Adin Ross starts streaming on Twitch; Calls out Kick, critisizing its Partner Program

by

Adin Ross publicly criticized Kick on Twitter, claiming they’ve damaged the Partner Program. This has led to questions about whether this could be the beginning of the end for the streaming platform.

Kick, a relatively new streaming platform, quickly gained attention by offering large sign-on bonuses to popular streamers. One of the first major names to switch was Adin Ross, who moved from Twitch, citing better earnings and other advantages as his reasons.

The streamer is now publicly challenging Kick, arguing that their Partner Program needs an overhaul. This comes as Kick has seen a significant decrease in viewers and content creators over the past year, largely due to changes made to the Partner Program which have driven many streamers to return to platforms like YouTube and Twitch.

Adin Ross calls out Kick, saying there is no incentive to subscribe to a streamer on its platform

It’s a sign of trouble when a popular streamer like Adin Ross publicly criticizes a company he used to support. Recently, Kick updated its Partner Program, originally launched in 2024, which aimed to provide streamers with a stable income beyond just subscriptions – something other platforms weren’t doing at the time.

Kick recently announced it would be cracking down on cheating with bots, and streamer Ross claims this has caused his income to fall by 80%.

Many streamers report their earnings from Kick’s Partner Program haven’t changed, but Ross is one of the few high-profile streamers who says his payments have significantly decreased.

Ross recently questioned why new streamers would choose Kick over Twitch in a Twitter post, asking, “If I can earn more on Twitch and reach a wider audience, what’s the benefit of choosing Kick?”

Ross recently announced he’ll be streaming more on Twitch because subscribers there offer more benefits.

Now, the big question is, did he just out himself for viewbotting his streams?

Kick makes drastic changes to Partner Program amidst dropping numbers

Kick quickly began attracting streamers by offering them large financial incentives, even signing some to deals worth $50 million. This funding came from Stake, a major online gambling company. This arrangement sparked controversy, as critics raised concerns about popular streamers promoting potentially harmful gambling platforms.

Despite the criticism, a lot of streamers accepted the offers from Kick anyway. There were also concerns about Kick seemingly allowing harmful behavior – specifically, streamers making abusive, racist, or homophobic comments without facing consequences or bans.

Some claimed from the start that this would be the platform’s downfall.

A recent Streamcharts study revealed that Kick experienced a significant downturn in the third quarter of 2025, performing much worse than leading streaming platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch.

Looking at the data, Kick saw a significant drop in viewers during the third quarter of 2025, falling almost 3 billion behind Twitch. This is notable because Kick was initially predicted to overtake Twitch. However, Twitch itself hasn’t been doing exceptionally well, as TikTok and YouTube are both attracting billions more viewers overall.

Kick has been losing viewers, leading people to question how long the platform will last. More importantly, it’s unclear how much longer Stake, the company funding it, is willing to invest. They’ve clearly spent a lot of money signing streaming deals, so the question is how long that will continue.

Just last year, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy revealed that Twitch hasn’t actually made a profit and has been kept afloat by continued investment from Amazon.

Adin Ross gives his thoughts on what Kick could do better

I was scrolling through Twitter and saw Adin Ross really laying out what he thinks needs to happen with the Kick Partner Program. He basically gave Kick a pretty detailed list of changes he’d like to see, and it’s clear he’s thought a lot about it.

I saw Ross tweet that Kick really needs to update their KPP – that’s the Kick Partner Program. He’s right, there’s no reason to actually subscribe to streamers on Kick right now, so they need something like KPP to give streamers an incentive to build their communities there. Basically, streamers need a reason to stick with Kick!

Ross occasionally says surprising things, but this particular claim might actually be correct. Given his popularity as a top streamer, he’s likely to succeed on any platform he chooses.

It’s great that you’re working on the KPP and removing bots, but it doesn’t seem to be making a real difference – there are still a lot of bots active.

So, what would Ross do differently?

I was reading Ross’s tweets about Kick, and he had a really good point! He thinks they need a system where creators get rewarded for making great content. Basically, he wants them to recognize things like how popular a clip is, how much effort someone puts in, and the overall impact of their work. He believes that would really motivate people to create consistently and put in the work.

But all of this effort doesn’t matter if a creator is using bots or cheating during their streams, as Kick is actively working to remove those streamers from the platform.

Kick needs a reliable system that remains consistent, regardless of external factors or events.

Read More

2025-11-14 21:12