Kick Admits KPP Payment Errors — Ethan Wright Explains Calculation Changes
Kick creators have been claiming that something is wrong with their KPP payouts for some time now. Co-founder Eddie Craven and Director Ethan Wright both addressed the issues, blaming technical difficulties and stating the issue would be rectified, but creators have continued to allege that it hasn’t been fixed — and Wright has now given an update about KPP changes that he hopes will put the issue to bed.
In early September, several Kick streamers came forward to publicly raise concerns about their payouts. They claimed that KPP rates had either been changed or something else was going on behind the scenes that had drastically cut their payments. Ethan Wright responded publicly, stating that there was a technical issue and payouts would be sent out if errors were made. Eddie Craven also discussed the issue in a Kick stream, echoing Ethan’s words. However, creators have continued to report issues with their KPP payments.
Now, Ethan Wright has made a substantial X post explaining the issue and how KPP calculations will change going forward.
Kick admits KPP payout errors were made
Wright started his post by admitting that a manual error was made in KPP payouts, apologizing to creators and stating that this should never have happened. He elaborated that streaming is a career for many creators and trust in Kick can falter if streamers are unable to pay for basic necessities. The Kick director then went into the specifics of KPP, explaining what is happening and why.
The first element was paying creators accurately, and Ethan acknowledged that Kick didn’t meet this. He stated that once the error was identified, Kick corrected the affected calculations and issued manual payments to impacted creators. Wright elaborated that affected creators should have money in their Stripe account. He went on to say that the payment will be reflected in the Stripe account but won’t show in a creator’s on-platform earnings.
Image credit: Ethan Wright
Next, Ethan talked about owning the mistake, admitting that the error is on Kick, and talked about how previously the KPP rate was calculated stream by stream. He also said creators were left in the dark, as they couldn’t see whether the rate was correct or not. Kick has now changed how KPP will be calculated, and it won’t be linked to one stream at a time. Instead, the calculation will look at multiple recent streams, including the current one, to land the rate and pay the streamer. This way, one stream being slow won’t affect creators substantially. Ethan also confirmed that this KPP change won’t affect the 95-5 split that Kick has built its platform around.
Extra measures
Kick is also launching a Trust Centre, where the platform will explain everything ranging from KPP to moderation decisions. This way, creators and users won’t have to rely on rumors and will have official confirmation from Kick itself. Ethan also talked about how creators and third parties are trying to exploit KPP through viewbotting. He elaborated that money going to someone “gaming the system” is money that doesn’t end up with a creator. The Kick Director encouraged users to report if they think their community is being targeted. He stated that all reports are looked into, and less money going to bad actors means more money for creators.
Ethan Wright ended the post by stating that Kick is still taking feedback on KPP and will change things if needed. He also went on to say that not every decision will be the right one initially, but Kick will continue listening and changing rather than forcing users to speculate or work things out themselves.
☑️ Editor’s Take
If the changes are implemented smoothly then these updates have the potential to improve the Kick platform for creators, fixing what has been an embarrassing episode for Craven and Wright.
Ben Boland – Lead Editor
Feature image credit: Kick
Khizar Mundia has been playing video games for as long as he can recall. Things have come a long way since the many days he spent playing the original NES, though. He now covers a variety of competitive games and esports, as well as the world of streaming, ranging from Twitch to Kick. If it’s of interest to gamers, it’s of interest to Khizar.
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