Kick ads, explained: they are platform-wide and creators can’t turn them off
Kick went three years without ads. Now they run everywhere, Craven says they barely matter to revenue, and a glitch put them on an offline channel.
The tea in 3
- Kick ads began in May 2026, mostly in gambling streams, and Kick officially launched them on live broadcasts on Aug 11.
- Win.gg reported that Kick's own site says creators cannot disable ads and that ad revenue is not shared with them.
- Eddie Craven says ads are a tiny part of revenue because KPP pays creators "19x the traditional ad revenue."
Kick now shows ads across the whole platform, and the people streaming on it cannot switch them off, according to Win.gg’s reporting on the rollout. Ads first appeared in May 2026, and Kick officially launched them on live broadcasts on Aug 11, Tubefilter reported.
It is a big change for a site that spent more than three years selling itself on a creator-friendly deal with no ads.
How it rolled out
- Ads first appear on Kick. Co-founder Eddie Craven says Kick is testing and will show them only in gambling broadcasts at first. Creators push back.
- Kick officially launches ads on live broadcasts, pitching them to brands as a “direct line to Gen Z,” per Tubefilter. Win.gg says Kick’s creator documentation states ads will not generate revenue for creators.
- A clip goes viral of ads playing on a non-monetized channel.
The glitch that got attention
An X user posted a clip showing ads on a channel that was not monetized. The streamer appeared offline before and after the ads, and viewers had to refresh to get the stream to play.
Kick director Ethan Wright said the situation was “not good enough” and that he would “jump on this ASAP.” His explanation was that the streamer had crashed several times within two hours and had no disconnect protection turned on. When they restarted, a post-roll ad played, which exposed viewers to ads. He said that is “why we go slow on rollout.”
Craven’s defense
On a Kick Talks stream, Craven was asked whether streamers get paid for ads. He said creators are taken care of through the Kick Partner Program, or KPP, which he said pays “19x the traditional ad revenue.” He added that ads still sit mainly in the Slots and Casino category and are “very rare” elsewhere, which is why they make up an insignificant share of Kick’s revenue.
vs
That comparison is Win.gg’s. Win.gg also notes that on Kick, creators cannot turn ads off, viewers cannot skip them, and Kick keeps the revenue; the outlet says Kick’s own website states ads are platform-wide and cannot be disabled by creators.
The catch
The 19x claim cannot be checked from outside. Craven himself said KPP earnings range from as high as $1,000 an hour to as low as $10, and September’s payout errors (Kick later admitted a manual error) showed how much creators depend on the formula being right.
If ads grow and creators see none of it, KPP is the whole deal. That makes how Kick calculates it the most important number on the platform.
What happens next
Wright had not confirmed a fix for the offline-channel ads when Win.gg published. Craven said Kick will address the revenue question as ads increase.
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Receipts
Where this story comes from. We link primary posts and the outlets that reported them.
- Win.gg — Eddie Craven: Kick Remains Creator-Focused As Ads Contribute Little Revenue 2026-10-05
- Win.gg — Kick Users Report Ads Appearing on Non-Monetized Channels; Ethan Wright Responds 2026-09-08
- Win.gg — Kick's Eddie Craven Addresses Ongoing KPP Complaints and Viewbotting 2026-09-15
- Tubefilter — Kick believes its new ads can be a "direct line to Gen Z" 2026-08-11
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