Twitch Streamer xQc Offered up to $100 Million to Leave Twitch for Another Platform

In a new blow to Twitch, one of the platform’s top streamers announced Friday that he would be switching to rival platform Kick.

The streamer known as xQc — or 27-year-old Canadian Félix Lengyel — is signing a two-year, roughly $70 million contract that comes with incentives to possibly push that total to $100 million, his agent Ryan Morrison told the New York Times.

Lengyel’s deal is about as large as LeBron James’ two-year extension contract signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“This is more than most professional athletes and megastars,” Morrison told the Times. “This is one of the highest deals in entertainment, period.”

With nearly 12 million followers, Lengyel chats with fans online, hosts reality shows and broadcasts himself playing video games live, attracting tens of thousands of viewers at a time.

By these metrics, he is considered the most popular Twitch streamer.

“Kick is allowing me to try and do things I haven’t been able to before," Lengyel said in a statement.

“I’m extremely excited to take this opportunity and maximize it into new creative and fresh ideas over coming years.”

A number of large streamers have left Twitch in recent years, attracted by big deals from other platforms like YouTube.

Some have complained that Twitch has focused too much on profitability rather than the online community, as these top livestream personalities can make millions of dollars and attract thousands of loyal fans.

Last fall, Twitch announced that it would be taking a larger cut of the revenue that top streamers make from fans who subscribe to their channels.

However, the platform altered that policy this week and rolled back a restriction on the types of advertising streamers could share on their channels.

Kick currently averages about 110,000 livestreams a day, compared to Twitch’s 7 million monthly streamers and 31 million daily viewers.

But Kick takes only 5% of streamers' earnings from subscriptions versus Twitch’s 50% cut.