Streaming platform Kick took on Twitch at TwitchCon

TwitchCon this year was smaller than last. Megan Thee Stallion Travis Scott Kim Petras are no more. In their place, we were treated to a DJ lineup and smaller acts in an immersive space that featured roller coaster ride and an escape game inside what looked like a grocery.

TwitchCon was overshadowed by the other events taking place in Las Vegas at the same time, such as the When We Were Young festival, and Kick, a rival creator platform.

Though content creators flocked to Vegas for Amazon’s platform, which took over exhibit halls and sound systems, Kick made its own appearance at a nearby casino, where it sponsored a gaming lounge and Ultimate Fighting Championship live screening. Nickmercs as well other streamers attended. The space was also sponsored by Meta’s Threads and FaZe Clan.

Kick guarantees streamers that they will keep 95% their revenues, and only pay 5% as fees. Last week, Kick signed Twitch streamer Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff in a nonexclusive one-year deal for an undisclosed amount. Forbes said Kolcheff received $10 million. It’s only the latest in a series of deals with prominent streamers, which include Twitch’s most popular female streamer, Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa, and former Overwatch pro gamer Félix “xQc” Lengyel, who has nearly 12 million followers on Twitch and a $100 million deal with Kick. This new platform has attracted massive attention because of the size and names involved in these deals.

“Money talks and as long as the investors of Kick see a return in some fashion, they’ll continue to be seen as a viable competitor to Twitch,” said Alyssa Sweetman, community advisor at creator platform LiveSpace and a former Twitch employee. “Kick wants to be seen as a disruptor and a platform of the people.”

Twitch’s recent changes may also facilitate more Kick deals. Twitch’s keynote address on Friday announced that streamers would be able to simultaneously broadcast to multiple platforms. New rules will allow creators to sign Kick non-exclusive agreements to stream simultaneously to Twitch and YouTube. Twitch stated that it made this change as a result of community feedback.

“Twitch is not bleeding talent,” Twitch told Polygon on Sunday evening. “The streamers who are signing Kick deals are signing non-exclusive contracts and they’re actually onsite at TwitchCon. When you check the TwitchCon Schedule, you’ll see a number of names signing Kick deals that are also performing on the Main Stage. Signing with Kick doesn’t mean you won’t sign with Twitch.”

Kick’s presence at TwitchCon was like that of a ghost. Although it was discussed, representatives never made it to Las Vegas for interviews.

These deals might be giving deja vu from 2019 and 2020, when platforms like Facebook and Microsoft’s Mixer signed multimillion-dollar exclusive deals with creators in a bid to challenge the livestreaming dominance of YouTube and Twitch. Talent agency reps say that the recent signings are different because they do not have exclusivity.

“Kick has the best shot out of all of [the new platforms] to have some lasting impact,” said Vinny Fiacco, Evolved Talent Agency’s director of talent, who helped oversee Lengyel’s $100 million deal with Kick. “Mixer was throwing a lot of money around. Facebook used to throw a lot money. As an agency, we saw those and went, ‘Great, that’s a great bag. If you want to retire, go take that bag, but that’s the death of your career.’”

Fiacco stated that Kick has actively improved its platform based on feedback from creators. He admitted that the 95-5 revenue split doesn’t leave the platform a lot of flexibility in the future, as it could face backlash if it ever changed the split to charge creators higher fees.

“I think they’ve painted themselves into a corner a little bit,” Fiacco said. “If they can pull it off, that’s amazing. But I do think, if you’re the head of this platform, you can’t go, ‘Oh, we just realized we’re not making the money we need to do 90-10.’ So in that sense, I really hope it works out.”

“We’re confident both Kick and our competitors could achieve profitability at 95-5,” said Bijan Tehrani, a Kick co-founder. “People grossly overestimate what percent of revenue for streaming services is a result of sub split.”

Per Kick’s deal with Lengyel, the streamer has certain quotas he has to hit. The contract pays $100 million in two years. Of that, about $30 million will be incentive-based and performance-based.

Polygon received feedback from several streamers who said that Kick in its present form does not seem like a platform worth signing up with. They cited various reasons, including that one of the platform’s investors is the co-founder of crypto gambling website Stake, that Kick has poorly moderated live chat, and that some of the streamers attached to the platform have a reputation for attracting controversy.

“Kick is the Wild West, which is fine for some people, for maybe the kind of content they do and want to create, and that’s fine,” said Twitch streamer Ryann Weller on Saturday. “But for me, I want to create a safe place for my community. When it comes to the entertainment, I’d like to make a space that people could call home. There’s a certain bar of a safe space. There are no regulations on Kick that would make me confident to try it. Once again, money cannot be the end-all be-all for moving platforms.”

“We do have to understand there are some creators who need to see that the platform has up to a certain level of maturity before they’re willing to make the jump for their fans’ sake of course, but also even for their mental well-being,” said Sebastien Delvaux, Evolved’s co-founder and chief operating officer. “So I fully understand that different creators have different comfort levels with that and Kick is making progress towards that.”

Nineteen-year-old Minecraft streamer Toby “Tubbo” Smith was blunt. “I’d rather kill myself than join Kick,” he told Polygon on Sunday. “It’s a platform for bigotry and hate speech.”

“We’re seeing a very different trend occur among creators’ attitudes towards Kick after recent improvements to our moderation tools and a detailed revamp of our community guidelines,” Tehrani, the Kick co-founder, said. “A landslide of creators [has made its]This has led to Kick. We are still a very young service. We won’t always get it right but we will always listen to our community and keep improving month over month.”