YouTube/Tyler Blevins
Tyler "Ninja" Blevins announced his intention to leave Amazon-owned Twitch for Microsoft-owned Mixer in a precedent-setting deal last August.
Amazon's Twitch is the most popular live-video streaming service by a large margin.
Transform talent with learning that worksCapability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More As Google-owned YouTube dominates internet video-on-demand, Twitch dominates live-streamed internet video. Hundreds of thousands of people are watching live video streams on the service at any moment.
But Twitch is bleeding: a major talent exodus has more people than ever using competing services from Microsoft and Google.
It all started with Tyler "Ninja" Blevins last August.
In a publicity statement made to look like a press conference last August, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins announced his intention to switch from Amazon-owned Twitch to Microsoft-owned Mixer.
"I know this may come as a shock to many of you," he said, "but, as of today, I will be streaming exclusively on Mixer."
The announcement itself was lighthearted and silly, but the news was anything but - the world's most popular, well-known video game streamer was switching from Amazon to Microsoft. We're talking about a guy who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars each month streaming himself playing "Fortnite" to tens of thousands of viewers, a guy who was reportedly paid $1 million for a single day of playing EA's "Apex Legends."
Neither Blevins nor Microsoft revealed the contract terms that got one of the most popular streamers in the world to jump ship to a nascent platform with a fraction of the audience. But a talent management executive who's worked with Blevins told CNN Business in an article published Monday that the streamer may netted between $20 million and $30 million from the deal.
It seems straightforward for the company: Microsoft is paying the most popular video game streamer to exclusively stream on its platform, Mixer.
In reality, Microsoft is locking in an important influencer who can both increase the value of Mixer and bring eyes to Microsoft's entire gaming platform - a platform that's expanding greatly in the next year with a new Xbox console (Xbox Series X) and a major new game streaming platform.
The Masked Singer/Fox
Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has sought to expand his celebrity beyond the world of video game streaming. He appeared as one of the singers on the second season of the show "The Masked Singer."
The deal sounds expensive, and six months later, we may have finally learned exactly how expensive the deal was: "Between $20 and $30 million" for a "multi-year deal," according to Ader CEO Justin Warden, whose marketing and talent management company reportedly works with Blevins. Warden gave the figure to CNN Business, and claimed he had "direct knowledge" of the terms of the deal.
Representatives for Microsoft and Blevins' talent representation at Loaded, the company that negotiated the Mixer deal, declined to comment on the report.
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