The streamer Tyler “Trainwreckstv” Niknam (33) is a successful streamer, previously on Twitch, now on Kick. He is now criticizing streamers: many of them are fraudsters who artificially inflate their viewer counts using view bots. Especially Twitch is the problem.
This is what Trainwreck says: Trainwreck responds to a post from Kick’s official account about how much money people are making on Kick, somewhat annoyed (via X):
Additional money is good, but we need to take better care of the people who cheat for attention by positioning themselves at the top of every category or area.
We live in a time where view botters are rewarded and legitimate, hard-working streamers are left out.
Trainwreck was a leading gambling streamer before Twitch restricted gambling – the German streamer Tanzverbot hates gambling.
View botters cheat their way to unfair visibility advantages
What does he mean by that? Trainwreck has the following logic:
- Those searching for new streamers on Kick or Twitch are primarily shown people who already have many viewers. They are therefore the most visible on lists of streamers.
- Those who cheat using view bots as “artificial viewers” won’t earn money with them directly, but will be at the top of the lists, giving them advantages over streamers who do not use view bots.
- Of course, the implication in his accusation also suggests: Those who inflate their numbers are also more attractive for direct advertising bookings.
99% of the people in the top 100 are cheating
Who exactly does he have in mind? According to Trainwreck, the botting primarily originates from Twitch – the “monopolist” is the problem and must also solve it.
- According to Trainwreck, practically everyone is cheating – except for himself, of course, and “maybe 5 others”.
- Otherwise, everyone would be cheating. He believes that in the top 100 and with the new wave of streamers, 99% are such cheaters.
- He has particularly targeted members of the “FaZe” clan.
This is how Kick reacts: The platform fully agrees with Trainwreck: View botting is indeed a problem that every streaming platform struggles with. They want to work on it.
How to recognize view bots? Generally, it is said that streamers who have many viewers but very low activity in chat are suspicious.
The view bots don’t necessarily have to originate from the streamer. It could also be the case that they have fans who take “their streamer or streamer” a bit too seriously and provide bots. Or, in a more sinister way, someone might even try to harm streamers this way.
Trainwreck often mocks other streamers and Twitch on Twitter. He is seen as a gambling streamer, someone who is closely connected with Stake and Kick and who is waging a crusade against the whole world. Hopefully, he never shows up at gamescom, who knows what else might be happening behind Hall 8: gamescom: Conflict between Twitch streamers Tanzverbot vs. Orangemorange escalates into physical assault – New Statements
