As viewbots become more sophisticated and harder to detect, the fight against them is evolving as well. The prevalence and impact of viewbots across streaming platforms is the topic of a new whitepaper co-published by data hub Streams Charts and influencer marketing firm Audiencly.
Viewbots have been in the news thanks to recent activity on Twitch. The Amazon-owned company tightened its enforcement of its anti-viewbotting policy in July, a move that may have led to a platform-wide viewership dip. A subsequent uptick led to claims that Twitch had reversed its policy update, though representatives for the platform clarified that the viewbotting crackdown is as active as ever.
The Streams Charts whitepaper indicates that Twitch does indeed have its viewbots under control — especially in relation to other streaming platforms. By looking for telltale signs of viewbotting, such as high percentages of logged-out viewers and linear, regimented traffic trends, Streams Charts identified channels with a “high chance of viewbotting.”
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On Twitch, the prevalence of “suspicious” channels dipped sharply during the third quarter of 2024, when the FTC announced an official ban on viewbotting. The number of sus Twitch hubs has continued to decline since then, but that doesn’t mean viewbotting is a thing of the past. To the contrary, Q2 2025 was the first quarter in which at least 10% of Twitch accounts with at least 50 average quarterly viewers “displayed clear signs of persistent viewbotting,” Streams Charts wrote.
That figure indicates that Twitch still has work to do, but the outlook on Kick is much worse. The upstart Twitch rival uses powerful anti-viewbot tactics, at least according to creators like xQc, but the numbers suggest that many violators are slipping through the cracks. During Q2 2025, more than 16% of Kick channels with at least 50 average quarterly viewers were suspected viewbotters, Streams Charts found.
While Kick’s overall traffic rose sharply during that period, the rate of increase for suspected viewbotters was far higher. “Kick’s leadership has promised action, but enforcement remains inconsistent, with smaller creators often disproportionately affected while top streamers sometimes evade penalties,” reads the Streams Charts whitepaper.
If Kick is promising to act on its viewbotting problem, some users may argue that concerns about artificial traffic are overblown. But Streams Charts and Audiencly make the case that viewbotting has a wide-reaching impact. It’s not just a cheat code for creators who want to get ahead in competitive categories like “just chatting” and esports — it’s a phenomenon that causes influencer campaigns to waste spend and fall short of their engagement targets.
“The ripple effects are felt throughout the industry, as honest creators are overlooked in favor of those gaming the system, and brands become increasingly wary of investing in livestreaming,” said Stream Charts Chief Sales Officer Sergii Rudenko. “Ultimately, the unchecked spread of viewbotting threatens to undermine the credibility of influencer marketing as a whole.”
Viewers can help marketers, analysts, and platforms root out viewbotting by looking for suspicious signs like linear viewership, sudden traffic spikes, and nonsensical chat messages. If there’s one thing the whitepaper makes clear, it’s that viewbots are evolving faster than the tech industry’s enforcement solutions. Proactive behavior will be necessary if the influencer marketing world wants to avoid wasting billions of dollars of spend over the coming years.
