So far, 2024 has been a remarkable year for Kick, with viewership records being set almost every month and new names joining it regularly. The latter trend has a lot to do with content creators from rival Twitch inking deals as a consequence of the purple platform's troubles in countries like South Korea and Turkey.
In May, the green platform saw quite a few milestones achieved, including an all-time peak of 1.02M Peak Viewers (the first time it had crossed the million mark). Almost by exclusivity, it also saw a record 263.854 Average Viewers, making it three straight months of touching the 200K figure after first achieving it in March.
Kick also hit a three-month high in the number of peak channels (3.8K) and touched 3K Average Channels for the first time in ten months. It gained the highest number of active channels since July 2023, when it did back-to-back months of over 200K, a figure yet to be matched.
Saving the best for last, the live streaming service's cumulative monthly watch time has been rising steadily ever since first crossing 100M in August 2023. May was another record month, with the 183.8M Hours Watched beating the old mark — set in April, when it first passed 150M HW — by 20.8%.
Most watched Kick categories, May 2024
The leader among games/categories last month was Just Chatting, by far the most preferred genre for streamers and viewers on the Stake-backed platform. In fact, it saw a rise of 21% in its monthly HW figures compared to April, with this segment's contribution to the total platform Hours Watched figure usually being generated at least a third, if not more.
In a reversal of the usual trend, the second spot was taken by Grand Theft Auto V (GTA) thanks to a massive increase of 70% in its month-on-month Hours Watched figure. This helped it flip a deficit of around 11 M HW into a surplus of almost 6M HW in a month in contrast to the third-placed Slots & Casino. A big reason for this jump was the increase in activity of drb7h, by far Kick's most famous streamer of the Rockstar Games classic, as his airtime shot up by a huge 320% due to his month-long 24-hour broadcast sessions.
League of Legends jumped up three spots to enter the top five once again thanks to a solid increment of 65% in its monthly watch time. Its rival, Dota 2, also saw a pretty successful May, climbing up a place to seventh to continue its recent upswing in fortunes on the platform. Both had major tournaments to thank for their rises, with the former seeing events like the Mid-Season Invitational 2024 and the AT&T Annihilator Cup 2024 while the Valve offering had competitions like DreamLeague Season 23, PGL Wallachia Season 1. and European Pro League Season 18 to keep fans and streamers invested.
Four shooter games also found places in these top ten standings, led by Call of Duty: Warzone, which has cemented its place as a platform regular among viewers. Garena Free Fire also continued its run of making this list thanks to an increase in the number of tournaments across its esports season for 2024.
Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 continued their competition to outdo one another, with the Riot Games offering earning bragging rights for a month thanks to an MoM increment of 30% in its watch time. This was also their comeback into the top ten leaderboard after both missed out in the April 2024 rankings.
Both had a lot of events running to keep viewers busy, with the list of content creators covering them helping build their watch times. The likes of xqc, westcol, elraenn, brucedropemoff, yourrage, and crazyguyfps were among the most watched influencers for these games, bringing with them an audience base in the thousands.
Last but not least is the Other, Watch Party genre, which has found a nice space for itself among viewers and creators on Kick and continues to be one of the more viewed segments in the IRL bracket.
Most watched and most popular Kick channels, May 2024
Most watched channels on Kick in May 2024
For the first time in a while, there was a new number one atop this table in the form of drb7h. The Saudi Arabian GTA sensation's abovementioned live-streaming marathon proved highly successful not only for Kick but also in his quest to become one of the eminent names on it. What also helped him become number one were his Just Chatting broadcasts, which accounted for around 15% of his total watch time in May.
Second is ac7ionman with 5.71M HW, a significant rise of 107% in his month-on-month Hours Watched figure. While Just Chatting was his go-to genre last month, the American was also busy live broadcasting in the Just Sleeping and Slots & Casino segments, giving him the highest on-air time of 340h 55m among the top ten names on this table.
Colombian sensation westcol jumped up a spot to third in May, mostly thanks to his coverage of the much-hyped Kings World Cup 2024. The unique streamer/footballer concept has already been a massive hit thanks to the Kings and Queens league, and the addition of this global tournament pitting countries against each other, with prominent names attached to each side, could be a winning formula that births a new event for years to come.
Regular topper Adin Ross relinquished his spot at the top in May, settling for a relatively lowly fourth with 3.97M HW. The American star was online for much less time last month, amidst multiple reports of his retirement from the industry, which resulted in a fall of 25% in his MoM watch time. Apart from IRL categories, he played games like Elden Ring, Minecraft, and NBA 2K24 to keep himself and his viewers busy.
Rounding off the top five is another Saudi megastar, sxb, whose primary channel hit 3.95M HW in May. This was a rise of 24% in his watch time compared to April, and a few more hours of streaming could have gotten him to fourth, but he has to make do with making the top five. Apart from his regular genres of Just Chatting and Grand Theft Auto V, the online personality covered a lot of the Kings World Cup, where his team is representing his nation.
Another regular in the top two, xqc, had to make do with sixth this time as his watch time declined by 26% due to a reduction of 11% in his airtime. The Canadian has become a platform mainstay within a year of joining and he has helped bring his huge fanbase to Kick, with the platform's watch time boost over the past year coinciding with his arrival as one of its marquee signings.
Another regular on these lists, n3on, takes the seventh spot after accruing 3.61M HW last month. He has been able to put a controversial start to the year behind him, as seen in the 33% spike in his monthly watch time. Almost all this time was spent in the Just Chatting genre, where he has made a name for himself as a platform leader.
Elraenn, mellstroy271, and vitaly complete a top ten standings devoid of any woman after quite a while. The former two are no strangers to this table, having also made the April 2024 rankings, with the Turkish internet star being another member of the Kings World Cup group. He owns Limon FC, which is representing the Eurasian nation in Mexico at the event's inaugural edition.
Vitaly, meanwhile, is a Russian-American former YouTuber whose streams contain a lot of content from the Slots & Casino genre. While his controversial past has left a sour taste in many people's mouths, he enjoys quite a following online, helping make him one of Kick's most-watched names.
Most watched and most popular Female Kick streamers, May 2024
Most watched female channels on Kick in May 2024
The women's list for May continues to have a familiar look to it, with megastar amouranth at the peak after sneaking past the one million mark. It wasn't her best 30-day span in terms of numbers, as her airtime and watch time we down by 27% and 39%, respectively.
Second is woodbabi, who jumped up two places after being stuck in fourth for the previous two rankings. What helped her in this regard was the month-on-month improvement of 116%, one of the higher jumps in this top ten, ensuring she was able to keep the nearest challenger at bay.
Speaking of the nearest challenger, demisux ends in third to fall by a spot from April after seeing her watch time grow by a relatively meager 15%. She was the only other female creator to cross 500K HW, with her content involving a higher number of games played compared to her colleagues, especially Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.
Fourth and fifth are nadia and crystal, respectively, with both retaining their places within the top five from the April leaderboard. The former was one of the two names among the top ten to cross 4K AV alongside samxfrank (who placed sixth in these May rankings), while the latter continues to stream a lot in the ASMR category to help her stay among the more prominent females on Kick.
There were two Turkish names in the bottom five of these standings — blush and nemesis — in the eighth and ninth spots, respectively. Both appear to give gaming quite some time, with their most watched ones including Counter-Strike 2 and Dead By Daylight. The latter saw an especially great growth of 144% in her monthly watch time and she'll hope to keep up the good work over the rest of 2024.
One last American representative in the form of nataliereynolds was tenth, as her HW figure saw only a 23% rise in May, resulting in a fall of one place from April. Last is shakomako from Kazakhstan who maintained her momentum and recent good run by retaining her seventh place from the previous rankings.
