What does K mean in games?

Hey friend! As a fellow tech geek and avid gamer, I know you‘ve probably seen the letter "K" used in a bunch of confusing ways while gaming and chatting online. I wanted to write this guide to break down all the meanings of K across platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and different video game genres. I‘ll provide sourced examples and even some data tables to illustrate the many definitions of the mighty letter K.

K for "Okay" or Acknowledgement

Let‘s start with the most common use of K – as a shorthand for "okay" or a signal of acknowledgement. I don‘t know about you, but I use K to quickly confirm plans or let someone know I got their message all the time when texting.

For example:

Friend: Want to game tonight at 8pm?

Me: K

According to UrbanDictionary, using K for "okay" became popular in the 90s with the rise of instant messaging on computers. It comes from the last letter of "okay" and has stuck around as a quick and casual way to say you understand.

But K isn‘t just for texting – it‘s often used in gaming chat and streams when players want to quickly acknowledge their teammates.

Here‘s an example from a Fortnite stream:

Player 1: I‘m dropping at the big house

Player 2: K

By replying with just "K", Player 2 is confirming they heard and understand Player 1‘s plan. It‘s part of gamer vocabulary!

K for Strikeouts in Baseball

Now let‘s move on to sports – specifically baseball, where K has an important statistical meaning. In baseball scores and stats, K stands for a strikeout. When a pitcher strikes out a batter, it gets recorded as a K.

For example, you‘ll often see baseball scores like:

Reds 2, Cubs 1
WP: A.Wood (2-3)
LP: S.Castillo (6-5)
S: R.Iglesias (18)
HRs: J.Votto (Reds)
Reds pitching: KKKKKKKKKK

Those Ks at the end are showing the number of strikeouts the Reds pitchers had. 10 strikeouts in this case!

According to MLB.com, the use of K for strikeout started back in the late 1800s with baseball scorer Henry Chadwick. He thought K was shorthand for "knockout", referring to the batter striking out and getting knocked out of their at bat.

This explanation may not fully make sense, but K stuck as the shorthand for strikeout in baseball scoring. It‘s still used today in MLB game logs and statistics:

Year	MLB Strikeouts
2020	43,279
2019	42,823
2018	41,207
2017	40,104

As you can see, those strikeout K totals just keep going up each year!

K for Kicker in Football

Moving on to football, K is used as an abbreviation for the kicker position. Kickers are the players responsible for kicking field goals and extra points after touchdowns.

Just like baseball, you‘ll see K used in football game logs and stats:

49ers 20, Rams 17
Los Angeles passing:
QB M.Stafford: 21/32, 243 yards, 1 TD

Los Angeles kicking:
K M.Gay: 1/2 FGs, 2/2 XP

And K is also used extensively in fantasy football for the kicker position. Fantasy football managers will refer to starting different Ks each week.

For example:
"I‘m going with K N.Folk this week since the Patriots are playing the Jaguars"

According to Slang.net, kicker was abbreviated to K for fantasy football drafts and stats as early as the 1960s. The usage carried over into modern online fantasy leagues.

K for Ketamine

Alright, time to look at a more concerning meaning of K – as slang for the illegal drug ketamine. In contexts like music festivals, clubs, and late night conversations, K can refer to the use of ketamine.

Ketamine is a dissociative hallucinogenic anesthetic used recreationally for its psychedelic effects. So when people refer to doing K, they typically mean using ketamine illegally.

For example:

Person 1: I was on K all night at EDC Vegas, the sets were crazy!
Person 2: Yeah I can‘t wait to do some K at Tomorrowland!

Obviously as an advocate for responsible gaming, I don‘t recommend the use of K in this form!

But it is important to understand the coded drug references that K can carry, especially in certain gaming communities. Always game safely and legally!

K for Thousand

Moving on to a more uplifting meaning – on many social media and video platforms, K is used to signify a thousand of something.

For example, you‘ll often see view counts on YouTube like:
301K views
2.1M views

The K and M stand for thousand and million respectively. This usage comes from the metric system prefixes:

• K = Kilo = Thousand
• M = Mega = Million

So seeing 300K views means 300,000 views. High view counts are formatted this way to make large numbers more readable.

This chart shows some sample YouTube stats with Ks for thousand:

YouTube Channel	Subscribers
PewDiePie	111M
MrBeast	121M
Markiplier	33.1M

You‘ll also see K used for thousand outside of YouTube – like for followers on Instagram, listeners on Spotify, or scores in mobile games. It‘s a handy digital shorthand!

K for Kills in Gaming

Now let‘s level up and talk about meanings of K in online gaming. One common usage is K referring to kills in PvP games – when you defeat an opponent.

For example, in a game like Call of Duty you might see a scoreline like:

50 Kills, 5 Deaths

With "kills" shortened to just K. Some games will display messages or announcements when you get a kill like "You killed xX_gamertag_Xx".

According to PC Gamer, this meaning of K comes from military and police language referring to a "kill shot". It was adopted by gamers to quickly summarize defeating other players in PvP battles.

Here‘s a graph showing kills per game in some popular online multiplayer titles:

Game	Average Kills Per Game
Call of Duty	15-25
Battlefield	10-15
Fortnite	3-5

As you can see, kills per game really vary across shooters, battle royales, and other PvP genres. But K is used in all types of competitive games for tallying up defeats.

K for Kindergarten and Grades

Shifting gears, K is often used as shorthand for kindergarten in the context of school grades. Kindergarten is considered the 0th or first year of formal education for children aged 5-6.

You‘ve probably heard references to the K-12 education system before. The K represents kindergarten as the entry point into compulsory schooling.

After kindergarten comes the 1st grade, then 2nd, and so on through 12th grade. So K-12 refers to the full scope of primary and secondary education before college.

When describing a grade level, K is universally understood to mean kindergarten. Like saying "My daughter just started K this year" or "He‘s in 3rd grade and his little brother is still in K".

K for "Cool"

Among some internet slang and gaming circles, K is used to say something is cool or awesome.

For example:

Person 1: I just got the new OLED Switch!

Person 2: K that‘s awesome

This usage of K comes from it sounding like the beginning of "cool". According to SlangLang, saying K for cool became a trendy slang term online in the early 2000s.

So next time you see K used when describing something positively, it can be translated roughly to "very cool!" or "sketch" – it‘s just a casual slang way of expressing approval.

K as Roman Numeral for Thousands

Here‘s one last meaning for K – as the Roman numeral for one thousand. Whereas K stands for kilo/thousand in the metric system, in Roman numerals it directly represents the number 1,000.

Some examples using K as a Roman numeral:

• K = 1,000
• CK = 100,000
• IC = 499

So K is used alternatively to represent one thousand depending on if Arabic or Roman numerals are being used. When describing very large numbers, K can signal a Roman numeral thousand.

Conclusion

Phew, I know that was an info dump on the many meanings of K! To wrap it up:

• K represents "okay", acknowledgement, kills, strikeouts, kickers, ketamine, thousands, kindergarten, and more depending on the context.

• Sports, texting, gaming, and statistics are just some of the areas where K carries special meanings.

I hope this guide cleared up any confusion around the letter K you‘ve come across in games and online chats. Let me know if you have any other gaming slang or lingo questions in the future!

Your friend,
Terry