Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has helped bring gaming and esports to the rest of the world. From appearing on the cover of ESPN to being a guest on the popular Ellen Show, he has become a face of gaming for those outside of our space. Earlier this week, he made the shocking announcement that he was leaving Twitch to stream exclusively on Microsoft’s Mixer platform.
This announcement was met with excitement and understandable worry. After five days, though, the latter of those looks less necessary. That’s because Ninja has already amassed 1 million active subscribers on the platform.
Today we hit 1,000,000 active subscribers on mixer ^-^ thank you for all the incredible support. I haven't felt this good in a long time. pic.twitter.com/kdLgBJk0Ud
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 6, 2019
Mixing things up
Mixer launched in January of 2016. While it is a growing platform, it’s nowhere close to the powerhouse that is Twitch. Before now, Mixer only held three percent of the time people spend watching streams online. That’s what made Ninja’s move such a massive deal for the community. It certainly didn’t come cheap for Mixer, either. A “bidding war” is supposed to have taken place between different platforms trying to bring him in, with Mixer winning out in the end.
Of course, Ninja’s move brought up the question of whether or not his Twitch followers would go with him. It seems that question has been answered, though we’ll have to wait and see if all those followers stick around. After all, Mixer is currently giving anyone and everyone a free, two-month sub to Ninja’s channel. It’s a great move on Mixer’s part, as it encourages new users to come to the platform and support their favorite creator. But the true test of Ninja’s fanbase will come after these free months have passed and they have to renew for $5.99 a month.
If he can maintain these kinds of numbers in a few months, the move will have been a great one. But even before then, Ninja seems quite pleased with how things have gone. He tweeted, “I haven’t felt this good in a long time,” and it seems his audience has taken notice of his restored happiness as a streamer.
It’s great to see Ninja enjoying his move so far. Maybe his experience with Mixer will encourage other large content creators to follow him to the platform. If that happens, Twitch may very well have a real competitor to worry about.
