Twitch Star signs $100 million deal with rival platform
One of Twitch’s most popular streamers said Friday that he was joining a rival streaming platform, Kick, in a blow to the Amazon-owned site and a sign of its increasingly strained relationship with content creators.
Félix Lengyel, a Canadian known online as xQc, is signing a two-year contract worth about $70 million, with incentives that could bring the total to about $100 million, his agent, Ryan Morrison, said.
Lengyel’s deal — about the size of the two-year contract extension signed last year by LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers — could shake up the online entertainment world’s economy.
“This is more than most professional athletes and megastars,” said Mr. Morrison. “This is one of the highest deals in entertainment, period.”
Mr. Lengyel, 27, talks to fans, hosts reality shows and broadcasts himself playing video games. He has become a star in the live streaming world, with nearly 12 million followers and the ability to attract tens of thousands of viewers at any given time. According to some statistics, he is the most popular Twitch streamer.
“Kick allows me to try and do things I couldn’t before,” said Mr. Lengyel in a statement. “I am extremely excited to take this opportunity and maximize it in new creative and fresh ideas for years to come.”
Top livestream personalities can earn millions of dollars and attract communities of loyal viewers by broadcasting their content, but a number of them have left Twitch in recent years, lured in by lucrative deals from other platforms like YouTube. And some streamers have complained that Twitch is less responsive to its online community and more focused on profitability than keeping streamers happy.
Those concerns came to a head last fall when Twitch said it would require a bigger cut in the revenue top streamers earn from fans who pay to subscribe to their channels. Twitch changed that policy this week and reverted a recent change that limits the types of ads streamers can show during their broadcasts.
Kick, a streaming platform supported by online gaming and gambling sites in Australia such as Easygo Gaming and Stake.com, an online casino, was launched this year and highlights its streamer-friendly policy. It only takes 5 percent of streamers’ subscription revenue, compared to the 50 percent cut Twitch takes. As a start-up, Kick is prepared to operate at a loss, says Ed Craven, the company’s CEO.
Mr Lengyel is expected to mainly produce content for Kick, but he will not be tied into an exclusive contract with the site and may occasionally appear on YouTube or TikTok, Mr Craven said. Mr. Lengyel still plans to appear on Twitch, although not nearly as often as before he signed the deal with Kick.
Kick averages 110,000 live streams per day, which is still eclipsed by Twitch’s seven million monthly streamers and 31 million daily viewers. But it has grown rapidly and attracted other stars.
“This is about creating something that’s really centered around the creator themselves and forming a community that’s really built around them and not just a corporate structure,” Mr Craven said. “We don’t feel like we really have the right to dig into your pockets and take a piece of that.”