Kick has introduced “Kick Road,” a $50,000 prize initiative targeting smaller creators on the platform. The contest is open to streamers who average fewer than 100 concurrent viewers over a 30-day period. It runs from April 2 to May 23, and participant viewership is tracked via a Streams Charts-powered leaderboard.

The streamer accumulating the most watch time across six categories—IRL, Just Chatting, Grand Theft Auto roleplay, Call of Duty, Art, and Live Music—will receive the $20,000 grand prize. Additionally, each category will have a separate winner who receives $5,000.

Platform Strategy and Creator Support

While Kick initially gained attention through high-profile streamer acquisitions, the platform continues to develop programs for emerging creators. 

According to TubeFilter, the “Kick Road” campaign builds upon its existing Creator Incentive Program, allowing streamers to retain most of their earnings on the platform.

“Kick’s creator engagement initiatives affirm our creator-first approach to building an organic community,” Andrew Santamaria, Kick’s Business Development Manager, said in a statement. “The ‘Kick Road’ campaign is an exciting opportunity for passionate, emerging streamers to showcase their diverse content and amplify their audience on the platform.”

Event Integration and Winner Announcement

The competition culminates at DreamHack Dallas, following Kick’s partnership with the esports event series throughout 2024. Winners will be announced on May 24 at Kick’s DreamHack booth, one day after the event begins.

This DreamHack partnership represents Kick’s shift in community engagement venues following reported issues with its community’s behavior at TwitchCon.

According to Stream Hatchet data, live streaming viewership reached 32.5 billion hours watched in 2024, approaching the industry’s 2021 pandemic-era record of 34.6 billion hours. 

In its first full year, Kick captured a 5.7% market share with 2 billion hours watched, representing a 169% increase from 2023’s 725 million hours. The platform showed consistent quarter-over-quarter growth, increasing from 364 million hours in Q1 to 591 million hours in Q4, with unique channels growing 14% to 1.1 million.