Kick has been gradually expanding its footprint in esports, and Stake Ranked Episode 3 provides one example of how the platform can build around tournaments closely connected to its own ecosystem.
Organized by StarLadder as part of the Stake Ranked series, the Counter-Strike event was relatively modest in overall audience size. Its distribution, however, was heavily centered on Kick, with the platform accounting for the vast majority of watch time and hosting the event’s leading official and community broadcasts.
With Episode 3 now complete, the Stake Ranked circuit will continue through the season, while fans following the series can also keep track of Counter-Strike markets through the Stake Ranked sportsbook.
Stake Ranked Episode 3 was largely a Kick-first event
Kick accounted for the overwhelming majority of the tournament’s watch time, while Twitch and YouTube played only a limited role.
The event was not a massive traffic driver for Kick, but it shows how the platform can act as the main destination for a tournament instead of just sharing distribution with other sites.
Instead of only buying rights to major third-party events, Kick can also support smaller, recurring tournaments built around its own user base.
Community broadcasts broadened the event’s presence on Kick
The focus on Kick went beyond StarLadder's official stream. Independent casters brought in solid numbers, and all of the top broadcasts for the event aired on Kick.
The audience was split across multiple languages. English made up the largest share, but Russian and Spanish streams also drew solid numbers, with additional coverage in Portuguese and Polish.
Episode 3 is just one tournament, so it does not tell the whole story of Kick's esports footprint. But it does show that Kick can keep the main broadcast, community casters and an international audience all on its own platform.
