Trainwrecks Quits Twitch to Partner With New Streaming Site That Looks Suspiciously Familiar

One of the biggest content creators on Twitch, Tyler “Trainwrecks” Niknam, is quitting Twitch and is partnering with Kick.com instead. He is joining Kick as a non-exclusive streamer and non-owner advisor. Train tweeted about his decision to move and explained why other creators should move to Kick.

Train blamed Twitch’s “inconsistent policies” for leaving the platform 

Train revealed that despite being in the list of top ten creators on Twitch, he feels that the platform is headed in the wrong direction. He said that Twitch just wants to pad the pockets of a “handful of creators” while ignoring the rest of the platform. 

“Twitch has built an empire off of our backs and has the audacity to spit in all of our faces by not only giving us no financial security, with its inconsistent policies but by also cutting our pay in places that they have no right to cut,” he said.

He pointed out that Twitch has the highest viewership, sponsorship, and profitability in the history of the platform and yet the platform continues to deploy pay cuts for its creators. Twitch has maintained a 50-50 revenue split for the longest time where creators get just 50% of the revenue they generate on the platform. 

Twitch recently wanted to deploy a 70-30 split where creators get 70% of the revenue, which would bring it on par with YouTube. But Twitch canceled its plans and it led to creators feeling betrayed. Kick will offer 95% of revenue to creators from subscriptions which is a higher share than both YouTube and Twitch. Tips (donations) will not have any revenue sharing whatsoever and creators will receive the entire share.

Train said, “I choose to work with Kick because their investors are willing to listen to creator input to make their platform better. Kick understands that a successful platform starts with a successful streamer. I’ve worked with their team already to create these benefits that no other platform has.” 

Kick will make the model sustainable by relying on advertisements to generate most of its revenue. Train concluded his long tweet saying that he wants to work with Kick to bring livestreaming back to what it was “before Twitch lost its way.” 

Fans point out immediate flaws on Kick

While Kick’s policies sound streamer-friendly, there are numerous issues that fans have pointed out within minutes of using the website. Slots has the most viewership on the platform, and there seem to be no restrictions on creators promoting gambling. 

There are streamers claiming that their streams were taken down and the auto-mod system seems to be buggy at the moment. The user interface is also a point of contention as it looks eerily similar to Twitch. 

Some broadcasters are also streaming adult content and are illegally broadcasting copyrighted content. Due to a lack of censorship, some creators are even re-streaming big Twitch streamers like Kai Cenat. The website is new and lacks basic content moderation features and it needs to go a long way if it wants to compete with Twitch.