Massively popular streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has returned to Twitch, the widely-used, Amazon-owned streaming service. Ninja originally began streaming in 2011, and in 2017 his viewership saw wild growth when he began streaming Fortnite Battle Royale – in March 2018 he set the record for the largest audience on a single stream on Twitch when he played Fortnite with rap stars, Drake and Travis Scott, garnering 645,000 viewers. Starting in August 2019 Ninja signed on to stream exclusively on Mixer, Microsoft’s streaming platform that was just shut down in July. However, due to the closure of Mixer, he’s been released from his exclusivity deal and signed a multiyear deal to come back to Twitch.
“I am excited to get back to streaming full-time and connecting with my loyal fanbase,” said Ninja in a statement to the Washington Post. “I really took my time to decide which platform was best and Twitch has been very supportive throughout this process and understanding my overall career goals.”
Ninja streamed today – his first livestream on Twitch for over a year – and per his new exclusivity deal, he’ll be streaming full-time on Twitch. The details of his contract have not been released, but for comparison, Forbes valued his multiyear contract with Mixer at $20-$30 million.
“We are thrilled Ninja is returning to Twitch,” said Twitch Senior Vice President of Content Michael Aragon in a press release statement. “Tyler is an iconic force in the gaming community, and it’s been amazing to see the impact he’s made on the industry and broader culture. Gaming — and the people who love it — are being recognized by a broad mainstream audience now in part because of Tyler, and we know he’s just getting started.”
Indeed, it seems both Ninja and Twitch themselves are optimistic for his return to the platform, and that makes sense – he was definitely one of the, if not the biggest personality on the platform. Ninja has stated, however, that he wishes to use his return to Twitch as an opportunity to support lesser-known streamers out there.
“In this next chapter, I’m going to make it a point to elevate and bring more eyes to underrepresented creators,” said Ninja. “I am looking forward to working with Twitch to demonstrate how this amazing community of gamers can make a meaningful impact.”