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Issue #221

Kick Just Hit 100 Million Users. Its Co-Founder Says That's Not Enough

Kick crosses 100 million registered users, but co-founder Bijan Tehrani says the platform still isn't where it needs to be. We look at what's changed, what's been quietly dropped, and whether creators should be paying attention.

100 Million Users, $1 Billion Spent, and Kick's Co-Founder Still Isn't Happy

Kick Just Hit 100 Million Users. Its Co-Founder Says That's Not Enough.webp

When Kick launched in January 2023, the reaction from most of the streaming industry was somewhere between skepticism and eye-rolling. A new Twitch competitor backed by the founders of online casino Stake? With a 95/5 revenue split that seemed financially unsustainable? Most people gave it a year, tops (myself included).

Three years later, Kick announced it has surpassed 100 million registered users (opens in a new tab). The platform now ranks as the third most popular livestreaming service by peak viewership, trailing only Twitch and YouTube. It regularly records over 500 million hours watched per month.

By any measure, Kick has outlasted Mixer, Caffeine, and (as of last week) DLive. That alone is worth paying attention to.

The Honest Confession

What makes this milestone interesting isn't the number itself. It's what co-founder Bijan Tehrani said alongside it.

In a remarkably candid post (opens in a new tab), Tehrani acknowledged that "we aren't where we need to or should be." He admitted the platform rushed to market with "weak plumbing" and unreliable streaming infrastructure. He called their own mobile app out, confirming it's being rebuilt from scratch with his personal involvement.

He also revealed that Kick has removed tens of millions of fake and spam accounts, and rejected thousands more from its creator payment program for viewbotting. We covered this in detail back in November. For a platform that has faced persistent criticism over inflated viewer counts, the continued transparency is notable.

The End of the Big-Money Era

Perhaps the most telling change is Kick's decision to end all of its massive exclusive creator contracts. You might remember the reported $100 million deal with xQc signing to Kick in June 2023.

Tehrani said those deals provided "short-term growth at the expense of good content." The funds that previously went to headline-grabbing contracts are now being redirected toward the Creator Incentive Program, clipping tools, and platform development.

This is a meaningful strategic pivot. Kick is essentially admitting that the "throw money at big streamers" approach that defined its first two years didn't build what they needed. It generated attention, but not a sustainable creator ecosystem.

What's Coming Next

Kick has laid out a few concrete plans worth watching:

  1. A V1 algorithm. Tehrani claims it will make Kick "the best long-form streaming platform for authentic engagement and discovery." That's a big promise, but if the algorithm genuinely surfaces smaller creators effectively, it would address one of Twitch's biggest pain points.
  2. Quiet ad rollout. Kick has started running non-obtrusive ads, which most users reportedly haven't even noticed. This is important because it signals a move toward revenue diversification beyond the Stake gambling connection.
  3. The 95/5 split stays. For now, Kick is maintaining its creator-friendly revenue model, with additional incentives for streamers who go exclusive.

Should You Be Streaming on Kick?

I predicted Kick would plateau in 2025, and these numbers suggest I was wrong on that one. Kick has earned the right to be taken seriously. I still think Twitch and YouTube are the stronger platforms for most creators, but Kick is a legitimate third option and worth enabling if you're thinking about multistreaming.

That said, it hasn't earned blind trust. The 95/5 split is great, but it only matters if there are real viewers watching your content. The Stake connection still makes advertisers uncomfortable. And Kick's reputation as the platform where you can stream things that wouldn't fly on Twitch or YouTube hasn't fully gone away. They've been tightening enforcement, but the content still skews edgier, and if brand-safety matters to you, that's worth factoring in.

If you're a smaller creator looking for better discoverability, it might be worth watching what the V1 algorithm delivers before going all-in.

Pete’s Content Corner

Delve into my weekly selection of content creation highlights - handpicked videos, podcasts, and tweets that promise to captivate, educate, and entertain.

  1. YouTube is testing a Premium-exclusive feature called Auto-Speed (opens in a new tab) that automatically adjusts playback speed throughout a video to help you get through content faster.
  2. OBS Studio dropped version 32.1 (opens in a new tab) with an overhauled audio mixer, WebRTC simulcast support for multi-quality streaming, and a new VAD-based noise suppression mode for NVIDIA RTX GPUs.
  3. Twitch and Minecraft launched "Tiny Takeover," a sponsored campaign (opens in a new tab) that ran April 6 through 8. The rates were roughly in line with (or above) the $1 per concurrent viewer per hour industry standard. For a platform that was previously offering pennies on the dollar, that's a significant shift.

Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read Stream Report.

Pete ✌️

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