- Tyler “Ninja” Blevins recently announced that he is departing from Amazon’s Twitch to stream exclusively on Microsoft Mixer
Several days ago, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins announced that he was leaving Amazon’s Twitch to join the Microsoft streaming platform Mixer. Ninja gained a massive following as he spends hours every day streaming his Fortnite gameplay. It has been reported that Ninja was earning $500,000 per month from the monetization of the game streams and the sponsorships.
On Twitch, Ninja hit more than 14 million followers along with 22 million subscribers on YouTube. Leaving behind all of these gamblers is a huge gamble for Ninja as it leaves room for another gamer to grab the throne on those platforms. However, the timing of this decision may have been a very smart decision. Fortnite’s popularity has been slowing down.
Microsoft Mixer gives Ninja a tremendous opportunity to detach his identity as just a top Fortnite player. And the Microsoft deal will provide him with financial stability.
After Ninja announced he was leaving Twitch, the Mixer app became the most downloaded free app in the Apple App Store less than 24 hours later. And Ninja’s Mixer account surged to 300,000 followers by the time his first Mixer stream started on August 2, according to Business Insider.
The next chapter,https://t.co/lvn9KBjEYq pic.twitter.com/tljVgyM3bG
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 1, 2019
“I have been holding on to this for quite some time,” said Ninja in a video via The Verge. “And I’m just super excited to let everyone know. I’ll be streaming on Mixer full-time now and I’m honestly at a loss for words. I’m freaking out in the best ways. I feel like I’m going to get back to the streaming roots.”
Popdog — a company that helps gaming influencers with deals founded by Alexander Garfield (built two eSports teams: Evil Geniuses and Alliance) and Niles Heron (serial entrepreneur) — represents Ninja through the Loaded division. Loaded is the gaming industry’s top management firm and is a division of Popdog, the technology, and services company focused on meeting the complex needs of the esports and live streaming industries. Loaded represents a roster of many gaming influencers including Ninja, Shroud, and DrLupo, and several others. Along with Loaded, Popdog also joins together fellow gaming industry leaders NoScope and Catalyst esports to develop products and provide key services designed to help optimize esports and gaming live streaming for brands, publishers, talent, teams, tournaments, and other stakeholders.
Heron told The New York Times that Ninja’s decision was “overwhelmingly not driven by the monetary value.” Ninja’s decision was largely driven by the opportunity to attract new viewers. And Heron revealed that Halo is the first game that Ninja played as a professional gamer.
This news comes on the heels of a teenager winning the Fortnite World Cup with a $3 million prize. Ninja also appeared at that event with his wife Jessica Blevins.
