Video game streamers, who display their prowess in real time playing first-person shooters, sports, and adventure games, are now in a high-stakes battle over which platform to ply their trade on.
Over the last few months, $45 billion streaming platform Twitch has made changes that significantly decrease revenue sharing for creators. While this has inspired outrage across social media, after a recent change, many streamers say they're done with Twitch. This crop is increasingly migrating off the platform to online casino-owned Kick, an upstart platform that allows creators to keep 95% of their subscription revenues.
Earlier this month, popular video game streamer Ninja said he was ditching Twitch for Kick. ““Alright f**k it we’re getting off Twitch and going to YouTube, man,” he said in his final Twitch stream. “I’m getting off early. You know where else we’re going today, dude? That’s right ladies and gentlemen, for the first time ever we’re going to say YOLO swag f**k it, and test out Kick.”
And on Friday, Felix Lengyel, a top Twitch gamer known as xQc, announced that he has signed a two-year contract worth up to $100 million to move to Kick. The value of the deal is on par with what traditional megastar athletes like Lebron James command, according to the New York Times.
The moves have sent shockwaves through the streaming community, not least because Kick only officially launched in March. With its ties to an Australian online gambling firm, Kick makes an unlikely contender to emerge as a direct threat to Amazon’s Twitch streaming empire. Some Kick critics also point to its wild west approach to content moderation, which they say could come back to bite streamers, and fans, who make the move.
Kick says it attracted over 600,000 new users from June 7 to June 11, and the Kick app now ranks #87 in the Apple App Store, beating Zillow, Google Docs and YouTube Music.
“We don’t wanna leave Twitch bc of the community we’ve built but kinda being forced to go on Kick and start fresh bc Kick treats us better, it shouldn’t be this way,” writes Twitch Partner AdrianaStreams on Twitter. “Twitch do better. Without us steamers your platform would be nothing.”
The dissatisfaction with Twitch stems from its decision last fall to split subscription revenue 50/50 with Partners (users who meet this checklist), a significant decrease from the original 70/30 split that allowed creators to build livelihoods and businesses on the platform.
In an apparent olive branch on Thursday, Twitch announced the Partner Plus Program, restoring the 70/30 split for top tier creators (a group equating to just the 1,066 most popular creators on Twitch’s 14 million-person platform until creators) for earnings up to $100,000.
But the limited number of people eligible for the new Partner Plus program, as well as the various terms and conditions, do not appear to have calmed the waters. “This is so unobtainable right now based of off individual and reoccurring subs…this doesn’t help the streamers at all,” Tweeted Twitch Partner PaladinAmber in response to the new program.
On Kick, by contrast, the takings are huge. Streamers keep 100% of tips and 95% of subscriber revenue. In addition to Ninja, other high-profile Kick creators now include controversial gamer/Andrew Tate pal Adin Ross and Hikaru Nakamura.
But given Kick’s somewhat unsavory profile, including its gambling connection and its lax moderation policies, it remains to be seen if a majority of mainstream creators and streamers on Twitch make the move.
While Twitch-owner Amazon has plenty of corporate baggage, Kick’s corporate governance is on an entirely different level. The company is owned by Australian crypto casino operator Easygo Entertainment Pty Ltd, which also owns Curacao-based crypto gambling outfit Stake.com that’s banned in a number of countries, according to trade publication Bonus.
The questionable ownership, gambling content (banned on Twitch) and lack of moderation has upset a number of gamers over the last few days. A streamer who goes by GhostSocks says that Kick communities are hosted by former Twitch streamers who were banned from the Amazon company for “either toxic or gross reasons.” A number of other streamers and fans have taken to Twitter to say that Kick is inhospitable to women, minority and LGBTQIA+ users.
“Someone on Kick showed my Twitch stream to their community and repeatedly said that myself and the other LGBTQIA+ streamers are all pedophiles. I will say it again with my whole chest, Kick can get in the bin,” says nonbinary and queer Twitch Affiliate Ant Thunderfun in a Tweet.
Leadership at Kick did not respond to Fortune’s request for their response to this allegation nor this story. The company has, however, been quite active on social media--appealing to creators by trolling Twitch and liking content that critiques the Amazon-owned platform.
Meanwhile, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy went on a livestream to defend the controversial Partner Plus program.“We give you your stage,” he says. “We think this benefits you in terms of the community experience that this creates on your channel.” (This comment inspired many creators to respond with photos of dilapidated stages and ire.)
In theory, competition between platforms should be a good thing for streamers and creators. In the battle between Twitch and Kick however, there’s a lot to lose for all parties.
