Loose rules, big money: Why Clavicular and other streamers are flocking to Kick

• Looksmaxxer Clavicular and other controversial personalities have drawn attention to the livestreaming service Kick.
• Clavicular says he's made more than $100,000 in a month on Kick, known for light moderation and big payouts.
• Kick says it believes in freedom with limits and has increased its moderation "tenfold."

The livestreamer Clavicular — who was once filmed running into someone with his Cybertruck — is the kind of provocative creator most major brands won't touch.

That hasn't stopped him from making serious money.

The 20-year-old says he's pulled in more than $100,000 a month on Kick, his primary streaming platform, where he's known for "looksmaxxing," or going to extreme measures to maximize attractiveness.

Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, isn't alone. Kick has become a haven for some creators who are fed up with — or have been banned from — other platforms, particularly Amazon-owned Twitch.

Kick's payouts are a crucial revenue source for these creators, unlike the brand deals that serve as the backbone of the broader creator economy. A 2025 survey found that brands fund nearly three-quarters of creators' revenue, making Kick a lifeline for those considered "unsafe" by mainstream brands.

Australia-based Kick, founded in 2022 by the owners of the crypto gambling site Stake.com, features lighter content moderation than some rivals and a generous pay structure: a 95/5 subscription revenue split, compared to rival Twitch's default 50/50 split. Kick says it may permit some violence depending on the context, for example, while Twitch says it has a "zero-tolerance" policy.

Kick also makes direct payments to creators based on their viewership. The platform said it made $182 million in these payments between August 2023 and the end of February.

Its audience is growing fast, too: Kick nearly doubled its share of hours watched to 12.4%, or 4.5 billion hours in 2025, according to a Stream Hatchet report. That made it the third-largest live-streaming platform by share of hours watched, behind Twitch at 52% and YouTube Gaming at 24%.

Kick says it believes in freedom within limits. The platform, which is trying to smooth the way for ad deals, told Business Insider that it's increased its human moderation team "tenfold" since 2022 and that it responds quickly to creators in its live support chat. (Kick briefly suspended Clavicular in December 2025, after the video in which he ran into someone. Police investigated the scene and didn't file charges.)

Kick has also begun signing more brand-safe gamers and organizing events for creators, sponsoring a Formula 1 team last year.

"Kick has started to legitimize itself," said Mustafa Aijaz, VP at online gaming organization SoaR Gaming, which has multiple players using the platform alongside Twitch.

The manosphere is thriving on Kick

Clavicular wasn't always on Kick.

He started his rise to online fame by posting on Looksmax.org, a forum where people rate each other and ask for advice on improving their appearance before going out. He now runs a paid online academy that provides looksmaxxing advice and guides to picking up women, which he refers to as "targets" and "slayables," Rolling Stone reported.

Clavicular, who has said he eschews politics, has gotten attention for associating with the likes of far-right influencer Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, and for being filmed partying to the Ye song "Heil Hitler." Clavicular shrugged off the incident, calling it "just a song."

Mariel Barnes, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, describes Clavicular as part of the manosphere, a loose collection of media outlets and influencers she characterizes as advocating anti-feminist ideology. Manosphere influencers have found fertile ground on Kick, where the top 10 streamers are usually men, typical of other livestreaming platforms.

Barnes said they often get their start through broadly palatable causes, like self-improvement or fathers' rights, before turning to darker fare like overt misogyny.

Clavicular's behavior and views have made him a wider symbol of the plight of young men. California Gov. Gavin Newsom talked about him in a late February interview and bemoaned that "these are the guys raising our kids."

Clavicular reposted it, replying, "The brand is strong."

From gaming and self-improvement to extreme politics

Some other boundary-pushing livestreamers on Kick started in gaming before shifting into politics and pop culture, widening their audience and impact. Many of the more popular streamers fall on the right end of the political spectrum; others are harder to pin down politically.

These streamers' chats become the wellspring of communities that often attract impressionable kids, said Ryan Morrison, the CEO of esports-focused Evolved Talent Agency, who did Canadian streamer xQc's deal with Kick.

Some of the discourse on Kick can be toxic and attracts "people who are lonely and helpless," Morrison said.

Overall, Kick hosts more than 500,000 creators, who can stream and post clips. Scroll through the app, and you might find people playing casual games like Pokémon next to a video of someone playing slots.

You'll also likely come across videos from Adin Ross, 25, who ranks as Kick's second-most popular streamer, according to Stream Charts. He has said his deal with Kick pays him five figures per hour he streams. He rose to fame by streaming NBA 2K and GTA V before moving into long, unfiltered interviews with celebrities like LeBron James and Logan Paul.

In 2024, he gave then-candidate Donald Trump a Cybertruck and tried to grow his support among young men. Ross buddied up with Tate and has streamed with Fuentes.

Ross was banned by Twitch in 2023 for not deleting multiple racist and antisemitic comments in his chat. Ross has said he takes accountability for the behavior of his fans. He also apologized after a clip of him making what appeared to be a Nazi salute circulated on X.

Another prominent Kick streamer is Harrison Sullivan, or HSTikkytokky, a 24-year-old British influencer who started with a focus on health and fitness and has since built his brand around flirting with and insulting women.

Sullivan, who has been suspended from Kick multiple times, including for using homophobic slurs and showing sexually explicit content, now has 242,000 followers on the platform, where he often streams about gambling and women.

His views are sometimes hard to follow. For example, in one video, he denied being homophobic and racist in response to an earlier video where he maintained he was homophobic as well as antisemitic. He recently gained wider exposure as a subject of the new Netflix doc, "Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere."

Then there's N3on, 21, whose real name is Rangesh Mutama. He started streaming as a teen gamer and has since shifted to real-life streaming marked by outlandish and inflammatory stunts — like faking his own death. He has nearly 500,000 followers on Kick, where he's also faced at least one suspension.

He's gotten some mainstream attention by hanging out with the ex-rapper Iggy Azalea, creating content with other rappers, and going on "The Breakfast Club," where he was called out for people leaving racist comments in his chat. N3on responded that the chat wasn't representative of his community, and he said he was evolving from a person who used to say whatever he wanted.

Kick isn't alone in platforming controversial streamers who have been barred from other sites. Ross also streams on YouTube. Kicked off mainstream platforms, Fuentes streams to nearly 700,000 followers on Rumble.

Streamers span the political spectrum

Kick is home to provocative streamers of many political and ideological persuasions.

Steven Bonnell, aka Destiny, is a political creator who built a following with his debate-focused streams. The 37-year-old advocates for some liberal policies, but isn't easily pigeonholed politically. He said he was suspended from Twitch in 2018 after using homophobic and racist language, then permanently banned in 2022. He's also streamed a generally friendly discussion with Fuentes. Today, Destiny streams to 133,000 followers on Kick.

There's also prominent streamer xQc, whose real name is Félix Lengyel. XQc, 30, gained online celebrity as a pro Overwatch player before getting an up to $100 million payday from Kick in one of the platform's biggest deals.

While not overtly political, he's called people who voted for Trump a slur for the developmentally disabled. Early in his career, he made a widely criticized homophobic remark, for which he apologized. Years later, he expressed disapproval of homophobic remarks by fans in another online personality's stream. Morrison, xQc's manager, said he is "loud and crazy" but added that he has "not a sliver" in common with the alt-right.

Whatever the politics or nature of their controversies, a common thread among many top Kick streamers is behavior that pushes the boundaries of social acceptance.

"Kick is like the Wild West of streaming," said Eric Harper, CEO of esports firm GG Talent Group. "Some of the biggest names on the platform have been ostracized from the rest of the gaming community because of hateful views, hateful actions. The TLDR is, there's a huge brand risk, which is why a lot of streamers don't stream there."