Twitch loses another massive streamer to Kick as Nickmercs also signs a non-exclusive deal with the competitor. He has been streaming on Twitch for over a decade.
Nick "Nickmercs" Kolcheff is the latest streamer to take Kick's offer, and he will now stream on the Stake-funded platform. Even if it's not the huge $100 million deal xQc got, Nick has little reason to complain about the rumored $10 million.
His first appearance from his new part-time home will be an intro Kick stream, scheduled for October 23 – you can find it right here.
Is Twitch In Trouble?
There have been lots of streamers in the past few months that have signed with Kick, including stars like Amouranth, Adin Ross, Trainwreck and Destiny. Chances are lots of others will follow, even if it's just for those sweet, sweet offers that Kick can make.
Twitch still has the bigger audience, and most of the streamers that signed with Kick still go live on Twitch as well. But Kick definitely has the capital to meaningfully compete, thanks to their backers, Stake.
Stake is an offshore casino, and it makes astronomical revenue ($2.6 billion in 2022). The founders of both Kick, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, apparently enjoy spending that money on acquiring popular streamers for their Kick, even if most deals are non-exclusive.
— FaZe Nickmercs (@NICKMERCS) October 19, 2023
The balance of power still favors Twitch, but the gap is closing. And don't forget, while Kick has been building a community since December 2022, Twitch have unfortunately been getting into a lot of hot water for a separate issue related to lowering the revenue share that top streamers get from subscribers (from 70% revenue share down to 50%).
It doesn't take a business genius to guess that if Twitch keeps going down the route of upsetting their top creators, those creators will switch platforms. Chances are more Twitch streamers are going to follow their colleagues' examples – we'll keep you updated!