Kick.com came on very strong when it first went live on a global scale in 2022. Now that it has been online for over a year, I’m eager to look back at some of the bold promises and broad predictions made for the platform. Now the initial hype has passed, it seems traffic has slowed down, social buzz has moved on, and ultimately, Kick.com has all but died a grisly death. It seems it has faded away out of relevance after just twelve months.
It might be that the platform is just yet to gain traction in earnest. It’s arguable that the original boom was nothing more than early adopters hopping on that hype train. It could also be that everyone has gotten wise to Kick’s aggressive expansion tactics. Realizing that there aren’t as many opportunities to make the big bucks on the platform as they first thought. There were some huge acquisitions that fizzled out. The numbers are down. Kick’s socials aren’t growing much.
Is Kick.com already dead?
In early 2023, Kick.com was growing immensely fast. It was acquiring enormous streamers with $100 million contracts and promising small streamers the world. It suffered from a string of controversies, overcame some but the scandals just seem to keep surfacing. How much has this actually effect their numbers though? Let’s look at some data.
According to Esports Charts & Streams Charts, Kick’s viewership was boosted in September 2023, reaching a peak concurrent viewer count of 981,385. But, it’s worth mentioning that around 800,000 users out of that count were watching one exceptional creator. Elsewhere during the month, the peak channel count fell by 7% and the number of active channels fell by 6% overall. In August 2023, the peak viewer count fell by 25%, the peak channel count by 56%, and the average number of live channels by 24%.
Most staggering is their viewership compared to Twitch. In January 2024, Kick total viewership hit a new high at 132 million hours. In comparison, Twitch was at 1.9 Billion. Kick might still be growing but at a much slower pace than the overall live streaming industry.
Related: Kick vs. Twitch Explained
Kick’s growth has slowed immeasurably on social media platforms – like Twitter – and marketing seems to have taken a huge dip. It seems that some of those monumental acquisitions haven’t paid off, either. xQc’s arrival was heavily promoted. His Twitch streams are roughly keeping pace with those on Kick, with a similar average viewership. It’s been declining on both platforms though.
Elsewhere though, it’s not a strong comparison. At any given time, Kick has around the same total viewership has Twitch boasts in a single category. The biggest Twitch streamers dwarf the whole platform.
Loading up the Kick.com interface, you’re frequently greeted by a lacklustre front page. The whole thing toting strange streams as their best of the best: streamers watching copyrighted content, someone playing Warzone, and a e-girls wearing skimpy clothing. There were a few more channels recommended to me – slots, two ‘Just Chatting’ streams, and someone carving something out of wood. In the top live categories, the game sitting in the number one spot was PUBG, with just under 8 thousand viewers. An irrelevant number compared to the Just Chatting and Gambling sections.
At the same time, on Twitch, GTA V boasted 38,000 viewers and was far from the most popular game.
Ultimately, I found that Kick.com offered up a bleak welcome, it didn’t interest me or capture my attention, and I honestly can’t see why anyone would choose it over Twitch right now.
Related: Can You Earn Money on Kick.com?
I’ll be frank – up until a couple of months ago, I fully recognised Kick.com’s potential. I even wrote up an article discussing the potential for Kick.com to become a legitimate contender to Twitch. But, as time goes on, I feel the platform is becoming weaker, it’s losing its authority, and streamers who jumped onto the platform with stars in their eyes are now withdrawing en masse.
If the biggest advantage for Kick.com’s streamers is that ‘it’s easier to be discovered’, it’s only because there are so few streamers to compete with on the platform in the first place. At the end of the day, I just don’t think Kick managed to keep up the momentum it so easily gained in the early days, and I anticipate that within a few months to a year, it’ll be a shell site. I can’t see what Kick.com could do to turn things around, but at present, it’s not a good look for the platform that promised so much growth so early on.
But hey, I’ve been wrong before — maybe I’ll be wrong again.
Read Next: Is Kick.com Safe?
LOL
CS2
Dota 2
Valorant
Fortnite
Call of Duty
Mobile Games
Gaming
Kick is a lot better by far. You actually have rights and can do what you want. If I stay at Trump hotel due to having the money to due so, I am banned on Twitch because they have an agenda. I can do absolutely anything on Kick and at most they will ban me for 1 hour and then let me right back.
I agree, it is the best platform. I promoted gambling to kids and groomed underage girls, best platform by far.
Dumb article. The writer should get immediately fired and not be hired into this kind of job anymore.
Because he told the truth? Why would anyone want to be on a predator/gambling site like kick anyway….
and here in the comment section we have the common kick viewer / streamer … which shows why the platform is what it is.
Kick is worthless degenerate trash.
Kick streamers are botted heavily and they are not only buying bots but kick bots them as well. Nobody watches kick streamers it’s a way for the criminals to launder their gambling money