As the eternal struggle continues between Kick and Twitch, it seems that – at least in social circles – Kick is pulling ahead in terms of the overall sentiment of users. Recently, Twitch has made some sketchy changes that pushed more users away from the platform, and Kick was effectively there to pick up the pieces and sign some remarkably huge streamers.
Now, it looks as though Kick is making good on promises made, ticking boxes that the community has requested with aplomb, and bringing about some genuinely decent changes to the platform.
Are We The Good Guys?
Eddie Craven, the CEO of Kick and Co-Founder of Stake.com, the gambling platform that backs the streaming site, has been very transparent in his views on the development of Kick in general. Last week, he spoke about combatting ‘view count manipulation’ and bots on the platform, and just an hour ago, he confirmed that actions have already been taken to move towards those goals.
In a post on Twitter, Craven confirmed that viewer count protection has been ‘bettered’, tabbing issues have been resolved (which prevents a user from inflating their view count), chatbot protection has been put in place, and – most importantly for some – gambling and hot tub streams can now be ‘disabled’.
Over the last 48 hours we've rolled out all the changes mentioned above
— Eddie (@StakeEddie) July 3, 2023
✅ Better viewer count protection
✅ Tabbing issues sorted
✅ Advanced chat bot protection
✅ Disabling of gambling & hot tub streams
With that said we're still optimising all the above even further!
It didn’t end there, as Eddie guaranteed that further optimisations are on the way.
It’s worth stressing that a lot of these ongoing debates surfaced because of Twitch and Kick’s handling of gambling streams – in totally different ways. There has also been a long-term, ongoing debate as to the ‘validity’ of hot tub streams. While Twitch has in the past promoted hot tub streams and channels to the front page of users the world over, Kick is taking steps to ensure that this content can be blocked entirely from your page.
There are ways to hide this kind of content on Twitch, but the process is admittedly not as visible and it can be a little counter-intuitive because it relies on Twitch suggesting the content to you before you can ignore it.
Rapid Growth
Recently, Eddie Craven also went on record stressing that Adin Ross, easily one of the most controversial ‘streamers’ to emerge in recent years, is a clearly defined ‘brand risk’. It was a transparency move that gained Craven a little respect from the prospective users that avoid the platform because it’s being actively promoted by the likes of Adin Ross.
Oh, and Kick recently claimed that it has reached ten million active accounts in just seven months – and highlighted that it took Twitch five years to reach the same figure. I mean, we’re in a whole different era of content creation compared to Twitch’s origin period, but it’s still impressive.
The debate continues.
For more Insider Gaming news, check out our coverage of the confusing details emerging for The Last of Us Part III and Factions
