Hugely popular video game live streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is switching platforms: Ninja announced in a tweet Thursday morning that he is moving to Mixer, the game live streaming platform operated by Microsoft.
Blevins announced the move in a tweet that featured the video of a mock press conference:
The next chapter,https://t.co/lvn9KBjEYq pic.twitter.com/tljVgyM3bG
— NinjaInnit (@Ninja) August 1, 2019
“I know this may come as a shock to many of you,” Ninja can be heard saying in the video, which he also used to assure fans that not much would change about his live streams. “It’s the same me, just a different platform,” he said. In a follow-up video, Blevins said that he wanted to get back to his “streaming roots” with the move.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Ninja and his community to Mixer,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “Mixer is a place that was formed around being positive and welcoming from day one, and we look forward to the energy Ninja and his community will bring.”
The move is a major loss for Amazon’s Twitch, where Ninja has been the most-followed streamer with some 14 million followers. He will have to rebuild that audience from scratch on Mixer, where his follower counter was at 18,000 Thursday morning.
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It’s likely that Microsoft wrote some big checks to convince the live streaming star to move, but Blevins is bringing some of his other revenue streams with him to Mixer. The announcement video featured cameos of appearances of two of his sponsors, Red Bull and Adidas, and Ninja’s Mixer page already features links to other sponsors, as well as a donation button.
Blevins told CNN earlier this year that he made around $10 million through sponsorships, ad sales and subscriptions in 2018.
