Twitch viewership takes another hit as rival Kick reaches huge milestone
Twitch has taken another hit in Q2 2025 as rival platform Kick reached a major milestone, surpassing 1 billion hours watched for the first time.
According to new data from StreamsCharts, livestreams across all platforms totaled 29.61 billion Hours Watched last quarter, a slight 0.6% drop from Q1. While the overall streaming industry remains steady, Twitch continues to lose ground.
YouTube Live held firm as the dominant force, maintaining just over 50% of the entire market’s watch time and matching its Q1 numbers with 14.83 billion hours watched.
But the real movement came from Kick, which saw viewership surge by 28.1% quarter-over-quarter. With breakout streamers, a growing demand for gaming content, and a stacked football entertainment calendar, Kick’s growth pushed its market share to 3.74% with its strongest performance since launch.
Twitch, meanwhile, posted its third straight quarterly decline. StreamsCharts reports the Amazon-owned platform saw drops in both average channels and average viewers, leading to a dip in total hours watched. Twitch’s market share also slid by another 0.9% in Q2.
Twitch opened the door for Kick’s success
Kick‘s rise has also come with Twitch’s fall. One major factor behind Twitch’s decline? Multistreaming.
Since the platform lifted its exclusivity rule, major creators have been simulcasting across services. SteamsCharts uses Brazilian megastar Gaules as an example. Once a Twitch exclusive, he began streaming on YouTube in mid-2024. During the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, his YouTube streams nearly doubled his Twitch audience. His total viewership didn’t spike; it simply split.
StreamsChartsKick co-founder Bijan Tehrani marked the moment by throwing shade at Twitch’s past decisions to ban fellow co-founder Ed Craven.
“Three years ago Twitch banned my co-founder’s account and slashed all creator rev share. In response we launched Kick, which everyone laughed at and said could never rival Twitch,” he said. “Today Kick reached >25% market share against Twitch for the first time.”
Kick’s rise has also been fueled by top-tier talent. The platform secured Asmongold, Twitch’s most-watched North American streamer. And thanks to his multi-platform strategy, he became the most-viewed creator in the world for Q2 2025.
With YouTube holding steady and Kick climbing fast, Twitch faces increasing pressure to retain its top talent and its audience.
