Kick co-founder responds to viewbot accusations

Kick has responded after a creator accused the streaming platform of using viewbots.

As Twitch has continued to gain enemies for its strict gambling regulations, inconsistent banning, and 50/50 sub-revenue split, Kick has continued to entice streamers with its lax regulations and generous 95/5 split. But does Kick actually have what it takes to compete with Amazon’s streaming platform giant?

Kick’s viewership has not reached the numbers that Twitch boasts, which is one concern that streamers have when deciding if they should move to a different platform. Now one streamer is accusing Kick of creating a false sense of viewership to combat this.

Is Kick using viewbots?

CodyRiffs is a music streamer who noticed something odd about the viewership of his first stream on Kick. On Twitter, he explained that he was “impressed” with the number of viewers he had for his first-ever stream but soon became skeptical.

“I was in the top 10 of the music category streaming a countdown clock with no music to 40 people who weren’t talking,” CodyRiffs tweeted.

This led CodyRiffs and other streamers to speculate that Kick was using viewbots. Stake’s co-founder, Eddie Craven, responded to the Kick viewbot accusations on Twitter.

In response to CodyRiff’s feedback, Craven explained that Kick had 58 million visitors in March of 2023 alone. But the majority of that traffic is currently “unauthenticated” since the viewers didn’t have accounts. Currently, there are 3 million registered accounts.

Craven also added that CodyRiffs most likely got 40 viewers due to Kick having a “low number of active streams,” meaning Kick users probably saw him pop up in the music section and clicked on the stream to check it out.

“If you’d like, feel free to DM me, and I’ll get you a breakdown of your viewers from your stream and some further analytics,” Craven concluded. “On that note, we have a completely new analytics engine being released shortly, which will also include vital information such as viewer lists and trends over time alongside other statistics. We hope this adds the required level of transparency to avoid these types of situations.”

I appreciate the constructive feedback in the video. We’re working on all points you addressed already 🙂

Kick, according to well respected sites such as similarweb, had over 58m visitors in March alone. Compared to “only” 3m registered accounts. Majority of our traffic is still…

— Eddie (@StakeEddie) April 9, 2023

The streaming community commended Craven on his thorough response and transparency. This isn’t something that’s seen at Twitch too often, with many streamers often feeling confused and frustrated over a lack of communication. Twitch also doesn’t reveal why some people are banned, even when it’s permanent.

But other Kick users remained a bit confused. One said that he will often see 100 viewers on his stream, but not a single person is talking, which he found suspicious. He asked Craven if it was possibly a glitch, but there was no answer as of now. Others added that they would like more clarification on the lack of regulation on Kick, asking if there are plans for more moderation and enforcement in the future.

For now, Kick has remained a potential competitor with Twitch, but streamers are still not completely sold on its longevity.