Ninja's move to Mixer brought more streamers to Microsoft's platform - but not more viewers
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YouTube/Tyler Blevins
Tyler "Ninja" Blevins is the most recognizable professional gamer in the world, and on August 1, he announced that he would be leaving his 14 million Twitch followers behind for an exclusive streaming deal with Microsoft's Mixer.
The move was seen as a major gamble, since Twitch is by far the most dominant platform for video game streaming, and Mixer has struggled to find a foothold in the industry since its launch in 2016. After a well-publicized debut, Ninja has managed to earn more than 2.3 million followers on Mixer, making him the platform's most popular content creator by far.Newzoo notes that Mixer has more than doubled its viewership since last year, but the situation demonstrates just how hard it is to wrestle viewers away from Twitch. Closing the gap between Twitch and Mixer will take more than just one popular channel, even if its a superstar streamer like Ninja.
"One thing worth noting about Mixer's signing of Ninja is that regardless of his impact on hours watched, it was a smart move to promote the Mixer brand, especially with Ninja doing extensive interviews about it." StreamElements CEO Doron Nir said.Amazon's streaming juggernaut had 777.6 million hours watched during September, meaning Twitch had more than 20 times the viewership of Mixer. YouTube Gaming's streaming content was in a distant second place in terms of viewership with 175 million viewers in September.StreamElements, Arsenal.gg
This likely means that Ninja will struggle to reach the same sort of viewership he saw on Twitch in the near future, but the exclusive deal with Microsoft has other benefits. Ninja's manager and wife Jessica Blevins told Business Insider that he chose to leave Twitch so he could expand his brand beyond streaming. Since joining Mixer, Ninja has released a book, announced an apparel deal with Mixer, and appeared on an episode of Fox's "The Masked Singer."
Some streamers who supported Ninja's decision on social media felt it was important for creators to be able to build an audience across different platforms, and for Twitch to have more competition. While none of the potential challengers are currently a threat to Twitch's dominance, having viable alternatives is essential for streamers to leverage their popularity and earning power.Copyright © 2021. Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.
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