamer during the broadcast or under a recording, and the streamer later exchanges them for money. On PC and in a mobile browser one balloon costs 110 won. Since April 28, 2026 they are again sold through Google Play and App Store in-app purchases, but there a balloon costs 160 won because of store fees.

SOOP does not publish the streamer's official share in its help. Korean media consistently cite this scheme: a regular streamer gets about 60% of a balloon's price, Best 70%, Partner 80%. The minimum for withdrawal is 500 balloons. Money is paid only to an account in the channel owner's name. Requests submitted from Monday to Sunday are paid on the Thursday of the following week. Balloons from foreign viewers are withdrawn with a separate request.

Subscriptions

A subscription is a monthly payment to a specific streamer. There are Basic and Plus tiers, terms of 1, 3 and 6 months, and gift subscriptions. A subscriber gets emojis, a badge, ad-free viewing and access to private recordings. According to the SOOP help, the streamer gets 70% of subscriptions. Money can be withdrawn once you have at least 20 subscriptions, and overseas subscriptions are converted at 1 dollar = 1100 won.

Best and Partner

The Best Streamer status is granted on application once a month: you can apply from the 1st to the 14th. Minimum requirements: 500 hours of broadcasts, 500 followers, 60 days of broadcasting over the last 3 months (at least 30 of them live), no bans over 3 months and 5 completed SOOP training courses. Then comes a points-based selection — between 40 and 100 people pass each month.

Partner Streamer is already an individual contract with SOOP. There are no public requirements, and the terms are discussed separately. Since September 29, 2026 there is also an emblem system for total viewer count: the first, Silver, is for 5 million.

What this means for a streamer from Russia and the CIS

The SOOP help describes payouts to Koreans in detail, and for foreigners only in general terms. Russian bank cards are not accepted abroad, so viewers from Russia will find it hard to pay for balloons. How SOOP pays streamers with overseas accounts in the merged service is not officially spelled out. Before counting on income, check the payouts section in your dashboard and write to support.

SOOP or CHZZK: which to choose

	SOOP	CHZZK
Owner	SOOP Co. (formerly AfreecaTV)	Naver
Monthly audience	about 2.3 million	about 3.5 million
Main income	Star Balloon	donations and subscriptions
International course	single service in 5 languages, chat auto-translation	focused on Korea
LCK in 2026	broadcasts and partnership with 7 of 10 teams	broadcasts and partnership with 3 teams

CHZZK is built into Naver's Korean ecosystem, while since 2026 SOOP has openly been building an international platform with chat translation and subtitles. For more on the competitor, see the article on how to stream on CHZZK.

Is it worth a Russian-speaking streamer going to SOOP? As the main platform — probably not: there are few Russian-speaking viewers there, search and recommendations work first of all for Koreans, and withdrawing money from Russia is unclear. As an extra platform — yes, if you make content about Korea, K-pop, Korean esports, StarCraft or speak Korean or English. Our piece on where to stream in 2027 will help you compare SOOP with other platforms.

Platform culture and popular categories

According to SOOP's internal data for March 2026, games bring 61% of traffic, talk and entertainment streams 18%, hobbies and other 19%, sports 2%. What people watch most:

• esports — League of Legends (LCK, LPL, LEC), Valorant, PUBG, Tekken; SOOP has its own leagues, ASL for StarCraft and SVL for Valorant;
• StarCraft — historically the main game of AfreecaTV;
• talk streams and mukbang — the classic BJ format;
• virtual streamers — after Twitch left, this category grew by 60% in the number of simultaneous streams;
• sports — KBO baseball, UMB billiards, international broadcasts.

The Korean press has criticized the platform for years for streams where hosts compete for donations (엑셀방송) and for explicit content. The rebrand and the bet on esports are largely meant to get away from that image. A newcomer should remember that donation culture here is much stronger than on Twitch, and 19+ streams are available only to verified accounts.

How to get your first viewers

A new channel on any platform is hard to grow from zero: an empty stream does not get into recommendations. On our site you can order viewers for SOOP and see how a stream looks with stable viewership. Note that the service currently works temporarily without authorization: the viewers do not log in to SOOP accounts. If you want to try the service for free first, there is a free test.

Frequently asked questions

Are AfreecaTV and SOOP the same thing?

Yes. The Korean AfreecaTV became SOOP on October 15, 2024, and today it is a single service at sooplive.com.

Can I sign up for SOOP from Russia?

The SOOP help for overseas users requires only an email or a social account, a login, gender and date of birth. A Korean phone is not needed. But some features do not work outside Korea, and 19+ content is available only after real-name verification.

How much does one Star Balloon cost?

110 won when bought on PC or in a mobile browser, and 160 won through in-app purchases (since April 2026). Money can be withdrawn from 500 balloons.

What bitrate should I set in OBS for SOOP?

Up to 8000 kbps for video and up to 192 kbps for audio, H.264 codec, a keyframe every 2 seconds, resolution 1920×1080.

Does SOOP have an equivalent of Twitch Affiliate?

The Affiliate and Partner statuses existed only in the global version, which was shut down in 2026. Now the tiers are Korean: a regular streamer, Best (by application, from 500 hours of broadcasts and 500 followers) and Partner (by individual contract).

Can I stream on SOOP in Russian?

The SOOP help has no ban on the broadcast language. But the Russian-speaking audience on the platform is small, and chat auto-translation works only for Korean, English, Chinese and Thai. So for a Russian-speaking creator SOOP is more of an additional platform.