Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins has streamed for the first time since the Mixer shutdown. Ninja has moved over to YouTube Gaming for a surprise return stream, although early reports indicate this isn’t linked to an exclusivity deal.
Having made a name for himself on Twitch, where he is still the owner of its most followed channel, Ninja made the industry-changing decision to move to Mixer in a deal that was thought to be worth around $30 million. However, the streamer has been silent since Microsoft announced it was closing the platform down – until now.
Ninja went live on YouTube earlier today with Jack ‘CouRage’ Dunlop, Tim ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar and Ben ‘DrLupo’ Lupo, marking his first stream on the platform in his career. In the past, Ninja has used the platform to share cutdowns of his streams to his 23 million subscribers, so this is his first live experience – and it might not be his last.
According to Rob ‘Slasher’ Breslau, Ninja hasn’t yet signed a deal and is still in talks with streaming platforms. Today’s stream is “all on his own.”
sources: Ninja is currently in negotiations with streaming platforms and no exclusive deal has yet been signed, including YouTube. today’s YouTube live stream from Ninja is all on his own. maybe he’ll stream on Twitch too.
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 8, 2020
While there were some question marks over Ninja’s next move, YouTube has always been seen as the most likely option since his time at Twitch didn’t exactly end well.
Just weeks after moving to Mixer, Twitch used his dormant profile page, which was still seeing millions of hits every day, to advertise streams. However, the Amazon-owned platform was forced to apologise after a number of not safe for work videos, which clearly violated the platform’s code of conduct, were promoted.
His wife, Jessica, also claimed Twitch’s “toxic chat” was having an effect on her husband and that Twitch “wouldn’t listen” when it came to negotiating new terms.
So, Ninja might not have found himself a permanent new home just yet, but if this stream goes well, who knows what might happen.