When Tyler “Ninja” Blevins made the move to Mixer in August of 2019, fellow streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek had described the transition as “the best move he ever made.” And it appears that shroud meant it, because the former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro decided to leave Twitch himself at the end of October.
On November 4, Jack “CouRage” Dunlop announced that he would be streaming on YouTube instead of Twitch, and shroud said it was just the beginning of a wave of streamers soon to leave the popular streaming platform.
“Nice,” shroud said. “The industry is changing.”
He then congratulated CouRage for making the switch of streaming platform. A fan asked shroud if he felt that more streamers were going to be making similar moves.
“It’s just getting started,” shroud replied.
Reporter Rod “Slasher” Breslau seemed to echo shroud’s sentiments on Twitter.
“CouRage’s agency Loaded negotiated the deal, the same agency who represents Ninja, shroud, timthetatman, LIRIK, and summ1t among other clients. Additional Loaded streamers are expected to more announcements in the near future,” he tweeted.
Slasher added that most of them would be moving to Mixer along with Ninja and shroud.
Ninja signed with Loaded in mid-March. The multi-year contract allowed Loaded to manage Ninja’s business parternships, endorsements, and other areas of business. At the time, Ninja had said that “big things” were coming, although it’s not clear if he was referencing his historic move to Mixer.
Who are the next streamers to leave Twitch for Mixer?
If the rumors are to be believed, big names like Timthetatman may soon be leaving Twitch as well. It’s not clear exactly why streaming stars are looking for such a change, but Ninja’s manager and wife, Jessica Blevins, has discussed some of their issues with Twitch in past interviews.
“Everything we were asking, it never came back reflecting our wishes – and that’s completely outside finances. For us, two people who were streaming on Twitch, it was really upsetting for us to go months and months and keep reiterating that we love you guys, we’ve been here for a long time, but the things that are in the contract right now just don’t make sense,” she told Business Insider.
Some of Ninja’s main isues with Twitch, according to his wife, included Ninja’s Twitch contract having limitations on sponsors, a lack of responsiveness from Twitch, and the streaming platform’s sometimes toxic community. Ninja infamously took one of his first breaks ever in July after fans kept being toxic in his chat. He claimed the repetitive negativity was starting to have an impact on his mental health.
So far, shroud and Ninja have found some moderate success on Mixer, although their follower counts have seen a drastic decrease. Still, their streams have been doing well enough that other streamers may feel further emboldened to make such a move.
