How to Multistream on Kick and Twitch Without Breaking Twitch's Rules
The rules that matter live in Twitch's simulcasting guidelines and Kick's Partner terms, not in your OBS settings. And the cost nobody mentions is that your audience splits across two counters.
How to multistream on Kick and Twitch: send the same broadcast to both platforms at once, either with an OBS plugin that adds a second output or with a restreaming service that takes one stream from you and forwards it to both. It's allowed on both platforms, for Twitch Affiliates and Partners too, if you follow Twitch's simulcasting guidelines.
Those guidelines are short: the Twitch version of your stream can't be worse than the others, you can't use Twitch to send viewers to your live stream elsewhere, and Twitch's rules restrict showing merged chat or activity from the other platform on the Twitch stream. Kick adds one condition of its own, and only for members of its Partner Program: turning on multistreaming cuts your Kick payout while it's on.
Most multistreaming tutorials stop at the setup. The part that affects your channel is the count.
Kick and Twitch each count only the viewers watching on their own site. If forty people watch you on Twitch and thirty on Kick, Twitch shows forty and Kick shows thirty. No platform shows seventy, and no viewer on either side sees the total. Your audience is bigger than when you streamed to one site, but every public number is smaller than it would be if all of it were in one place.
That matters because both directories rank live channels by concurrent viewers. Kick's category pages put the channels with the most viewers first, so a stream that would sit near the top with its whole audience sits lower with part of it. Twitch's directory can be sorted the same way, and its programs, such as the Affiliate requirements, measure average viewers on Twitch alone. Splitting the audience can mean ranking lower on both sites than you would on either one.
Whether that trade is worth it depends on where your viewers come from. If each platform brings you people who would never have found you on the other, multistreaming grows your total reach. If most of your regulars would have followed you to one site anyway, you're dividing one audience between two counters. Streamers who choose Kick as their main platform and want the visible number to reflect that sometimes add Kick live viewers during a broadcast, which moves the counter that Kick's directory reads.
Can you stream on Kick and Twitch at the same time?
Yes. Twitch changed its position in October 2023, when it announced at TwitchCon that Affiliates and Partners could simulcast to other services, Kick included. Before that, the Affiliate and Partner agreements required Twitch exclusivity for live content, which is why many older guides say dual streaming on Twitch and Kick is banned. Streamers without either status never had that exclusivity clause.
Kick doesn't ask for exclusivity either. Its only multistreaming rule applies to the Kick Partner Program, covered below.
What do Twitch's simulcasting guidelines say?
Twitch publishes its Simulcasting Guidelines in its help center, and they apply when you broadcast to Twitch and other services at the same time. The main rules:
- Quality parity: the experience on Twitch must be at least as good as on the other platforms. You can't send a high-resolution stream to Kick and a lower one to Twitch.
- No redirection: you can't use Twitch to drive viewers to your live stream elsewhere, for example with banners, overlays, chat commands or panels telling people to watch on Kick instead.
- Social links are fine: links to your profiles on other platforms in your About section or panels are permitted, as long as they don't push viewers away from the live Twitch stream.
- Combined activity: the guidelines restrict tools that show chat or activity from the other platform on the Twitch stream. Reports in 2026 say Twitch paused enforcement of the merged-chat rule; read the current guidelines before relying on that.
- Enforcement starts with a warning. Twitch says it will warn a streamer before taking further action for a simulcasting violation.
Can you multistream on Twitch as a non-Affiliate?
Yes. Streamers without Affiliate or Partner status were never bound by the exclusivity clause, so they could always multistream. The simulcasting guidelines still apply to how the Twitch stream is presented, and it's sensible to follow them from the start, since the same rules will bind you once you join the Affiliate program. Twitch Affiliate requirements explains what that program measures.
What does multistreaming cost a Kick Partner?
Kick's help center has a dedicated article for members of its Partner Program. It says Partners must switch on a Multistreaming toggle, under the Partner Income setting in the creator dashboard, whenever they stream to another long-form livestreaming platform such as Twitch or YouTube, and that their payout is reduced by 50% for the duration of that multistreaming session. Streaming at the same time to short-form, vertical live formats, such as TikTok Live or Instagram Live, doesn't require the toggle, according to the same article.
If you aren't in Kick's Partner Program, there's no payout to reduce, and the article doesn't describe a separate rule for you. If you are, do the math before your first dual stream: half your Kick earnings for the session against whatever Twitch adds.
How to multistream on Twitch and Kick with OBS
There are two ways to send one broadcast to two places. Either works; the difference is where the extra upload happens.
- Get your stream keys. On Twitch, the key is in the Creator Dashboard under Settings, then Stream. On Kick, the stream URL and key are in the creator dashboard's stream settings. Never show either key on screen.
- Option one, a plugin: install a multiple-output plugin for OBS, such as the widely used multi-RTMP plugin, and add a second destination with Kick's server URL and key. OBS then sends two streams from your computer at once.
- Option two, a restreaming service: connect your Twitch and Kick accounts to a restreaming service, point OBS at the service, and it forwards your single stream to both platforms.
- Match the settings. Use the same resolution and frame rate for both, so the Twitch version is never the lower-quality one.
- Test privately before you go live, and watch both streams for dropped frames during the first minutes.
Plugin or restream service: which is better?
A plugin sends two full streams from your connection, so your upload has to carry both. On a modest connection that's where dropped frames come from. A restream service only needs one upload from you, but it's another company between you and your viewers, and free tiers often add limits or branding. If your upload has plenty of headroom, the plugin keeps things simpler. How to stream on Kick covers bitrate and quality settings for a single Kick stream, which is the starting point for either route.
How do you handle two chats at once?
This is the practical difficulty of dual streaming Twitch and Kick. You'll have viewers talking in two places, and each group only sees its own chat. Most streamers keep both chats open on a second screen or in a single private dashboard that reads both. Reading and replying to both is fine; putting a merged chat on the Twitch stream is the part the guidelines address.
Say usernames when you reply, so each audience knows who you're talking to. Viewers on one platform can't see what prompted your answer if the question came from the other.
Should you multistream at all?
It depends on which number you're building. If you're working toward a threshold on one platform, such as Twitch's average viewer requirement or a strong position in a Kick category, splitting your audience works against you, because each site only counts its own share. How to see Twitch viewers explains how Twitch builds those averages.
If you're still finding out where your audience lives, multistreaming for a few weeks is a cheap experiment: compare where new followers and chatters come from, then decide. Many streamers end up choosing a main platform and using the other for occasional streams. What is Kick streaming covers how Kick's audience differs from Twitch's.
If Kick becomes the main one, its directory rewards the live count directly, which is why some streamers add Kick live viewers to a broadcast to hold a visible position while the community grows. The Twitch equivalent is Twitch viewers. Both move the concurrent count on one platform; neither adds chatters or merges counts across sites. You'll find both on the Kick page and the Twitch page.
Questions people ask about multistreaming Kick and Twitch
Can you stream on Kick and Twitch at the same time?
Yes. Since October 2023, Twitch lets Affiliates and Partners simulcast to other platforms, including Kick, under its simulcasting guidelines. Kick doesn't require exclusivity.
Is multistreaming against Twitch's terms of service?
No, as long as you follow the simulcasting guidelines: equal or better quality on Twitch, no using Twitch to send viewers to your live stream elsewhere, and care with merged-chat overlays.
Do Kick Partners lose money when they multistream?
Yes. Kick's help center says Partners must switch on a Multistreaming toggle when streaming to long-form platforms like Twitch, and their payout is cut by 50% for that session.
Do viewer counts combine when you multistream?
No. Kick counts viewers watching on Kick and Twitch counts viewers watching on Twitch. Neither shows a combined total, so each public count is smaller than your whole audience.
What do I need to multistream to Twitch and Kick?
Your stream key from each platform, and either an OBS plugin that adds a second output or a restreaming service that forwards one stream to both.
Can I show Kick chat on my Twitch stream?
Twitch's guidelines restrict showing combined activity from other platforms on the Twitch stream. Reports say enforcement was paused in 2026, but check the current guidelines first.
Keep reading
- Kick live viewers — Kick's directory ranks by its own live count, and Kick live viewers move that counter during a broadcast.
- How to stream on Kick — Bitrate, quality options and setup for a single Kick stream.
- How to see Twitch viewers — Live, average and unique viewers, and which one Twitch's programs use.