Twitch Rival Kick May Start Paying Its Viewers

Kick is allegedly working on a program that could pay viewers for watching streams. The news comes courtesy of a major streamer on the platform.

Amid Twitch still not being profitable, other streaming platforms are trying to take the platform’s place as the biggest streaming service. While Twitch is still extremely popular, some streamers have branched out to services like Kick and YouTube. Some streamers depart Twitch due to being banned, while others have received lucrative contract deals for leaving their usual streaming services. In any case, it seems Kick isn’t done yet trying to make its service the most appealing for streamers and viewers alike.

According to Adin Ross, Kick is working on a new currency that will be given to viewers who spend time watching streams. During a stream, Ross said that the Kick Currency will work similar to Twitch’s Bits, but viewers will be able to benefit, not just who they’re viewing. It’s an interesting difference, since users have to spend money to get Bits on Twitch, and they’re used to further boost streamers, not the other way around. Ross notes that he would be able to “give a Kick” that users could then “cash out.” However, he goes on to note that “not everyone” will be paid to watch, so it’s not clear what would net a viewer this currency.

Kick’s New Currency

While this sounds promising in theory, a lot of questions remain unanswered about it at this time. For example, there’s no information on how much the Kick Currency would be worth, how often a viewer could earn it, what the threshold would be to cash out, and so on. Aside from encouraging viewers to tune into channels, though, it could also help Kick to complete with things like Twitch Drops, which can reward viewers with in-game items for watching for a set amount of time.

Kick continues to seek out content creators for its platform, but it remains to be seen if Twitch will lose its top spot as a streaming service. Google is also continuing to host major content creators on its own service while also trying to compete with the likes of TikTok with YouTube’s Shorts vertical video content. It will be interesting to see if Kick Currency draws more viewers to watch streams on its service. For those who already watch their favorite streamers on Kick, it’s something that will likely keep them tuning in once it’s implemented, which is good for the streamers there. Whether it’s enough to draw viewers in who don’t usually use Kick, however, remains to be seen.