The news that chess celebrity and grandmaster Hikaru would be joining the new streaming network Kick on a non-exclusive basis, allowing him to continue streaming on Twitch if he so chooses, made headlines yesterday.
One of Twitch’s biggest stars, xQc, said during his live stream shortly after the news that Kicker is “doing the right thing,” in contrast to Mixer, which attempted to snag every famous user from the Amazon-owned platform years earlier. xQc defended Hikaru’s non-exclusive contract with Kick, saying, “People think that it’s bad that these guys are signing dual contracts, guys, I said this years ago that this is the right way to do it. I said this even when Mixer was a thing. One, it’s cheaper, and two, it creates an actual transfer. It creates an actual transfer that is gradual.”
Ninja and Shroud, two of Twitch’s biggest stars in 2019, were hired by Mixer on exclusivity contracts, but they struggled to attract all of the Twitch viewers. For instance, Ninja’s viewing decreased 33% when he switched from Twitch to Mixer. In his stream, xQc made reference to the fact that Kick is enabling the transfer to go smoothly, in contrast to Mixer, which closed its doors in 2020, partnered with Facebook Gaming, and lost players like shroud and Ninja. Not just Mixer advocated for confidentiality agreements. The two largest gaming streaming platforms at the moment, Twitch and YouTube Gaming, have adopted this practice as standard across many platforms.
It’s uncertain whether Kick will endure long enough to begin making money and keeping the content creators it has contracted. The site recently welcomed Hikaru as the third streaming celebrity after Adin Ross and Trainwreck, who is also an advisor.
According to Train, Kick will contract five more personalities in the next few days. Amouranth may also be involved, according to some rumors.
