Kick has solidified its partnership with Facepunch Studios through its second Rust Drops campaign, held from June 11 to 14. The campaign became a major driver of viewership growth, helping the Rust category achieve a new concurrent viewers mark of 311,000 Peak Viewers on Kick and helping lift Kick to a three-month high of 1.8 million PV.
Rust's viewership statistics during Kick Drops event
The Drops campaign drove a sharp increase in Rust’s monthly viewership. Most notably, the game’s Kick category surpassed 300,000 Peak Viewers for the first time, setting a new platform record, while its current Average Viewers figure of 52,000 also marks a new high.
Over the four-day event, Rust generated 15 million Hours Watched. This made June only the second month in which the category exceeded 10 million Hours Watched on Kick. The previous instance came during the inaugural Drops campaign, which generated 24 million watch hours over 12 days.
Rust’s watch time during the four-day Drops campaign increased by 5,189% compared with the preceding four-day period. The game also averaged 158,204 viewers, up 5,177% from June 7–10.
Average viewers per channel also exceeded 1,000 between June 11 and 14, something that had happened only once before, during Kick’s inaugural Rust Drops campaign. Streamer participation increased as well, with 231 unique channels broadcasting the game, up 85% from June 7–10.
Kick viewership dynamics during Rust Drops event
During the Rust Kick Off 2 event, most of Kick’s key viewership metrics increased compared with the previous month, according to Streams Charts. The Stake-backed platform reached 1.8 million Peak Viewers (PV), its highest figure since February 2026 and a 24% increase from May.
This analysis is based on Streams Charts data. Our platform tracks more than 60 million channels across major global and regional livestreaming services, helping brands, publishers and agencies measure campaign performance, audience behavior and market trends. Contact us to explore how livestreaming data can support your next campaign or business decision.
Alongside this three-month high in Peak Viewers, Kick has also recorded month-on-month growth in Average Viewers (AV), Peak Channels, and Average Channels, driven by engagement with the Drops campaign. June 2026 also became only the third month in Kick’s history in which Average Viewers exceeded 800,000.
What are Drops?
Drops rewards viewers with in-game items for watching eligible livestreams, giving publishers and platforms a direct incentive mechanism to drive engagement. For Rust Kick Off 2, viewers could unlock exclusive cosmetics and streamer-specific rewards, which helped generate significant audience spikes across participating channels.
With nearly half of June remaining and the Rust Drops available till June 22, Streams Charts projects that Kick is on track to comfortably surpass the 481.6 million Hours Watched recorded in May 2026. If viewership continues at its current pace, the platform could exceed 600 million Hours Watched in a single month for the first time since July 2025.
Rust Kick Off 1 versus 2
A comparison of the two Rust Kick Off events shows that the second edition recorded higher figures across all key metrics. Rust Kick Off 2 reached a higher Peak Viewers total and generated 8.87% more Hours Watched than the inaugural event.
Average viewers per channel were also 62.76% higher during Rust Kick Off 2, while the event’s overall Average Viewers increased by 12.8%.
One similarity between the two Drops campaigns was Rust’s rise to the top of Kick’s category rankings. During both editions, the game climbed to second place on the platform by watch time.
Drops were a major factor, allowing viewers with linked Steam and Kick accounts to earn rewards by watching eligible channels. The participation of several major content creators also helped drive interest and viewership, as discussed below.
Rust Kick Off 2 top channels
Among the most prominent creators to broadcast the Drops campaign, either as participants or community streamers, were Jonathan “oilrats” and Kévin “krolay”. Both ranked among the leading Rust streamers on Kick between June 11 and 14.
Smaller creators also benefited from the additional exposure, with Peak Channels increasing by 230%. English-, Spanish-, and French-language broadcasts accounted for much of this activity, reflecting some of Kick’s largest audience segments.
Arabic-language channels, despite their significant presence on Kick, showed limited participation in the campaign. No creator from this segment with more than 10,000 followers took part, highlighting how content preferences and demand can differ even among the platform’s largest language communities.
Header image via rustkickoff.com
Graphic images via FancyOrb on X
