Félix Lengyel, popularly known as xQc, announced that he is joining Kick, Twitch’s rival streaming platform, after signing a $100 million contract with the streaming site.
xQc’s deal with Kick is massive
xQc is one of Twitch’s biggest streamers on the platform, with 12 million followers and about a 54 K viewership average during his streams. Lately, Twitch has been under fire for its questionable Branded Content Guidelines and unfair 70/30 revenue split conditions. xQc getting his foot in the door with Kick is a massive hit to Twitch, even if his new contract still allows him to stream on Twitch. Twitch has been hemorrhaging some of its biggest streamers. Seeing its most popular streamer looking at alternatives doesn’t bode well for Twitch.
According to Ryan Morrison, xQc’s agent, the streamer’s two-year contract is roughly around $70 million. Aside from that, there would be incentives that would push the value to $100 million. Morrison said, “This is more than most professional athletes and megastars. This is one of the highest deals in entertainment, period.” This contract puts xQc at a higher pay rate than Lebron James, who is in a $97 million two-year contract.
xQc is excited over this deal; according to him, “Kick is allowing me to try and do things I haven’t been able to before. I’m extremely excited to take this opportunity and maximize it into new creative and fresh ideas over coming years.”
Why Twitch streamers are moving to other platforms
xQc is not the first top streamer to leave the platform. A number of them made a switch to YouTube, such as Valkyrae, LazarBeam, Dr Disrespect, Sykunno, among others. Since Kick opened its doors this year, streamers like Hikaru Nakamura, Ac7ionman and a couple more have streamed and continue to stream on Kick.
Twitch’s streamers expressed dissatisfaction over the 50 / 50 subscription revenue split that Twitch rolled out this year. In comparison, Kick gives creators 95% of their subscription revenues.
Even though Twitch announced that it would go back to its 70/30 split, the conditions the streamers need to meet are still not fair. To get the 70% of the revenue, streamers have to maintain 350 subs in three consecutive months. Once they get to $100k revenue, the split will revert to 50/50. If Twitch continues to treat its streamers as they are now, we may see even more top Twitch streamers, and new streamers, move elsewhere.