Kick reached 100 million users in April 2026, roughly three years after launch (Streams Charts, 2026; Tribuna, 2026). The platform logged 4.5 billion hours watched in 2025, a 131% jump that lifted it to about 11% of the global live streaming market and third place behind YouTube and Twitch (Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report in Live Streaming Trends). In October 2025, a single Colombian boxing broadcast pushed Kick to an all-time peak of 4.6 million concurrent viewers, briefly topping both Twitch and YouTube (Streams Charts, 2025). Its 95/5 creator revenue split remains the most aggressive in streaming, returning about $4.74 of a $4.99 subscription to the streamer (Wikipedia; Streams Charts). This analysis consolidates data from Stream Hatchet, Streams Charts, Similarweb, Wikipedia, and 6 other primary sources to map exactly where Kick stands in 2026.
TL;DR
- Kick logged 4.5 billion hours watched in 2025, up 131% year over year (Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report).
- Kick holds roughly 11 to 12% of global live streaming watch time, third behind YouTube and Twitch (Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report).
- Twitch still led with 19.2 billion hours in 2025 but lost 8.3 points of market share across the year (Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report).
- Kick’s all-time peak is 4,600,683 concurrent viewers, set October 18, 2025 (Streams Charts, 2025).
- Kick crossed 100 million users in April 2026, about three years after launch (Streams Charts, 2026; Tribuna, 2026).
- The creator split is 95/5, versus Twitch’s standard 50/50 (Wikipedia; Streams Charts).
- Kick’s unique channel count grew 68% to 1.8 million in 2025 (Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report).
- June 2026 was Kick’s strongest 2026 month at 570.7 million hours watched (Streams Charts, June 2026 recap).
- Turkey is Kick’s largest traffic market at 16.91% of visits (Similarweb, May 2026).
- Absi led Q1 2026 with 34.4 million hours watched (Streams Charts, Top Kick Streamers Q1 2026).
- Founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani have invested close to $1 billion in the platform since inception (Tribuna, 2026).
1. Market Share and Competitive Position
Kick’s central 2025 storyline is displacement, not creation of new audience. Global live streaming grew only 6% to 36.4 billion hours, yet Kick’s hours more than doubled while Twitch shed share, meaning Kick largely absorbed viewers migrating off the incumbent rather than expanding the total pie. Kick’s 131% jump to 4.5 billion hours was the fastest growth of any major platform in 2025, and it earned Kick a formal seat in what Streams Charts calls the “Big Four” alongside YouTube, TikTok Live, and Twitch. The gap to Twitch remains wide, though: Twitch’s 19.2 billion hours are still more than four times Kick’s total.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total live streaming hours watched (2025) | 36.4B (+6% YoY) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Kick hours watched (2025) | 4.5B (+131% YoY) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Kick market share of watch time (2025) | ~11-12% (one-eighth) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Twitch hours watched (2025) | 19.2B (~53% share) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| YouTube Gaming hours watched (2025) | 8.8B (+12% YoY) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Kick hours watched (Q2 2025) | 1.1B (first quarter above 1B), 3.74% share | Streams Charts, Q2 2025 Landscape |
| Kick platform rank (Q3-Q4 2025) | 4th most-watched | Streams Charts, 2025; Wikipedia |
| Global industry hours watched (Q4 2025) | 30B+ (+2% QoQ) | Streams Charts, Q4 2025 Landscape |
Source: Stream Hatchet 2025 Yearly Report in Live Streaming Trends (via Net Influencer summary).
Context note: Kick’s momentum stalled late in the year. Q4 2025 was its first quarter-over-quarter decline since launch (Streams Charts, Q4 2025 Landscape), a reminder that annual growth rates hide a mid-cycle plateau. For the broader picture, see our Twitch statistics 2026 and live streaming statistics 2026 roundups.
2. Hours Watched and 2026 Momentum
After the Q4 2025 dip, Kick spent the first half of 2026 clawing back. Monthly watch time bottomed near 436 million hours in December 2025, recovered past 500 million in March 2026, then set a 2026 high in June. June 2026 delivered 570.7 million hours watched, with viewership metrics up 18 to 24% month over month even as the number of streamed categories stayed essentially flat. The recovery is viewership-led rather than supply-led: streamer activity rose only 3 to 7% in June while audience metrics climbed far faster, suggesting existing content is drawing bigger crowds rather than a flood of new broadcasters.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Unique channels on Kick (2025) | 1.8M (+68% YoY) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Hours watched (Dec 2025) | ~436M (-7% MoM) | Streams Charts, Dec 2025 recap |
| Hours watched (Mar 2026) | 500M+ (highest since Oct 2025) | Streams Charts, Mar 2026 recap |
| Distinct categories streamed (Mar 2026) | 5,734 (all-time record) | Streams Charts, Mar 2026 recap |
| Hours watched (May 2026) | ~481.6M (-5% MoM) | Streams Charts, May 2026 recap |
| Average concurrent viewers (May 2026) | ~659K (-7% MoM) | Streams Charts, May 2026 recap |
| Hours watched (Jun 2026) | 570.7M | Streams Charts, Jun 2026 recap |
| Average viewers / peak viewers (Jun 2026) | 806.8K avg / 1.85M peak | Streams Charts, Jun 2026 recap |
Source: Streams Charts, Kick Sets 2026 Watch-Time Record (June 2026).
Outlier note: June’s category-level swings were extreme. A partnership campaign drove Rust up 949% in hours watched month over month, while Old School RuneScape rose 403% and MMO content grew 211% (Streams Charts, June 2026 recap) - evidence that sponsored game pushes still move Kick’s needle disproportionately.
3. Record Peaks and Top Streamers
Kick’s audience is unusually event-driven and Latin America-centric at the top. Its biggest numbers do not come from daily gaming grinds but from influencer boxing spectacles. WestCol’s Stream Fighters 4 drew 4,600,683 concurrent viewers on October 18, 2025, Kick’s all-time record and nearly double the prior mark of 2.55 million set only two months earlier. By hours watched over Q1 2026, though, the leaderboard tilts toward Middle Eastern and gaming creators like Absi and Maherco, showing that sustained watch time and peak-viewer spikes reward very different creators on Kick.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| All-time peak concurrent viewers | 4,600,683 (Stream Fighters 4, Oct 18 2025, WestCol) | Streams Charts, 2025 |
| Previous peak record | 2.55M (Aug 2025, elzeein, La Noche Dorada) | Streams Charts, 2025 |
| WestCol single-channel peak record | 4,001,560 | Streams Charts, 2025 |
| Top streamer by hours watched (Q1 2026) | Absi - 34.4M | Streams Charts, Top Kick Streamers Q1 2026 |
| #2 and #3 by hours watched (Q1 2026) | Maherco 25.4M / Korekore_ch 23.6M | Streams Charts, Top Kick Streamers Q1 2026 |
| WestCol (Q1 2026) | 16.2M hours / 840.6K peak viewers | Streams Charts, Top Kick Streamers Q1 2026 |
| Adin Ross (Q1 2026) | 8.39M hours / 484.1K peak viewers | Streams Charts, Top Kick Streamers Q1 2026 |
| luquitarodriguez peak (Dec 2025) | 766,169 (Parense de Manos 3) | Streams Charts, Dec 2025 recap |
Source: Streams Charts, WestCol Breaks Kick’s All-Time Peak Viewership Record.
Context note: Kick’s peak still trails the incumbents’ ceilings. Twitch’s all-time high is 14,078,025 concurrent viewers (La Velada del Ano V) and YouTube Live’s is 19,599,635 (2024 ASEAN Championship final), both set in 2025 (Streams Charts, 2025). Creator-driven boxing events explain why Kick’s records cluster in Latin America.
4. Creator Economics and Payouts
The 95/5 split is Kick’s core acquisition weapon, and the arithmetic is stark. On 500 subscriptions, a Kick streamer earns roughly $2,370 a month against about $1,250 on Twitch’s standard 50/50 split - an 88% pay premium for the same audience (Streams Charts, 2026 payout guide). Kick layers an hourly Creator Incentive Program on top, paying qualifying partners between $16 and $32 per streamed hour based on chat engagement rather than a flat wage. The trade-off is monetization depth: Twitch’s mature ad, bits, and brand-deal ecosystem still gives large creators more revenue lines than subscriptions alone.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Creator subscription revenue split | 95% creator / 5% platform | Wikipedia; Streams Charts |
| Payout per 100 subscriptions | ~$474 (Kick) vs ~$250 (Twitch) | Streams Charts, 2026 payout guide |
| Monthly payout at 500 subs | ~$2,370 (Kick) vs ~$1,250 (Twitch) | Streams Charts, 2026 payout guide |
| Creator Incentive Program hourly rate | $16-$32 per hour | Streams Charts; Gaming Careers, 2025 |
| Partner eligibility - avg concurrent viewers | 75 CCV (past 30 days) | Streams Charts; Gaming Careers, 2025 |
| Partner eligibility - audience | 250 followers, 25 active subscriptions | Gaming Careers; Followeran, 2025 |
| High-performing creators (1,000+ hrs, 2025) | 27% averaged 100+ viewers/min (vs 14% in 2024) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
Source: Streams Charts, How to Grow and Make Money on Kick in 2026.
The near-doubling of high-performing creators (14% to 27% year over year) matters more than the raw split: it means Kick’s payout advantage is now reaching a materially larger tier of mid-size streamers, not just a handful of headliners. Creators optimizing their broadcasts often lean on audio tooling - see our guide to a voice changer for Kick streaming and the wider creator economy statistics 2026 for context.
5. Audience, Traffic, and Geography
Kick’s audience is narrower and more concentrated than Twitch’s, and geographically it is a Turkey-and-Latin-America story. Turkey alone accounts for 16.91% of Kick’s web traffic, edging out the United States at 15.19%, with Argentina, Peru, and Brazil filling out the top five (Similarweb, May 2026). The gender skew is steep - about 74% male - and the audience is young, with 18 to 24 year olds the single largest cohort. Engagement per visit is high (nearly seven minutes average duration), consistent with a live-video platform where sessions run long.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total monthly visits (3-month avg, May 2026) | 177.9M | Similarweb, 2026 |
| Global website rank | #234 | Similarweb, 2026 |
| Gender split | 74.01% male / 25.99% female | Similarweb, 2026 |
| Largest age group | 18-24 year olds | Similarweb, 2026 |
| Top traffic country | Turkey - 16.91% | Similarweb, 2026 |
| #2 and #3 traffic countries | United States 15.19% / Argentina 6.97% | Similarweb, 2026 |
| Engagement per visit | 6:59 avg duration, 5.0 pages, 41.13% bounce | Similarweb, 2026 |
| Monthly active users (mid-2025 growth) | +150% YoY | Digiday, 2025 |
Context note: Latin America and the MENA region together account for a large share of Kick’s global audience, mirroring where its record-setting events and top hours-watched creators are based (Streams Charts, 2026). Turkey’s rise to the top traffic slot is the platform’s most notable 2026 geographic shift.
6. Company, Ownership, and Funding
Kick is a well-capitalized private bet, not a public company with disclosed financials, which is why user-count milestones stand in for revenue metrics. Co-founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, who also founded the crypto casino Stake, have invested close to $1 billion into Kick since inception (Tribuna, 2026). The platform is owned through Australia’s Easygo Entertainment and has not confirmed profitability; its 2023-era plan was to reach profitability through advertising within one to three years. Aggressive creator deals - led by xQc’s $70 to $100 million non-exclusive contract - built its early roster.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Users milestone | 100M reached, announced April 2026 (~3 yrs post-launch) | Streams Charts, 2026; Tribuna, 2026 |
| Founder investment to date | Close to $1B since inception | Tribuna, 2026 |
| Ownership | Easygo Entertainment (Craven and Tehrani, Stake founders) | Wikipedia |
| Launch | Late 2022 soft launch, public early 2023 | Wikipedia |
| xQc signing (2023) | $70M-$100M, non-exclusive, 2-year | Wikipedia |
| Other notable deals | Destiny 7-figure; Maddyson $1M; Amouranth, Adin Ross | Wikipedia |
| Profitability status | Not confirmed profitable; ad-supported model targeted | Wikipedia; Digiday, 2025 |
Source: Kick (service) - Wikipedia and Tribuna, Kick reaches 100 million users.
Divergence note: sources disagree on the exact ownership split. Wikipedia describes a 50/50 stake between Craven and Tehrani, while other 2026 reporting cites Tehrani as the majority holder of parent Easygo (roughly two-thirds). Treat the precise percentages as unsettled; the two founders and Stake backing are consistent across sources.
Summary: Kick (Streaming Platform) by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Kick hours watched (2025) | 4.5B (+131% YoY) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Kick market share of watch time (2025) | ~11-12% | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Twitch hours watched (2025) | 19.2B (~53% share) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Global live streaming hours (2025) | 36.4B (+6% YoY) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Kick unique channels (2025) | 1.8M (+68% YoY) | Stream Hatchet, 2025 Yearly Report |
| Kick hours watched (Q2 2025) | 1.1B (first quarter above 1B) | Streams Charts, Q2 2025 Landscape |
| Hours watched (Jun 2026) | 570.7M | Streams Charts, Jun 2026 recap |
| Average viewers (Jun 2026) | 806.8K | Streams Charts, Jun 2026 recap |
| Distinct categories streamed (Mar 2026) | 5,734 (record) | Streams Charts, Mar 2026 recap |
| All-time peak concurrent viewers | 4,600,683 (Oct 18 2025) | Streams Charts, 2025 |
| Top streamer by hours (Q1 2026) | Absi - 34.4M | Streams Charts, Q1 2026 |
| Top streamer by peak (Q1 2026) | WestCol - 840.6K | Streams Charts, Q1 2026 |
| Creator revenue split | 95% creator / 5% platform | Wikipedia; Streams Charts |
| Monthly payout at 500 subs | ~$2,370 (vs ~$1,250 Twitch) | Streams Charts, 2026 payout guide |
| Creator Incentive Program rate | $16-$32 / hour | Streams Charts; Gaming Careers, 2025 |
| Monthly website visits (May 2026) | 177.9M | Similarweb, 2026 |
| Top traffic country | Turkey - 16.91% | Similarweb, 2026 |
| Gender split | ~74% male / ~26% female | Similarweb, 2026 |
| Users milestone | 100M (April 2026) | Streams Charts, 2026; Tribuna, 2026 |
| Founder investment to date | Close to $1B | Tribuna, 2026 |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered by aggregating platform-tracking reports, aggregator dashboards with disclosed methodology, and primary corporate and encyclopedic records published between 2023 and July 2026, prioritizing 2025-2026 figures and cross-referencing watch-time numbers across two or more trackers where possible.
Sources cited:
- Stream Hatchet - 2025 Yearly Report in Live Streaming Trends (2026): streamhatchet.com
- Streams Charts - Q4 2025 Global Livestreaming Landscape (2026): streamscharts.com
- Streams Charts - Q2 2025 Global Livestreaming Landscape (2025): streamscharts.com
- Streams Charts - Kick Sets 2026 Watch-Time Record, June 2026 (2026): streamscharts.com
- Streams Charts - Kick Reaches 500M Hours Watched in March 2026 (2026): streamscharts.com
- Streams Charts - Kick December 2025 recap (2026): streamscharts.com
- Streams Charts - Top Kick Streamers Q1 2026 (2026): streamscharts.com
- Streams Charts - WestCol Breaks Kick’s All-Time Peak Viewership Record (2025): streamscharts.com
- Streams Charts - 2025 Major Livestreaming Viewership Records (2026): streamscharts.com
- Streams Charts - Kick Reaches 100 Million Users (2026): streamscharts.com
- Streams Charts - How to Grow and Make Money on Kick in 2026 (2026): streamscharts.com
- Similarweb - kick.com Traffic Analytics (May 2026): similarweb.com
- Wikipedia - Kick (service): en.wikipedia.org
- Tribuna - Kick Reaches 100 Million Users After Nearly $1bn Funding (2026): tribuna.com
- Net Influencer - Live Streaming Viewership Hits Four-Year High (2026): netinfluencer.com
- Gaming Careers - Kick Creator Incentive Program Requirements (2025): gamingcareers.com
- Digiday - Kick is successfully scaling up (2025): digiday.com
Data watch: Stream Hatchet publishes quarterly and annual live-streaming trend reports, with its next yearly edition expected around January 2027. Streams Charts issues monthly Kick recaps and quarterly landscape reports, so a Q2 2026 landscape and further monthly updates are due through the second half of 2026. Similarweb refreshes traffic and demographic estimates monthly.
Last updated: July 6, 2026. We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.