Inside Kick 2026: 100M Users, $1B Investment, Still Not Profitable — Key Facts from the SMH Interview
The Sydney Morning Herald published a rare deep-dive interview with Kick leadership in late June 2026. Here are every key fact and stat the platform revealed — what they said, what they avoided, and what it means for streamers considering the platform.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Key Numbers at a Glance
100M
Registered users
Cumulative total as of April 2026
10M
Weekly active users
Executives acknowledge the gap between registered and active
~$1B
Founder investment
Personal capital from Edward Craven and Bijan Tehrani
95/5
Sub revenue split
Creators keep 95% — the highest of any major platform
2022
Year founded
Launched by Craven, Tehrani, and Tyler Niknam
Not yet
Profitable
Platform remains loss-making; ad revenue expansion ongoing
100 Million Users — But What Does That Number Mean?
Kick claims 100 million registered users as of April 2026, a figure executives were forthright about contextualising: weekly active users sit at around 10 million. The gap between the two numbers is a recurring tension in how the platform presents itself publicly versus what advertisers and partners actually see.
For comparison, Twitch reports around 30–35 million daily active users at its peak, while YouTube Live does not break out its live-only audience. The 10M weekly active figure puts Kick firmly in contender territory — meaningful enough to attract creators, smaller enough that it still needs to buy them.
Nearly $1 Billion of Personal Money
Co-founders Edward Craven and Bijan Tehrani — both of whom built their wealth through the online gambling platform Stake.com — have personally ploughed close to $1 billion into Kick since it launched in late 2022. The platform has taken no outside venture capital, which gives the founders full control but also means there is no external pressure to hit a traditional profitability timeline.
The interview confirmed Kick is not yet profitable. Revenue streams are being widened — advertising is growing and creator incentive programs are being expanded — but the platform is explicitly in a growth-over-profit phase.
95/5 Revenue Split — Still the Headline Offer
Kick's subscription revenue split — creators keep 95%, the platform takes 5% — remains the core competitive differentiator against Twitch (50% standard, up to 70% Plus tier) and YouTube (70%). The interview did not indicate any plans to change it. For context, a streamer earning $10,000/month in subs keeps $9,500 on Kick versus $5,000 on standard Twitch.
Content Moderation — Still the Unresolved Question
The SMH piece gave significant space to the controversy that has followed Kick since launch: loose content moderation, its association with Stake.com gambling, and historical incidents involving offensive creator behaviour. Executives acknowledged the criticism but did not announce concrete policy changes. The platform's approach remains permissive by design — positioning itself as a free-speech alternative to Twitch — while trying to attract mainstream brand advertisers who typically avoid brand-safety risks.
The tension between those two goals — open platform and advertiser-friendly — was not resolved in the interview, and it remains the central question about whether Kick can scale into profitability without tightening the moderation that attracted its earliest creators.
What This Means for Streamers Considering Kick
- The 95/5 sub split is real and unchanged — the best rate in the industry for subscription revenue.
- 10M weekly actives is a real audience, but discoverability on a smaller platform remains a challenge.
- No outside investors means no forced pivot or sell-off in the short term — the founders can sustain losses as long as they choose.
- Content moderation is permissive — that is a feature for some creators and a risk for others seeking brand deals.
- Ad monetisation is growing but not yet a primary income stream; subscriptions and direct deals remain the main earner.