Twitch’s branded content screwup gave Kick its biggest day yet

Twitch‘s latest fumble handed Kick its biggest signup day yet.

On June 6, Twitch quietly rolled out unprecedented restrictions on branded content. The new rules barred creators from inserting their sponsors’ video or audio ads into streams, and also barred the use of sponsored banner ads and other overlays. Twitch ever so generously allowed creators to still display sponsors’ logos…so long as those logos accounted for no more than 3% of total screen space.

Since Twitch takes 50% of streamers’ revenue from things like channel subscriptions, branded content partnerships are many creators’ primary source of revenue. Barring the display of sponsor ads and overlays meant “streamers on Twitch just got told they’re not allowed to make 80 percent of their revenue the way they’re used to making it,” former Twitch employee Theo Browne told Kotaku.

The backlash to these changes was swift and loud, and the next day, Twitch apologized on Twitter, admitting that “[t]hese guidelines are bad for you and bad for Twitch, and we are removing them immediately.” (Worth noting: someone on Twitter updated Twitch’s tweet with a fact check saying the ban on “embedded advertisements or banner ads” was still in its terms of service after the tweet went live.)

“Sponsorships are critical to streamers’ growth and ability to earn income,” Twitch added. “We will not prevent your ability to enter into direct relationships with sponsors–you will continue to own and control your sponsorship business.”

Twitch’s new CEO Dan Clancy, who’s been putting in a lot more face time with the community than the company’s previous head, also tweeted, saying Twitch will “continue to operate as we have been.”

But the damage was already done.

Rival Kick pounced on the opportunity to show up Twitch, offering to reimburse streamers the $25 fee Twitch charges to break their contracts if they agreed to sign up for Kick accounts and start streaming there instead.

The move apparently played out well for Kick, because it more than doubled its previous 24-hour signup record, it said.

“Shoutout to that other website for the boost,” it tweeted.

Kick has been growing consistently this year, but it’s not anywhere near challenging Twitch for number of streamers/viewers and amount of watch time. With that in mind, and considering Twitch walked back its policy, we probably won’t see too many major streamers trade Twitch for Kick.

At least, not yet.