Kick CEO Eddie Craven has admitted that viewbotting is a major problem after originally doubting concerns from Trainwreck about the severity of the issue.
Viewbotting has long been one of the livestream scene’s most contentious issues. It refers to the use of automated tools to artificially inflate viewer counts, creating the false impression that a streamer is far more popular than they really are.
Kick co-founder Trainwreck has repeatedly sounded the alarm on viewbotting on Twitch and other platforms, claiming some streamers spend up to $20,000 a week on advanced bot services.
He has also alleged that as many as 90% of Twitch’s top 100 streamers are inflating their numbers with bots.
While both Twitch and Kick have taken steps to fight back against the fake numbers, Eddie Craven has now admitted that the problem is worse than he thought and that Trainwreck was right to sound the alarm.
Kick CEO says viewbotting is a huge problem and many people are involved
Speaking on his podcast, Eddie explained that it was “great” to see so many people calling out viewbotters after Trainwreck first started addressing the problem.
“Even I thought Train was f**king schizo. Why is he going on and on and on about viewbotting,” he said, explaining how he was dismissive of the flags at first. Just like Sarah Connor in the Terminator franchise, Trainwreck was issuing warnings that fell on deaf ears.
“It turns out that it is a big f**king problem. It’s a really bad problem and a lot of people are involved in it. Now I look back at Train talking about it like four or five years ago and he’s spamming me with hundreds of messages. I was like, ‘guy is crazy.’ But it looks like I was the crazy one in the end.”
With 2026 just beginning, we’ll have to see how platforms end up taking action against the ongoing viewbotting threat.
In 2025, Stableronaldo claimed his former management team wanted him to use viewbots to land him a deal with Kick.
In another viral incident, Twitch streamer QueenGloriaRP was banned after she appeared to accidentally show off her viewbotter during a live broadcast before nonchalantly ending her stream.
