Kick Cracking Down on Inflated Viewership Numbers as TrainwrecksTV Announces a New “Anti-View-Botting” Program
18 July 2024
Kaleb Vanderhorst Author Kick personality TrainwrecksTV dropped news of a new “anti-view-botting program” coming to the streaming platform following tons of community complaints about the bots. But let’s be real – when somebody like N3on averages 60k viewers a stream with only 60k followers on X, something is a little fishy.
The view-botting issue had been ignored for some time by Kick.com owner Edward Craven, but the problem has gotten to a size where he can’t ignore it anymore. If a streamer can just spend a couple thousand dollars to bot their stream and reach the Kick home page, it really defeats the purpose of the platform.
TrainwrecksTV even went on the record stating, “It’s really starting to piss me the f*ck off; I’m looking forward to the anti-view-botting program that’s releasing sometime next week.”
Trainwrecks says Kick is implementing a new Anti-viewbotting program pic.twitter.com/ZpgWnrY19a
— The Influencer Vault (@DaInfluencerV) June 29, 2024
Over the last six months, Kick has become more of a clip-farming platform for streamers to then post on TikTok and Instagram Reels, but this change may be able to push the content on Kick in the right direction.
However, while Train and others like XQC may be happy about the ban, there are surely many creators who are quite upset with the change. There are tons of clout chasers who have been flexing their views on social media… *Cough* N3on, and could have the rug pulled out from under them once their real viewership numbers come to light.
Which Kick Streamers Seem to be View-Botting the Most and Why Is It a Problem?
While there is absolutely no concrete proof of any streamer view-bots on their stream there are tons of big stars who have had some sus numbers. Whether it’s streamers themselves or their viewers, no mid-range streamer is pulling in 100k+ viewers on a Saturday stream.
Sam Pepper, for example, pulled 160,000 viewers on a stream last year with Kick CEO Eddie Craven watching. Upon seeing this number, Craven said, “ How’s this guy got 161,000 viewers? I don’t think that’s real. I think it’s, like, a bot or something. Yeah, I think, something malicious going on here.”
Sam Pepper is a truly crazy example, as nobody bots quite like him. On normal streams with little to no content, the guy manages to magically pull 200,000 viewers like it’s nothing – yeah, right.
However, it’s not just one or two streams we are talking about – everyone, including big names like N3on, Roshtein, Konvy, and Adin Ross, has been accused of view-botting at one point or another.
Sam Pepper view-botting HARD
The main issue isn’t with the numbers themselves, though, it’s how bad it makes Kick look, and the fact that it likely pushes away new creators and viewers alike.
The whole reason platforms like Twitch are so successful is because they’ve let their communities grow naturally over time, people have a real investment in their streamers. At times, people even follow creators just as much for the community around them at times as they do for the streamers themselves.
Hopefully, with this new anti-view-botting rollout, Kick can get back on track and regain much of their lost legitimacy.
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