One of Twitch’s biggest streamers is jumping ship for a new platform. Tyler “Trainwreck” Niknam recently announced he was leaving Twitch for a new streaming platform, Kick.com, after he expressed displeasure with Twitch and its policies.
In a statement posted to TwitLonger, Trainwreck explained the many issues he has with Twitch, claiming the platform has “deemed most of us, irrelevant.” Trainwreck also voiced frustrations with Twitch’s role as a host website, claiming “it is absurd that they take 50% of our income.”
Eventually, Trainwreck revealed that he had agreed to a partnership with Kick. This deal will see him act as a “non-owner advisor and non-exclusive broadcaster” for the platform. And, unlike Twitch, Kick offers a “95% split of all subscriber income to creators.”
“The platform is the beginning of a completely different approach to live streaming,” Trainwreck said about Kick. “The platform is still in the building stages. Kick will roll out these features in the near future under my direction. I’m in constant communication with the ownership and developer team and I’m confident in their mission. Be patient with Kick and give it time to develop. It takes time to make a good platform and to be clear, this isn’t a hard launch. Kick will add features and fix problems as they come up. If you’re a streamer reading this, give Kick at least a year to develop… For that reason, the Kick team and I are making Kick a baseline non-exclusive platform. We’re putting the power into the streamers’ hands to decide if you want exclusivity or not. If you want to pursue exclusivity, we will offer additional paid options through our creator program.”
The Profit‘s Take:
He’s basically joining Kick because Twitch shut down gambling streams. Interestingly enough, Kick.com’s backer is Stake, the company that paid Trainwreck to broadcast gambling streams on Twitch. Kick’s whole thing is bringing power to the creators. They promise more transparency and more types of streams on their website. I was on the fence about this originally. But, after learning this was backed by Stake, I think this is kind of genius. MANY big streamers were gambling on Twitch. If Kick can lure more of those streamers to their website, then it seems like this could work. This could be the way to NOT end up like Mixer. Marketing of Stake’s gambling products will fund a better economic split for streamers. Content and gambling together makes sense.
(All information was provided by Game Rant, The Washington Post, and TwitLonger)
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