Kick Fights Back Against Rumors of Reduced Creator Payouts

Kick’s leaders are trying to calm a storm of rumors after some big-name streamers hinted the platform had cut earnings from its main Kick Partnership Program. 

Kick CEO Moves to Quell Rumors After Streamers Report Sudden Drops in Payouts

The gossip, which spread on social media and during creator live streams, led CEO Ed “Eddie” Craven to put out a long explanation and promise streamers that the program has not changed.

People started worrying when creators noticed their latest payments were lower, even though they worked the same hours and got similar engagement. Some people on Reddit and in livestreams thought Kick might have changed how they calculate KPP without telling anyone. Adin Ross stirred things up by suggesting that brand-related payments and partnership deals did not seem as good as they were at the start of the year.

In response to the growing rumors, Craven posted on X on November 12 to stand up for the program. He stressed that the KPP aimed to give a reliable base income to creators and said that, since it began in 2024, it had given out $150 million to thousands of streamers.

He clarified that recent changes in payouts came from a big cleanup of the platform’s stats, not from any cuts to partner rates. Craven said Kick had redone its view-count system, removed almost a thousand accounts linked to fake traffic, and got rid of millions of bots. He insisted that only creators whose view numbers were boosted by non-real activity saw shifts in their payouts.

Kick Faces Ongoing Scrutiny as Streamers Dispute Earnings

Streamer xQc joined the discussion after telling his viewers he had reached out to Craven to get the facts. He shared that the CEO stated the payout structure remained unchanged and dismissed the rumors as baseless.

Some people still had doubts. Several creators mentioned their earnings seemed unpredictable, and a few highlighted specific cases, like Sneako stating he made just over $80 from a recent two-hour stream, as proof that something had changed. 

Ross, on the other hand, claimed Kick’s partnership system needed a complete redesign and argued that viewers did not have strong reasons to subscribe. During a stream, he went a step further, alleging Craven had bragged about his ability to manipulate viewership numbers at will, a claim that lacks proof.

Even with the ongoing disagreement, industry experts point out that Kick remains one of the few platforms to offer payments styled like hourly wages, although the bonuses depend on how accurate the audience data is. As of now, Craven’s statement serves as the platform’s most in-depth response, but many content creators say they are still waiting to get clearer tools for reporting to better grasp how the platform calculates their earnings.