“I don’t think that’s real” – Kick co-founder Ed Craven left stunned after seeing Sam Pepper having over 160k viewers on platform

Kick co-founder Ed Craven was stunned after seeing Sam Pepper’s channel accrue over 160,000 viewers. The prevalence of view-botting on the platform has been the topic of discussion for some time, with Ed Craven addressing the issue a few days ago. On June 30, 2023, the Australian personality announced that Kick was introducing “view count protection”to combat view count manipulation.

An excerpt from his Twitter address reads:

“We’re rolling out some extra view count protection on @KickStreaming. This should help combat view count manipulation. It will also help solve some issues surrounding follow/chat bots. Rest assured the community is still growing & we’re staying committed to ensuring we maintain a fair landscape for creators.”

During a livestream on July 1, 2023, Ed Craven discovered that Sam Pepper’s channel had hundreds of thousands of viewers. After noticing this, he remarked:

“How’s this guy got 161,000 viewers?! I don’t think that’s real. I think it’s, like, a bot or something. Yeah, I think… something’s malicious going on here. I don’t know if I trust that. Don’t know about that!”

“Kind of concerning when two-thirds of the viewers on the website are bots”- Streaming community responds to the alleged botting situation on Kick

Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself by u/izigo in LivestreamFail

Ed Craven’s reaction to Sam Pepper’s channel boasting over 160k viewers, was amongst the top posts on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit. Redditor u/chajeckeumob lauded the platform’s co-founder, saying:

Comment by u/chajeckeumob from discussion Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself in LivestreamFail

Another fan wondered if people were “stirring up drama and controversy”by view-botting streamers:

Comment by u/StarkGridlock from discussion Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself in LivestreamFail

Reddit user, u/Konfartius, expressed concern about the livestreaming platform, claiming that two-thirds of the viewer base appeared artificially inflated. They elaborated:

“Kick currently has 284k viewers. (The) biggest live channel is Sam with 198k. (The) second biggest is some weird name (hstikkyt…”) with 3.4k. Kind of concerning when two-thirds of the viewers on the website are bots (probably more since these are bots from one single channel).”

Comment by u/Konfartius from discussion Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself in LivestreamFail

In response, u/Sufficient-Ad1330 provided a breakdown of total viewers across all three major livestreaming platforms – Twitch, Kick, and Rumble:

Comment by u/Sufficient-Ad1330 from discussion Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself in LivestreamFail

Meanwhile, one community member claimed to have seen the “opposite”of view-botting and cited Kaitlyn “Amouranth’s” channel as an example. They explained:

I was on the website and the top streamer online (Amouranth) only had around 1,400 viewers, which is insane considering how many she gets off Twitch. The next highest streamer was gambling around 1,100. It felt like the first time I had ever seen honest numbers on the website.”

Comment by u/Credible1Sources from discussion Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself in LivestreamFail

Here are some more notable reactions:

Comment by u/MeMoba from discussion Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself in LivestreamFail

Comment by u/Arcayda_ from discussion Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself in LivestreamFail

Comment by u/-SomethingSomeoneJR from discussion Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself in LivestreamFail

Comment by u/CodeMonkeyX from discussion Kick CEO Eddie witnesses 150k+ view bots in action himself in LivestreamFail

Earlier this year (on February 14, 2023), Tyler “Trainwreckstv” also discussed the view-botting situation on Kick. He claimed that he was investigating the matter and added that he wanted to be transparent about what going on with the project with which his name was associated.