The streaming world was shocked in August when Tyler “Ninja” Blevins announced that he would be leaving Twitch for Microsoft-owned Mixer.
While at the time there was a fair amount of confusion surrounding his decision, a recent Business Insider interview with Ninja’s wife and manager, Jessica Blevins, revealed that there was significant tension behind the scenes between Twitch and the Ninja team. Ultimately, this appears to have been enough to prompt the move.
The ramifications of Ninja moving to Mixer have been substantial. According to a recent report by Streamlabs and Newzoo, the number of hours streamed on Mixer has tripled, and the number of unique channels streaming on the platform has doubled quarter-over-quarter. The platform even bested YouTube Gaming Live in hours of gaming content streamed for the first time ever.
Unsurprisingly, the number of unique channels and total hours being streamed on Twitch has reportedly been declining since Ninja’s exodus.
Clearly, the relatively low switching costs between streaming platforms means that a single streamer has the ability to sway large segments of the market.
