Has Kick’s streaming platform already died?

Kick.com had a very good success when it went live on a global scale for the first time in 2022. Now that it’s been live for almost a year, I can’t wait to look back at some of the bold promises and far-reaching predictions made for the platform. I firmly believe that traffic has slowed, social hype has evolved, and that Kick.com ultimately almost died a gruesome death, losing relevance after just twelve months of operation.

It could be that the platform has yet to really gain traction, and the initial boom was nothing more than early adopters jumping on the hype bandwagon. It could also be that everyone has become familiar with Kick’s aggressive expansion tactics and realized that there aren’t as many opportunities to make big money on the platform as was first thought. There have been some big acquisitions that have fizzled out, numbers are down, and Kick’s social networks aren’t growing much.

Is Kick.com dead yet?

Did Kick kick the bucket?

Months ago, Kick.com was growing immensely quickly, acquiring huge streamers with $100 million deals and promising the world to small streamers. It suffered through a series of controversies that it overcame, only for more controversies and scandals to surface – but it continued to grow. On social media platforms, Kick.com followers and users were extremely territorial and defended their territory with an iron fist. Luckily, I see a lot less of that on the whole these days.

Let’s look at some data.

According to Esports Charts & Streams Charts, Kick’s viewership increased in September 2023, reaching a peak of 981,385 concurrent viewers. However, it is worth noting that around 800,000 of these users were watching an exceptional YouTuber. Over the month, the peak number of channels fell by 7% and the number of active channels overall fell by 6%. In August 2023, the peak viewership fell by 25%, the peak number of channels fell by 56% and the average number of live channels fell by 24%.

These aren’t the numbers we’d expect from a growing platform, are they? In April, however, Kick’s maximum channel count increased by 523% as its aggressive onboarding campaign went into full effect.

Related: Kick vs. Twitch Explained

The final result

Kick’s growth has slowed significantly on social media platforms – like Twitter – and its marketing appears to have taken a huge hit. It appears that some of these monumental acquisitions haven’t paid off either. While xQc’s arrival remains Kick.com’s “pinned tweet” since June 16, the man himself – arguably one of the biggest streamers in the world – has seen a more or less steady decline in viewership on Kick.com over time .

In the last thirty days, it peaked at just 44,652 viewers, compared to 78,300 viewers on Twitch over the same period.

That’s still the driving core of this debate – the Kick.com vs. Twitch.tv article. For example, as of this writing, Kick.com has 181,485 total viewers. There are 483,000 viewers on Twitch just one category. It’s not even a competition, not at all.

When I loaded Kick.com’s interface, I was met with a lackluster front page with three featured streams: GMHikaru watching Masterchef, someone playing Warzone, and a “goth e-girl” wearing skimpy clothing. A few other channels were recommended to me – slots, two Just Chatting streams and someone who carved something out of wood. In the top live categories, Grand Theft Auto V took first place with 62,300 viewers.

At the same time, GTA V recorded 195,000 viewers on Twitch.

Ultimately, I found that Kick.com gave it a dismal reception, didn’t interest me and didn’t capture my attention, and I honestly can’t imagine why anyone would choose it over Twitch now.

Related: Can You Earn Money on Kick.com?

But what is the final verdict?

I’ll be honest: Until a few months ago, I fully realized Kick.com’s potential. I even wrote an article discussing Kick.com’s potential to become a legitimate competitor to Twitch. But as time goes on, I feel like the platform is weakening, losing its authority, and streamers who jumped onto the platform with stars in their eyes are now withdrawing en masse.

If the biggest advantage for Kick.com’s streamers is that “they get discovered more easily,” that’s only because there are so few streamers to compete with on the platform in the first place. Ultimately, I just don’t think Kick has managed to maintain the momentum it gained so easily in the early days, and I expect it to be a shell site within a few months to a year. I can’t imagine what Kick.com could do to turn things around, but right now things aren’t looking good for the platform that promised so much growth so early.

But hey, I’ve been wrong before – maybe I’ll be wrong again.

Read Next: Is Kick.com Safe?