During a recent Discord conversation, streamer DoctorSoup143 asked KICK Advisor to the CEO Andrew Santamaria a question that has frustrated many creators:
What followed was the clearest public explanation yet from someone close to KICK’s leadership. Santamaria didn’t blame technology or claim it was temporary favoritism. Instead, he pointed to a fundamental business reality that every streaming platform eventually faces.
Santamaria breaks down why KICK limits many creators to 720p — and the real financial reasons behind it.
— Terry (@OhHeyTerry) June 2026
Editor's Note: This article is based on a public Discord conversation between streamer DoctorSoup143 and KICK Advisor to the CEO Andrew Santamaria. Throughout the discussion, Santamaria repeatedly clarified that his comments reflected his personal understanding and opinions, not official KICK policy statements. We have done our best to clearly distinguish between confirmed information and personal views in this piece.
Quick Answer
Why does KICK limit many creators to 720p?
According to Andrew Santamaria, the decision is primarily financial. KICK is still in a heavy growth phase and does not yet have meaningful advertising revenue. Higher resolutions significantly increase infrastructure costs (transcoding, storage, and bandwidth). Rather than reduce its 95.5% creator revenue share, the platform has chosen to limit quality for many creators while continuing to invest in growth.
Key Numbers at a Glance
The Trade-Off That Defines KICK
Every livestreaming platform must eventually answer the same core question: How do we pay for expensive video infrastructure while still compensating creators fairly?
Twitch funds infrastructure largely through advertising and subscriptions while offering a lower creator split. YouTube benefits from Google’s massive scale and advertising machine. Discord monetizes through optional premium subscriptions (Nitro) rather than interruptive video ads.
KICK took a different route. It launched with one of the highest creator revenue splits in the industry (95.5%) while still in rapid growth and without significant advertising revenue yet. That choice created a clear tension between protecting creator earnings and delivering high-quality video at scale.
The 720p limit is the current result of that tension.
“It’s just a cost savings thing.”
Santamaria was direct about the reality the company is navigating.
How Other Streaming Platforms Pay for High-Quality Video
Different platforms solve the infrastructure-versus-creators problem in different ways:
- Twitch — Funds expensive infrastructure through advertising and subscriptions while maintaining a lower creator revenue split.
- YouTube — Leverages Google’s enormous cloud infrastructure and massive advertising scale to support high bitrates more easily.
- Discord — Monetizes through optional Nitro subscriptions and cosmetics instead of traditional video ads.
- KICK — Prioritizes a very high creator revenue share (95.5%) while still in growth mode with limited advertising revenue, resulting in more conservative infrastructure spending for now.
Our Analysis: KICK has reversed the traditional sequence. Most platforms build advertising revenue first, then share a portion with creators. KICK is attempting to attract creators with high payouts first, then solve the infrastructure funding problem later. This makes the platform more appealing to creators in the short term, but it also creates greater pressure to develop sustainable revenue soon.
Why Higher Quality Actually Costs So Much
Delivering high-resolution live video involves multiple expensive stages. Here’s the basic flow:
Streamer uploads stream
↓
Encoding (compresses raw video)
↓
Transcoding (creates multiple quality versions)
↓
Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (adjusts quality per viewer)
↓
Storage (VODs + multiple versions + clips)
↓
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
↓
Bandwidth (data transfer to viewers)
↓
Viewer watches
Every additional quality level increases costs across almost every stage. More encoding work. More storage. More CDN delivery. More bandwidth. When scaled across thousands of simultaneous streams, the financial difference between 720p and 1080p becomes substantial.
Why This Matters: The 720p limit is not primarily a technical limitation. It is an economic decision. KICK is currently choosing to limit infrastructure spending in order to protect creator payouts.
Streaming Terms Explained
Transcoding — The process of converting one video stream into multiple versions at different resolutions and bitrates so viewers on varying connections can watch smoothly.
Encoding — Compressing raw video into an efficient digital format suitable for streaming over the internet.
Bitrate — The amount of data used per second of video. Higher bitrates generally mean better quality but also increase infrastructure costs.
Adaptive Bitrate Streaming — Technology that automatically adjusts video quality in real time based on the viewer’s internet connection speed.
CDN (Content Delivery Network) — A network of servers distributed worldwide that delivers video content quickly to viewers no matter where they are located.
VOD (Video on Demand) — Recorded video content that viewers can watch after the live stream has ended.
AV1 / H.265 — Modern video codecs designed to deliver good quality at lower bitrates, which could potentially reduce future infrastructure costs.
AWS / Amazon IVS — Cloud services (Amazon Web Services and Amazon Interactive Video Service) used by many streaming platforms, including KICK, to ingest, process, and deliver live video.
Why Some Creators Still Disagree
While Santamaria’s explanation makes sense from a business standpoint, many creators have legitimate concerns about the current policy.
Lower quality streams often produce worse-looking clips. Many smaller creators cannot record locally while streaming, so they depend on KICK’s clipping system. When that already downgraded footage is then re-compressed for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Twitter, the final result frequently looks noticeably worse. This can hurt first impressions and make growth on other platforms more difficult.
Our Analysis: Both sides have valid points. KICK is making a rational financial decision during its growth phase. At the same time, the quality restriction creates real friction for creators who rely on clips for discoverability. This tension is unlikely to fully resolve until KICK develops stronger additional revenue streams.
Confirmed Facts vs. Santamaria’s Personal Views
Confirmed statements:
- KICK is currently operating at a loss while growing.
- The company has reduced major sponsorships and renegotiated infrastructure contracts.
- They do not yet have meaningful advertising revenue.
- Higher resolutions significantly increase infrastructure costs.
- Leadership is trying to protect the 95.5% creator payout.
Santamaria’s personal opinions:
- A future “KICK Pro” bundle could unlock higher quality.
- Discord-style optional monetization is preferable to traditional video ads.
- 4K will likely only arrive once advertising revenue exists.
- Creators should “earn” better quality as they grow.
What We Still Don't Know
Although Santamaria provided a clear explanation for the current 720p policy, several important details remain unknown:
- What are the exact criteria that determine when a creator becomes eligible for 1080p?
- Are infrastructure costs calculated primarily per creator, per concurrent viewer, or a combination of both?
- Would advertising revenue alone be sufficient to remove the 720p restriction for most creators?
- Are newer, more efficient codecs like AV1 already part of KICK’s long-term technical roadmap?
- What is the expected timeline for any potential changes to the current quality policy?
Our Analysis: These unanswered questions highlight that while Santamaria gave valuable insight into KICK’s current thinking, many operational and strategic details are still not public. Future updates from KICK will likely be needed to fill in these gaps.
KICK’s Timeline So Far
95.5% Revenue Split → Major differentiator
Rapid Growth → Platform scales quickly
720p Policy → Current infrastructure decision
Advertising (Future) → Expected next major revenue stream
Possible KICK Pro → Potential premium tier
Broader 1080p / 4K → Dependent on future revenue
What Would Need to Change
For 1080p (and eventually 4K) to become more widely available, several developments would likely be needed:
- Meaningful advertising revenue comes online.
- A premium membership tier helps offset infrastructure costs.
- More efficient codecs (such as AV1) reduce encoding and bandwidth expenses.
- Economies of scale improve as the platform grows larger.
Future Outlook: Until one or more of these occur, the current approach is likely to remain in place for many creators.
Why This Matters Beyond KICK
The challenge KICK is navigating is not unique. Every livestreaming platform must eventually balance infrastructure costs, creator payouts, and long-term sustainability.
Twitch, YouTube, Discord, and KICK are each solving this problem differently. How KICK ultimately resolves its current trade-off may influence how other platforms approach creator economics and technical quality in the coming years.
Key Takeaway
According to Santamaria, the current 720p limitation is primarily a financial decision rather than a technical impossibility. KICK is choosing to protect its high creator revenue share while the platform is still in growth mode and before it has significant advertising revenue to help cover higher infrastructure costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does KICK limit many streams to 720p?
According to KICK Advisor to the CEO Andrew Santamaria, it is a cost-saving measure while the platform is still growing and does not yet have meaningful advertising revenue. KICK is prioritizing its 95.5% creator revenue share over offering higher resolution to all creators at this stage.
Can you stream in 1080p on KICK?
Yes, but generally only after reaching a certain threshold (usually partner level or consistent high viewership). Most smaller and mid-tier creators remain limited to 720p.
Will KICK support 4K?
Santamaria indicated he does not expect 4K to become widely available until KICK has advertising revenue to help offset the significantly higher infrastructure costs.
Why are KICK VODs removed after a certain time?
Storage costs money. Santamaria explained that long-term VOD and clip storage is expensive, which is why retention is more limited than on some competing platforms.
Does bitrate affect infrastructure costs?
Yes. Higher bitrates require more encoding work, more storage, and more bandwidth — all of which increase costs for the platform.
Could AV1 reduce KICK’s costs?
Potentially. More efficient modern codecs like AV1 can deliver comparable quality at lower bitrates, which could eventually help reduce infrastructure expenses.
Final Thoughts
This discussion is ultimately about more than 720p.
It is about how livestreaming platforms choose to balance creator earnings, viewer experience, and long-term financial sustainability. KICK has chosen one path: protect creator revenue aggressively during the growth phase, even if it means limiting technical quality for many creators in the short term.
Whether that decision becomes a lasting competitive advantage or a temporary compromise will depend on how quickly the platform can develop sustainable revenue streams without reversing its core promise to creators.
The 720p limit is simply the most visible symptom of a much deeper strategic choice. Time will show whether that choice strengthens KICK’s position or creates friction that other platforms can exploit.
References & Further Reading
Conversation featuring Andrew Santamaria (@Svntvmvriv), Advisor to the CEO of KICK, and DoctorSoup143 (@DoctorSoup143).
Want to better understand the real costs behind streaming? Try this free Live Streaming Calculator.
