Kick.com came on very strong when it first went live on a global scale in 2022. Now that it has been online for almost a year, I’m eager to look back at some of the bold promises and broad predictions made for the platform. I’m adamant that traffic has slowed down, the social buzz has moved on, and ultimately, Kick.com has all but died a grisly death, fading away out of relevance after just twelve months of operations.

It might be that the platform is just yet to gain traction in earnest, and the original boom was nothing more than early adopters hopping on that hype train. It could also be that everyone has gotten wise to Kick’s aggressive expansion tactics and realised that there aren’t as many opportunities to make the big bucks on the platform as they first thought. There were some huge acquisitions that fizzled out, the numbers are down, and Kick’s socials aren’t growing much.

Is Kick.com already dead?

Has Kick Kicked The Bucket?

Months ago, Kick.com was growing immensely fast, acquiring enormous streamers with $100 million contracts and promising small streamers the world. It suffered from a string of controversies that it overcame, only for more controversies and scandals to surface – but it kept growing. On social media platforms, followers and users of Kick.com became grossly territorial, defending their patch with an iron fist. Fortunately, in a general sense, I’m seeing much less of that these days.

Let’s look at some data.

According to Esports Charts & Streams Charts, Kick’s viewership was boosted in September 2023, reaching a peak concurrent viewer count of 981,385. But, it’s worth mentioning that around 800,000 users out of that count were watching one exceptional creator. Elsewhere during the month, the peak channel count fell by 7% and the number of active channels fell by 6% overall. In August 2023, the peak viewer count fell by 25%, the peak channel count by 56%, and the average number of live channels by 24%.

Those aren’t the numbers we’d expect from a growing platform, are they? By contrast, in April, Kick’s peak channel count grew by 523% as the aggressive onboarding campaign kicked off in full.

Related: Kick vs. Twitch Explained

The End Result

Kick’s growth has slowed immeasurably on social media platforms – like Twitter – and marketing seems to have taken a huge dip. It seems that some of those monumental acquisitions haven’t paid off, either. While xQc’s arrival remains Kick.com’s ‘pinned tweet’ since June 16th, the man himself – arguably one of the biggest streamers in the world – has seen a more or less consistent decline in viewers over time on Kick.com.

He has peaked at just 44,652 viewers in the last thirty days, compared to 78,300 viewers on Twitch in the same timeframe.

That’s still the driving core of this debate – the Kick.com vs. Twitch.tv piece. For instance, as I write this, Kick.com boasts 181,485 viewers in total. On Twitch, there are 483,000 viewers in just one category. It’s not even a competition, not by any means.

As I loaded up the Kick.com interface, I was met with a lacklustre front page that toted three featured streams: GMHikaru watching Masterchef, someone playing Warzone, and a ‘Gothic e-girl’ wearing skimpy clothing. There were a few more channels recommended to me – slots, two ‘Just Chatting’ streams, and someone carving something out of wood. In the top live categories, the game sitting in the number one spot was Grand Theft Auto V, with 62,300 viewers.

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

Ultimately, I found that Kick.com offered up a bleak welcome, it didn’t interest me or capture my attention, and I honestly can’t see why anyone would choose it over Twitch right now.

Related: Can You Earn Money on Kick.com?

But What’s The Final Verdict?

I’ll be frank – up until a couple of months ago, I fully recognised Kick.com’s potential. I even wrote up an article discussing the potential for Kick.com to become a legitimate contender to Twitch. But, as time goes on, I feel the platform is becoming weaker, it’s 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 ‘it’s easier to be discovered’, it’s only because there are so few streamers to compete with on the platform in the first place. At the end of the day, I just don’t think Kick managed to keep up the momentum it so easily gained in the early days, and I anticipate that within a few months to a year, it’ll be a shell site. I can’t see what Kick.com could do to turn things around, but at present, it’s not a good look for the platform that promised so much growth so early on.

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

Read Next: Is Kick.com Safe?