Livestreaming services come and go more often than the tides ebb and flow, lapping at the sandy shores of streamers’ daydreams in order to siphon as much money from viewers as possible before rapidly retreating, leaving only muddy estuary sand and abandoned dreams of stardom in their wake. You’ll know the fates of Vine and Mixer already, so why are streamers flocking to Kick, when it looks like just another faddy livestreaming service in a long line of failed Twitch clones? The reasons are numerous, and many of them deplorable.
There are some legitimate reasons that people stream on Kick. Some see it as a new platform and a fresh start, a way of revitalising a potentially stagnant channel in search of another shot at stardom. The pay is better, too, offering a 95/5 split of revenue between streamers and itself, a vast improvement on Twitch’s oft-discussed 50/50.
Some streamers may be fed up with Twitch, too, and are looking for any way off the platform. The Amazon-owned livestreaming service has constantly belittled its streamers and treated them poorly, from the poor rates mentioned above to stringent partner programs and benefits offered to only the top one percent of creators. Again, that’s fair enough. YouTube often gets dismissed as a video producing site rather than a streaming one, and Facebook suffers from a similar fate of not being deemed a ‘proper’ host for streamers’ services, despite the success of many on those platforms.
Some people, however, have moved to Kick with worse intentions. Take streamer Tyler ‘Trainwreckstv’ Niknam, who moved to the platform and advocated for it after his gambling streams were banned from Twitch for potentially influencing young viewers. The streamer, who had been banned multiple times in the past due to sexist comments, claimed he had been paid as much as $360 million to play the slots on Stake.com on stream.
Kick has no rules against gambling, and was co-founded by Stake.com co-founder Ed Craven so the cryptocurrency site is likely in the streaming service’s good books. In fact, Craven told Streamscharts that Kick only has two rules: “'no pornography' and 'no hate speech.'”
The lenient rules have seen Kick become a haven for streamers banned on other services. Whether that’s right-wing Andrew Tate wannabe Adin Ross, who has appeared on stream with Craven, streamers wanting to gamble with reckless abandon like Trainwrecks, or those who feel like their sexist rants are being censored on other platforms, it’s as wretched a place as the internet can be.
The latest controversial figure to join Kick is Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, who signed a $100 million deal with the site earlier this month. The two-year deal is notable for surpassing the value of Lebron James’ $97 million two-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, but will also allow Lengyel more freedom in what he streams (he was also a big gambling streamer when Twitch allowed it). Lengyel was twice banned from playing in the Overwatch League for making homophobic and racist remarks, and his announcement of signing for Kick reportedly caused a million new signups to the platform.
There are myriad reasons why everyone hates Kick. The controversial personalities who are the face of the service are just the tip of the iceberg. People who don’t like cryptocurrency because of its environmental impact probably won’t watch Kick. People who don’t support the rehabilitation of streamers who have repeatedly made sexist, racist, transphobic, and everythingelseist statements will likely be out, too. People not interested in gambling streams plastered everywhere are out. Who’s left? Is that a community many other people want to be a part of?
Kick has built itself on appealing to a certain brand of streamers and their audiences. These are people who will cry ‘cancel culture’ when they face repercussions for their actions and sign eight- or nine-figure deals to broadcast their every thought to millions. This is not a service I support. Twitch isn’t great, but at least it’s got some semblance of moderation and ethics.