Kick’s 2023 was pretty eventful but, importantly, represented solid growth and saw it emerge as a genuine third brand to the more popular and successful Twitch and YouTube. December represented its first anniversary, and in this time, this streaming service has become one of the fastest-growing in the industry.
Most impressively, the website has already reached a stage where it is fully competing with other platforms for live broadcasts. Additionally, apart from developing broadcasting stars of its own, Kick has successfully poached prominent content creators from its competitors. The company has so far gotten the likes of Amouranth, Nickmercs, xQc, Dendi, and Tfue to ink mega deals to signal its intent loud and clear.
The new year has already had a lot going on in the streaming industry, with Pokimane ending her exclusivity deal with the purple platform and Kick finally taking its Creator Incentive Program live. Streams Charts has also been busy collating the data and has compiled the lists of the most-watched channels and categories for the first month of the new year.
Most of the Kick metrics saw increases in January 2024, meaning there was more diverse content and more broadcasters on air. In fact, two crucial figures in watch time and average online viewership saw huge increases of 17%, although the peak concurrent viewership fell by a pretty significant 14%.
The figure of 132M Hours Watched was a platform record, as the previous highest that the site reached since it was birthed in December 2022 was 112M HW. Similarly, the number of games streamed was 4.2K, a figure previously never reached, with Kick only once touching 4K, in December 2023.
Most watched Kick streaming categories
Just Chatting was again the most viewed category on Kick for the first month of the year as it saw its numbers go up by a hefty 20%, meaning it did 123.5% better than the second-placed name. Speaking of number two, Slots & Casino must be pretty used to finishing on this position, although it also saw an increase of 21% in its watch time month-on-month.
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA) was third with 17.37M Hours Watched, a 50% rise from its stats in December 2023 thanks to the continued popularity of the relatively fresh VCR RP server. Call of Duty: Warzone was back in the top five after seeing an improvement of 40%, while Other, Watch Party rounded off the top five despite a minimal fall in its watch time figures.
Music Stations was the only other IRL genre to make this top ten leaderboard, continuing its run of making these monthly lists into the new year. The other four games to populate this standing were Fortnite, EA Sports FC 24, Palworld, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. Three of these entries represent some of the most famous and beloved games/franchises in all of video gaming. The other name caught the attention of fans and players worldwide with its run to the top of Twitch after its early access release.
Most watched and popular streamers
Adin Ross continued to be the most watched content creator on the Stake-backed platform, with his January count hitting 7.98M HW, a slight decline from his December 2023 figures. However, it did see him team up with popular celebrities like Soulja Boy, Chris Brown, and Charleston White alongside hosting collab streams with the likes of iShowSpeed, Duke Dennis, and konvy. Moreover, January gave him only one of his most popular streams ever, with the Kick BrandRisk Warehouse boxing event featuring several streamers from the platform fighting each other and outside opponents.
Second was the fast-improving xqc, who saw an 18% rise in his watch time and is fast becoming a threat to Adin Ross. That he has managed such numbers despite splitting his time with Twitch, where he hit 4.3M HW, is a pretty good indication of the level of fandom and loyalty he enjoys among his fans.
n3on was third with 4.48M HW as he continues to prove himself one of the most important names on the green platform by consistently being one of its most viewed influencers. This was also seen in the fact that he was the fifth-most viewed channel on the site during its first year while also possessing its third-most popular broadcast during this same phase. He was also one of only two Kick representatives on the overall list of most-watched streamers from America during the fourth quarter of 2023.
Every monthly or quarterly list tends to throw up a surprise or two, and that honor here goes to the number four name here — pottukoiralive. The Finland native has been running a subathon since January while being based in Pattaya, Thailand, which has seen his stock explode on Kick. His peak online viewership shot up by a humungous 805% in January 2024 as he also racked up a pretty substantial airtime of 656 hours and 45 minutes.
Rounding off the top five is another regular on such lists, ac7ionman, who notched 4.10M HW. He was another to make the most watched leaderboard during Kick's first year in existence, with his streams mostly focusing on Just Chatting and Slots & Casino. Pools, Hot Tubs & Bikinis was his third-most viewed genre last month, showing that this meta has not yet seen the end of the day.
The last five names also comprise usual suspects who regularly make these monthly, quarterly, and yearly lists, including westcol, roshtein, trainwreckstv, and mellstroy562. If there is one fresh name, it is brunenger at number nine, as the Argentinian saw decent improvements in his stats last month, with his content mainly being from the IRL genre.
The top ten leaderboard when it comes to most popular streamers sees seven names repeated from above. Westcol, whose September 24 stream titled Stream Fighters 2 made him the most popular streamer from Latin America in the history of live broadcasts, also topped the January charts with 197 PV. It was from the SI SABE FEST that saw a team led by popular Colombian singer Blessd play against a side led by former Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldinho as part of promotions for the former’s new album — SI SABE.
The first new entry is zelika at number four, as his best stream from last month was a 971% rise from the corresponding video in December 2023. It involved the Spaniard playing Garena Free Fire, the popular battle royale game, with his friends as they faced off against a rival team in a PvP battle that attracted the largest crowd in his channel’s history.
Heelmike is ninth, with his channel’s most popular video coming from a January 28 livestream that was part of a series of videos where he and his friends tried to co-exist with several women in a kind of man-versus-woman exercise. The last name here is konvy, the fifth American on this leaderboard whose January 27 broadcast that involved him chatting with Adin Ross and Kick co-founder trainwreckstv.
Most watched female Kick streamers
Most watched female Kick streamers in January 2024
Among the women, the competition is usually for the last eight spots, as amouranth and jenfoxxx are in a perennial battle to outdo one another. However, the latter started the year slipping out of the top two after registering 520K HW, with most of her content related to Just Chatting and Slots & Casino. With her usual monthly video catalog containing a few ventures into the Pools, Hot Tubs & Bikinis genre, perhaps her abstinence in January 2024 cost her a few million hours.
Amouranth continued to be the leading female on Kick, registering 148.1% more Hours Watched than any other streamer. Apart from her regular forays into Just Chatting, the former Twitch exclusive star played a lot of Palworld, Grand Theft Auto V (GTA), and Red Dead Redemption II.
Demisux was second with 552K HW, with her content mostly coming from the Just Chatting, Fortnite, and Other, Watch Party genres. Many of her most successful live broadcasts came from last month, with another game that tremendously helped in this cause being Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, released in November last year.
Fourth was nadia, another IRL proponent who also played a lot of Call of Duty: Warzone in January apart from creating content on Just Chatting and Just Sleeping. Rounding off the top five and making it a clean sweep for America is woodbabi, an almost exclusively Just Chatting creator who will look to use this strong start to climb up the ranks on the streaming service this year.
The next five names include three more from the US — xenathewitch, samxfrank, and crystal. Their content also revolves around IRL content, with ASMR by far being the most-watched segment for the last name. They also delved into games like Fortnite Zero Build, Movierooms, and League of Legends.
Turkey's blush was the only Eurasian name on this leaderboard, with her streams on LoL, Palworld, and Fall Guys helping her garner 123K HW. Finally, there is chopstix, the Australian influencer who has been busy with Valorant and Don't Scream, apart from IRL and Fortnite content.
