Kick owner responds to viewbot accusations after being called out by streamer

Kick and Stake owner Eddie Craven has responded to accusations that the streaming platform viewbots its own creators, after one streamer called them out and made the accusation.

In recent months, Kick has launched and the conversation around it has been non-stop, debating whether it can truly compete with giants like Twitch and YouTube when it comes to livestreaming.

While there is a lot of support from creators, due largely to the increased subscriber revenue split in comparison to Twitch, with Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins saying it has more promise than Mixer, there has been some controversy surrounding the platform.

With discussions around the site’s moderation, as well as creators having their names taken and handed to bigger creators, one accusation levied against Kick has been inflating its viewership figures with viewbots.

One particular tweet went viral regarding the situation, saying that “viewer count doesn’t mean sh*t” as they went live to 40 viewers and nobody talking in chat.

Does @KickStreaming viewbot…its own streamers?

I was in the top 10 of the Music category streaming a countdown clock with no music… to 40 people who weren't talking 🤔 pic.twitter.com/38ZopWz0C0

— CodyRiffs (@CodyRiffs) April 7, 2023

Not long after, Eddie Craven explained why this could be the case, providing some transparency on the situation.

“Kick, according to well-respected sites such as similarweb, had over 58m visitors in March alone, compared to ‘only’ 3m registered accounts,” he explained. “Majority of our traffic is still unauthenticated and are yet to create accounts. It’s a new platform and people are slowly signing up every day …

“Subsequently, such as in your case, when you find yourself on the homepage for the music section you’ll naturally attract clicks.”

This would explain why some streamers’ chats aren’t as active as one might expect on Kick, as there are still a significant number of users visiting the website and checking streams out, despite not having an account and therefore being unable to use the chat function.

Of course, nothing can be guaranteed, and this isn’t the only instance in which some believe Kick’s numbers are inflated.

While being cautiously optimistic about the platform, Ninja also said that Kick streamers are in for a “reality check” as a lot of subscriptions right now are gifted, and at some point that will plateau.

Only time will tell how things go for the platform but for now, many creators are loving it, and there may well be a shift away from Twitch if they can keep the momentum up.