Kick Breaks 1 Billion Watch Hours as Twitch Sees Decline in Viewer Count
Twitch's dominance in the live-streaming world continues to weaken alongside the major achievement of its competitor, Kick, which in the second quarter of 2025 recorded over 1 billion watch hours for the first time.
Launched at the end of 2022 with an ambitious vision to rival Twitch, Kick continues to draw attention thanks to a more profitable payment scheme and more flexible content policies.
When Kick first entered the streaming world, many considered it a passing trend that would end like Mixer. However, the platform backed by Stake quickly reversed that view through aggressive and strategic moves including securing several top streamers from its competitors.
Kick's big bet is now starting to show real results. In the second quarter of 2025, the platform hit a historic milestone by recording over 1 billion watch hours in a single quarter for the first time.
According to data from StreamCharts, Kick's viewer count increased by 28.1% since the start of the year. This surge also pushed Kick's market share up by 3.74% in just one quarter. On the other hand, Twitch experienced declines, with the Amazon-owned platform recording drops in key metrics over three consecutive quarters, including a recent market share drop of 0.9%.
StreamCharts highlighted that Twitch’s multistreaming policy change was one of the main causes of the platform’s decline. By allowing creators to broadcast simultaneously on multiple platforms, Twitch lost the exclusivity that had been its strength, accelerating its waning influence.
One of Kick’s founders, Bijan Tehrani, responded to the platform’s positive momentum with reflections on Kick’s beginnings. He revealed that Twitch’s ban on Ed Craven, his co-founder, and the cutbacks on creator revenue were the primary triggers for Kick’s inception. At that time, many underestimated and called Kick a platform that "would never be able to rival Twitch."
But now, with Kick surpassing a 25% market share for the first time, it’s increasingly clear that the live-streaming industry landscape is undergoing a major change.
YouTube Live remains the dominant force in the live broadcasting realm, contributing more than half of the total watch hours in the second quarter of 2025, with an astonishing figure of 14.83 billion hours.
Although Kick’s growth has been extremely rapid, this is not entirely surprising, especially considering its highly aggressive creator payment model.