Esports viewership is rapidly growing on Kick, setting new records
Kick has undergone a dramatic shift in its content and viewership over the past two years, with stats suggesting the platform has the potential to be the next big esports streaming hub if its growth continues at the same pace and new records continue to be set.
When Kick was launched in 2022, skepticism ran high. Twitch was already firmly established as leading player in the gaming and streaming world. While the new platform was successful in quickly finding an audience in the betting and IRL streaming spaces, esports typically remained on its fringes.
But in 2025, Kick has entered the esports conversation as one of the most involved streaming platforms in the space, and it’s quickly closing the gap with established giants by attracting more tournament broadcasts, competitive streamers, and the viewing audiences that once defaulted to Twitch or YouTube.
Competitive gaming finds bigger place on Kick
Kick found fast success in gambling and IRL spaces immediately after its launch, but certain other categories, including esports and competitive gaming, were still lagging compared to their presence Twitch. Things have progressed since then. In September 2023, Kick hit a milestone by reaching one million concurrent viewers during its most-watched day. Then in 2025, it crossed another major threshold after recording over 1 billion hours watched in the year’s second quarter, all while competing platforms including Twitch saw their overall viewership decline in some instances.
Despite its bigger and better numbers, esports remained a secondary category on Kick. That has now begun to change.
Image credit: HyperX
In the summer of 2024, the platform began to gain traction by hosting major competitive gaming events. By September it smashed its own record with more than 6.8 million hours watched in esports, its biggest month to date, representing nearly 5% all live esports viewing worldwide. That growth wasn’t by accident. Kick secured broadcast opportunities for the Rocket League World Championship, Dota 2’s The International, and regional League of Legends leagues like Turkey’s TCL. Thanks to all of this, Kick was able to double its peak viewership from 1 million to 2.5 million in August 2025.
While these viewership numbers highlight how quickly Kick has won over esports audiences, it’s also evident in the swift shift in platform’s most-watched categories. Games built on competition, such as Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and League of Legends, are now among Kick’s top ten categories, with Valorant topping the list for the number of active streamers. This hasn’t always been the case, and it’s proof of the shift viewers are seeing and experiencing at Kick.
It’s proof that competitive gaming is quickly becoming a bigger part of Kick’s identity, as the platform reaches betting and Just Chatting streams to bring in new fans who follow competitive gaming tournaments and pro play.
Featured image credit: Kick
Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.
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