Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
It was only a year ago that Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, the biggest name in gaming, left Twitch to stream exclusively on Mixer. Following Mixer’s collapse, Ninja became a free agent once again, able to stream wherever he liked. Now, the streamer’s journey has come full circle, as Ninja has announced that he will be returning to stream exclusively on Twitch moving forward.
It was on August 1, 2019 that Ninja changed the streaming landscape when he announced that he had signed a deal with Microsoft that would take him from Twitch to the young and hopeful Mixer. Well, Mixer abruptly met its end earlier this year, displacing a countless number of streamers who had been steadily building up communities on the platform. Luckily for the likes of Ninja and Shroud, they both had multi-million dollar deals to fall back on in the wake of Mixer’s shutdown. It didn’t take long for Shroud to return to Twitch, and now Ninja is following suit.
In a brief video posted to his Twitter account, Ninja simply stated, “A new chapter, only on @Twitch,” which is clearly a callback to his “The Next Chapter” video in which the Mixer announcement was made. The streamer took some time off in the wake of Mixer’s shutdown, only hosting a couple of streams on YouTube and Twitch while he worked to determine his future in streaming.
Ninja has since signed a deal with Twitch that will see him stream exclusively on the platform for years to come. Blevins had spoken in the past about wanting to get a deal done before pledging allegiance to a new streaming home, and it looks like a deal is finally done. Though his channels have lied dormant, Ninja fans have spotted him popping up in streams with close friends such as CouRageJD, DrLupo, and Jordan Fisher.
Once the face of Fortnite, Ninja’s brand has expanded to a wide variety of titles since the streamer stopped playing the battle royale. It’ll be fascinating to see how Ninja’s return to Twitch is received by viewers. If it’s anything like what we recently saw from Shroud, Ninja could see massive numbers in his triumphant return.