Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins announced he is leaving Twitch to stream exclusively on Mixer.
Ninja announced his departure from Twitch on Twitter, calling it his “next chapter.” He tweeted a follow-up video right after, letting his fans know how excited he is about the move.
“I’m honestly at a loss for words. I’m freaking out in the best ways. I feel like I’m going to get back to the streaming roots. That’s what it’s all about,” Ninja said.
The pinned announcement also included his Mixer channel (where fans are already chatting up a storm, despite him being currently offline), and a YouTube video that serves to entertain more than inform on the matter.
While the video doesn’t explain Ninja’s choice to move to Mixer, it certainly amused his followers. Most comments on the video mentioned a moment in the skit where Ninja gets a question from a mini-fridge full of Red Bull. Even though it was completely silent, Ninja tells the beverages that they asked the best question he has ever received in his life.
The general theme of the video was that it is the same Ninja, only on a different platform. Ninja said he will still be streaming Fortnite and the switch to Mixer will not affect his win-loss ratio, or his hair.
“I feel this is a good chance to get in touch with my roots, and remember why I fell in love with streaming in the first place,” Ninja said in the skit.
It’s not stated how the switch in streaming platforms will help Ninja fall in love with streaming again, but the most recognizable gamer in the world has been visibly worn out in recent months. Earlier in July, Ninja took a much-needed break from streaming, and told his followers it was to help with his mental health.
In February, Ninja lost a staggering number of subscribers, who serve as streamers’ key source of revenue, when he took a two-day break. It’s possible Mixer is offering him a way to live as a streamer without ceaseless content creation.
Mixer is a fledgling streaming service owned by Microsoft. It launched as Beam in 2016, before rebranding a year later. It has since struggled to compete with Twitch and YouTube, but this news from Ninja may change that.
Within an hour of the announcement, Twitch responded by removing the verification tag from Ninja’s account.
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