In an interview, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins recently revealed the reason for his departure from Twitch. His wife and manager, Jessica Blevins, described to Business Insider how Tyler’s Twitch contract didn’t allow him to do much for his brand other than gaming. After achieving his success in the gaming space, Ninja wanted to expand to other areas with brand deals.
Ninja’s reasons for leaving
So excited to be part of this. Thank you both for the opportunity @VancityReynolds @ShawnLevyDirect https://t.co/m8NJ6b0Bgx
— Ninja (@Ninja) October 3, 2019
Since leaving, Ninja has partnered with Adidas Originals in the sportswear brand’s first entrance into the professional gamer space. He will also have a cameo appearance in the movie Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds.
While Ninja was paid an eight-to-nine-figure sum for his multiple-year contract with Microsoft’s Mixer, he says that was not a driving factor. Ninja had tried to grow his brand through licensing certain things or starting new collaborations with other sponsors but was rejected by Twitch in spite of multiple appeals. Ninja’s wife and manager also said the Mixer contract was not a “huge pay increase” for him.
Twitch was a toxic environment for Ninja, and he didn’t enjoy the drama along with some of the community while streaming. With Mixer’s strict regulations for community guidelines, things like chat toxicity and other issues are not seen. However, the growth that Mixer has achieved with the addition of Ninja cannot currently be compared to Twitch’s share in the market.
Ultimately, with weekly drama around Twitch’s community, fans can understand the reason why Ninja left the platform in spite of Twitch’s large size. There is no perfect way to enforce certain guidelines and still retain viewers as well. With competitors like Tencent-backed HuYa entering the competition, Twitch will have to make sure issues involving community toxicity and website issues do not turn other streamers away. Let us know what you think about the news and keep up with Daily Esports for all of your esports coverage.
