Kick vs. Twitch: Full comparison

As the dominant live streaming platform, Twitch has blown smaller competitors out of the water for years.The Microsoft-backed Mixer live platform shut down in 2020, and Twitch’s  main competitor, YouTube Gaming, got folded into YouTube Live in 2015.

Twitch now has over two million average concurrent viewers and boasts an annual revenue of almost $3 billion. It’s certainly a force to be reckoned with, but Twitch has a new challenger: Kick. Why is Kick.com so enticing, and will it stand the test of time against Twitch?

What is Kick.com?

Kick.com is a live video streaming platform founded in 2022 that is backed by the founder of Stake.com, a crypto gambling site. Kick is very similar to Twitch in that streaming channels are categorized by topic or game. Users can browse these categories and look for a stream to watch when they’re on the Kick home page.

Kick is especially popular with streamers for its 95/5 split for content creators. Streamers get to keep 95% of earnings from subscriptions, while YouTube Live creators keep 70% and Twitch streamers keep half.

Kick also allows gambling streams and some other mature content that Twitch has banned. Kick’s owners supposedly aim for transparency with the community guidelines, while Twitch has been known to apply its rules unevenly and unfairly.

Who owns Kick?

Kick’s extremely creator-friendly platform and features raised some questions when it first came out. How could Kick possibly make money with a 95/5 revenue model and virtually no ads? Because of these details, many thought Kick to be owned by Stake.com. While this isn’t the case,  there’s still a heavy link between the two sites.

Last year it came out that Kick was founded in Australia by Bijan Tehrani (one of the founders of Stake) and a holding company. The owner of the holding company? Stake’s other co-founder, Ed Craven. Stake doesn’t legally own Kick but the gambling site is still heavily promoted on many Kick streams.

Why did Kick become popular?

In addition to the revenue split, Kick grew popular from big-name streamers moving to the platform, taking their viewers with them. Some creators, like Inman “Pokimane” Anys, refuse to stream on Kick for ethical reasons and concerns about ownership.

Still, Kick has managed to attract some big streamers away from Twitch. The first major streamer to jump ship was Tyler “Trainwreck” Faraz Niknam, who left due to Twitch’s policies on  gambling content. Other Twitch streamers that moved to Kick include:

• Felix “xQc” Lengyel
• Adin Ross
• Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa
• Hikaru Nakamura
• Corinna Kopf
• Roshtein

Kick growth stats

Just how popular is Kick? Let’s look at some stats on Kick’s growth:

• Between January and April 2023, Kick viewership grew by 404%.
• In just three months, Kick went from 12.8 million to 51.8 million hours of viewed content.
• In that same time span, Kick gained 58,000 active streamers to reach 67,000 active channels by May.
• Hours watched increased by 44% to 84.1 million from May to June 2023.
• Just Chatting was Kick’s most popular streaming category, with 27.7 million hours watched in June 2023. Slots and Casinos was the runner-up with over 15 million hours watched.
• The number of active streamers on Kick went from 5 million to 12 million in one month.
• Kick viewership numbers skyrocketed in June 2023 after Amouranth and xQc joined the platform.

Twitch vs. Kick: Which is better?

Kick has some advantages over Twitch, but is it the better place to stream? Let’s compare the two platforms in more detail.

Kick vs. Twitch: Audience

It’s undeniable that Twitch has more viewers than Kick. Twitch has been a well-established live streaming platform for over a decade, while Kick is barely two years old. When Kick hit 1 million users in February 2023, Twitch was reported to have about 140 million active monthly users.

While Twitch has a bigger audience than Kick, it also has far more creators. You’ll likely get more viewers on Twitch, but with far more channels to compete with for viewing time.

Kick also has more of a niche audience than Twitch, which has tried to make its platform more family-friendly. Twitch cracked down on gambling content because of its larger base of young viewers compared to Kick.

Kick vs. Twitch: Ease of use

Both Kick and Twitch are easy to use whether you’re new to streaming or have been at it a while. But if you’re streaming on a game console, Twitch is far more compatible. 

Twitch has an app for PS5 and you can stream directly to Twitch with your Xbox, while Kick doesn’t have its own console streaming solution yet.

Level up your Kick streaming with Restream Studio

You can still stream on Kick even if it doesn’t have its own software or integration apps. To go live on desktop, just use streaming software like Restream Studio or OBS Studio. Streaming on Kick with Restream lets you:

• Add custom graphics, overlays and backgrounds
• Have up to nine guests join your live stream remotely
• Change your screen layout
• Show your Kick chat on the Restream dashboard
• Display your Kick chat as an overlay
• Stream in Full HD
• Stream your local video files
• Add affiliate or donation links via QR codes
• Easily track your stream stats and performance analytics

Connect your Kick channel to Restream to get started. Also check out our Kick streaming guide for more info on going live with Kick.

Kick vs. Twitch: Affiliate and Partner status

Both Kick and Twitch have monetization programs that let you earn revenue and extra streaming perks. In order to unlock these features, however, creators must meet certain requirements.

For Twitch Affiliate status, you need:

• At least 50 followers
• At least 8 hours spent live streaming
• Streams that took place on 7 different days
• An average of 3 viewers per stream

For Kick Affiliate status, you need:

• To stream for more than 5 hours
• 75 or more followers

With lower streaming requirements, joining Kick’s Affiliate program is generally easier than becoming a Twitch Affiliate. On both platforms, you must be an Affiliate for your channel to gain paid subscribers.

Both platforms have higher tiers of monetization for creators as well.Twitch has Partner status, while Kick offers Verified status to those who meet the requirements.

For Twitch Partner status, you must:

• Stream for 25 hours
• Stream on 12 different days
• Average 75 viewers per stream

For Kick Verified status, you must:

• Stream for 30 hours in the past 30 days
• Stream on 12 unique days in the past 30 days
• Average 75 live concurrent viewers in the past 30 days
• Have 300 unique chatters in the past 30 days
• Have at least 20 active subscribers in the past 30 days

Kick vs. Twitch: Monetization

There are several ways to make money while streaming on Kick and Twitch

Subscriptions

It’s hard to deny the appeal of Kick’s 95/5 subscription revenue split. But in June 2023, Twitch announced a new Partner Plus program that will offer some eligible streamers a 70/30 split, allowing them to keep 70% of their sub revenue. For most streamers on Twitch, however, the 50/50 split remains in place, which led to some controversy.

Donations

Both Twitch and Kick support in-platform monetary donations. Fortunately, streamers keep 100% of donations they receive from viewers on either platform.

Ads 

On Twitch, streamers enrolled in  the Ads Incentive Program can earn revenue from showing ads during streams. On the other hand, Kick has said it prefers to have sponsors work directly with streamers rather than roll ads during streams.

Other methods

Twitch has other monetization methods too. Viewers can buy video games directly from creator channels, and the creators can receive a portion of the resulting revenue. Unfortunately, Kick doesn’t have a similar program set up yet.

However, Kick has a Creator Incentive Program, which aims to pay streamers for their time rather than their viewer count. Streamers who qualify can earn an hourly wage of $16.

For now, the average streamer can likely make more money streaming on Kick than on Twitch. But as each platform reforms its features and monetization policies, that might change with time. Kick has already changed live streaming quite a bit since 2022 — and there could be even bigger developments in the future.

Kick vs. Twitch: Rules

Kick’s goal is to be more open about its rules and community guidelines than Twitch which is notorious for banning people unjustly and inconsistently enforcing site rules.

The biggest difference between the two platforms is the prominence of gambling content on Kick. Twitch still has the “Slots” category, but it’s not promoted as much as Kick’s “Gambling and Casinos” category is.

Apart from the gambling rules, Kick and Twitch both have community guidelines that prohibit harmful, deceptive, or illegal activities and hate speech. Both platforms have restrictions on sexually explicit content and copyrighted material too. 

Kick vs. Twitch: Simulcasting

For years, Twitch banned simulcasting, or the broadcast of the same live stream on different platforms simultaneously. Luckily, this policy was reverted in October 2023, so simulcasting to other platforms while live on Twitch is now permitted.

Kick’s community guidelines and Terms of Service don’t mention simulcasting, so it is currently allowed on the platform.

Want to go live on several platforms at the same time? Try using a multistreaming service like Restream for your next broadcast. Adding your favorite channels like Twitch, Kick, YouTube, Facebook, X (Twitter), and more only takes a few minutes with Restream. You can either stream from our own browser-based studio or use Restream’s multistreaming add-on with OBS Studio.

Wrap-up

Choosing between Twitch or Kick  depends on what your goals are. If you want to make more money from streaming, choose Kick. If you aim to eventually build a big following, Twitch is your best bet. Or, experiment with streaming on both to see what your own preferences are.

Remember, you don’t have to limit yourself to one platform either. You can live stream on both Twitch and Kick to try and expand your audience. Restream is the go-to solution for multistreaming to your favorite live services. We make it easy for you to discover which platforms are best for you.