Laid-off Twitch staff could jump to Kick as Trainwreck namedrops ‘Kick Rivals’
Twitch / KickKick could be eyeing Twitch’s recently laid-off employees after co-owner Trainwreck appeared to tease a competitor to the site in ‘Kick Rivals.’
Kick launched in 2023 as a competitor to Twitch, famously signing prominent streamers like Amouranth and xQc with extremely lucrative, non-exclusive deals.
Since then, the site has only grown in popularity thanks to its comparatively lax guidelines and better payouts for broadcasters — and now, it looks like Kick might be taking yet another step in one-upping its rival.
On January 10, it was confirmed by Twitch CEO Dan Clancy that the Amazon-owned company had made the “difficult decision” to lay off over 500 employees, which made up about 35% of its staff, in a major blow to the streaming service.
In response to this major swath of layoffs, Kick co-founder and streamer Trainwreck has teased a possible venture to rival one of Twitch’s biggest initiatives.
Trainwreck teases ‘Kick Rivals’ as Twitch lays off 500 workers
A former Twitch employee posted to Twitter/X saying that they had been laid off from the company after eight years of working on projects like Twitch Rivals, Twitch’s competitive gaming initiative that hosts a series of live events across multiple esports alongside top streamers and former pro players.
“Not sure what comes next,” they wrote. “Hoping for the best!”
It seems that Trainwreck took notice of this employee’s situation and posed an idea that’s sparking a fair bit of speculation online, replying: “Kick Rivals?”
It would certainly be interesting to see Kick create its own version of a competitive esport event in the same vein as Twitch Rivals as the company continues to grow and attract broadcasters fed up with Twitch’s recent issues, such as its confusing guidelines on explicit content.
This isn’t the first time a big name at Kick has teased a major blow to Twitch. Recently, Kick co-founder Bijan Tehrani claimed that the company would “eventually buy Twitch” as the streaming wars continue.