Kick lets creators hide viewer counts amid anti-viewbotting push

Khizar Mundia Published 01/06/2026

Kick co-founder Eddie Craven has announced that the platform is introducing new tools to combat viewership inflation, with creators also getting the option to hide their viewer count.

Viewbotting has become a major talking point in the streaming industry, with viewers frequently speculating about which creators may be artificially inflating their audiences. However, inflated viewer counts are not always the result of creator misconduct, as malicious actors can also use bots to target streamers without their knowledge.

This can make it difficult for platforms such as Kick to determine whether a creator is abusing the system or is instead the victim of a coordinated attack. Against that backdrop, Craven has revealed further improvements that Kick hopes will help curb viewership inflation.

Kick wants streamers to get organic discoverability, hence the action against viewbotting

Livestreaming platform Kick is adding new tools, as it believes “discovery should be earned, not gamed”. This is a sentiment shared by many viewers, who are tired of some creators botting and getting more virality compared to organic streamers. Kick’s new recommendation algorithm is already removing incentives for viewbotting by not prioritizing high-to-low viewership, and now streamers can also hide their view count.

Eddie Craven posts on X about the changes. Image credit: X

Kick co-founder Bijan Tehrani has spoken out on the matter, stating that many viewers ignore streams with low viewership. He also said that hiding the view count is optional, but it’s a good way to discourage viewbotting. The reasoning makes sense, as there isn’t much incentive for creators to inflate their views if it becomes a trend to hide view count. The Kick co-founder also revealed that this was a widely requested feature.

This new feature has launched to mixed reactions, with some excited that smaller streamers may get more exposure if the views of streams are hidden. Others criticized the feature for varying reasons, including the removal of transparency.

There are also concerns that some streamers could use the feature to conceal viewbotting, with hidden viewer counts potentially making it harder to spot suspicious activity while still increasing payouts. The feature was announced in an X post by Eddie Craven, who also reiterated that creators found to be viewbotting will face reductions to their KPP earnings. Craven recently revealed that Kick had banned 500 accounts for viewbotting, underscoring the platform’s efforts to crack down on bot abuse.

Others have argued that certain creators, particularly top casino streamers, may still need to display their viewer counts to satisfy sponsors and advertisers. Meanwhile, workarounds for checking the viewership of hidden streams have already emerged, with one website even allowing casual users to see the figures. Many have criticized Kick for rolling out the feature without also preventing viewer counts from being accessed through its API.

With Club recently launching a Communities feature into the Kick ecosystem, it remains to be seen whether these changes will ultimately benefit small creators.

Feature image credit: Kick

Khizar Mundia

About Khizar Mundia

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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