Kick has been coming under fire once again as accusations of view botting have been thrown at the company. The popular streamer on YouTube CodyRiffs recently took to social media in order to criticize Kick, explaining how the platform's viewer count “doesn’t mean shit.”
In a video uploaded to YouTube on April 7, CodyRiffs shared his experience with streaming on Kick, describing the company as a "trainwreck" and saying the platform "reeks" of view botting. CodyRiffs noted that he was blown away at first by the large number of viewers which he managed to attract on his very first stream, later discovering that his viewer count was most likely inflated by a couple of points.
“I was immediately impressed by the amount of viewers I had right away on my first kick stream,” CodyRiffs told his followers. “I was less impressed later on when I found out the viewer count on Kick doesn’t mean shit.” The streamer went on to explain how “the whole site reeks of viewer botting, but it was a nice feeling while it lasted.”
The dead giveaway for CodyRiffs was apparently the chat box. The content creator explained that despite there being several thousand people online, only a handful were actually talking to each other, a telltale sign for view botting. “It’s just a little suspicious when I see people streaming to two to three thousand people, and there are only three people chatting.”
The accusations from CodyRiffs and other content creators come as Kick is becoming more popular among streamers. Kick was launched late last year as an alternative to its current rival Twitch, offering an impressive 95 percent revenue share to content creators on the platform. Twitch on the other hand raised its revenue share towards the beginning of last year, increasing the split with streamers to 50 percent, something which may help to explain the recent migration of content creators to Kick.
Kick has not yet responded to the accusations of view botting. Streamers and viewers alike are now waiting to see how the company will address these concerns, but many have been pointing out that greater problems already exist within the community.
The lack of moderation on Kick has been a consistent source of criticism, with users blasting the open use of racism, sexism and inappropriate language on the streaming service, among other things. Adin Ross recently transitioned from Twitch to Kick after his latest ban, explaining in reference to various metas that “I’m going to be doing Omegle, watching live sports, watching movies, prank phone calls. There’s no terms of service over there.” Ross added that “you guys can say whatever you want in my chat.”