Ninja Hits Back at The Critics

Twitch streaming star Tyler Blevins aka Ninja claims his move to Mixer wasn’t just about “cashing out,” as he tried to make it work until the streaming platform was shut down.

Ninja startled the streaming community in August of 2019 when he announced his departure from Twitch in favor of Microsoft’s Mixer platform. As Mixer attempted to compete with Twitch, YouTube, and the developing Facebook Gaming, he was shortly joined by Shroud and other streamers.

Microsoft pulled the plug on Mixer after little under a year, giving streamers the option to transfer to Facebook as part of a new partnership. While some broadcasters followed suit, Ninja and Shroud became free agents with their hefty contracts paid in full. Despite the fact that they both returned to Twitch, Ninja’s viewership has been steadily declining since his departure.

The streaming phenomenon has been criticized for making the decision in the first place, particularly on the financial front. He claims, however, that he was acting in the best interests of the streaming industry as a whole.

Ninja, speaking on the Courage and Nadeshot podcast, lamented the chance Mixer had but didn’t take, and dismissed claims that he was overpaid for the move. He stated; “Bro, I was streaming double the hours I was supposed to. It was like a 150-hour requirement, I think, for a month and I was doing 300, easy. So, I wanted it to win. It wasn’t like I just signed this big deal and cashed out, I was streaming double my requirements for six months straight and it still didn’t work out. And, it wasn’t for a lack of want.”

Ninja, as he has previously stated, stated that Mixer struggled to maintain viewers, which ultimately led to its downfall.

While his transfer didn’t work out, it paved the path for other popular streamers to acquire similar partnerships with other platforms, with a number of them recently switching from Twitch to YouTube.