One of Twitch’s most popular streamers said Friday that it would be joining a rival streaming platform, Kick, in a blow to Amazon’s own 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 deal worth about $70 million with incentives that could take the total to about $100 million, his agent Ryan Morrison said.
Mr. Lengyel’s deal — about the size of the two-year contract extension signed by the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James last year — could disrupt the economy of the online entertainment world.
“That’s more than most professional athletes and megastars,” Morrison said. “This is one of the highest deals in entertainment anywhere.”
Mr. Lengyel, 27, chats with fans, hosts reality shows and shows himself playing video games. He has become a star in the live streaming world, with almost 12 million followers and the ability to draw in tens of thousands of viewers at once. According to some metrics, he is the most popular Twitch streamer.
“Kick allows me to try things I couldn’t do before,” Mr Lengyel said in a statement. “I am very excited to seize this opportunity and turn it into new creative and fresh ideas for years to come.”
Top livestream personalities can make millions of dollars by broadcasting their content and attract communities of loyal viewers, but some have left Twitch in recent years, lured 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 streamer satisfaction.
Those concerns came to a head last fall when Twitch announced it would take a bigger cut in revenue top streamers earn from fans who pay to subscribe to their channels. Twitch changed that policy this week, reversing a recent change that restricts the types of ads streamers can show during their broadcasts.
Kick, a streaming platform powered by online gaming and gambling sites in Australia such as Easygo Gaming and Stake.com, an online casino, launched this year and emphasizes its streamer-friendly policies. It’s taking just 5 percent of streamers’ revenue from subscriptions, compared to the 50 percent cut Twitch is suffering. As a start-up, Kick is prepared to operate at a loss, said Ed Craven, the company’s chief executive officer.
Mr Lengyel is expected to primarily produce content for Kick, however he will not have an exclusive deal 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 signing the deal with Kick.
Kick averages 110,000 live streams per day and is still dwarfed by Twitch’s seven million monthly streamers and 31 million daily viewers. But it has grown quickly and attracted other stars.
“This is about creating something that’s really centered around the creator himself and building a community that’s really built around him and not just around a corporate structure,” said Mr. Craven. “We don’t feel like we really have the right to reach into your pockets and get a part of it.”