Ninja streams on YouTube for first time since Mixer shutdown

Alan Bernal
Ninja with the YouTube logo

Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins has announced his first YouTube stream, following Mixer’s merger with Facebook Gaming and shut down of the platform.

The surprise announcement has every content creator on the Microsoft site shuffling to either plan their transition to Facebook Gaming or to a competing service like Twitch, YouTube Live, DLive, Trovo, and more.

The biggest streamers on the platform, namely Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek and Ninja, have reportedly been able to remove themselves from the Facebook Gaming transition and are looking for other options to take their streams.

In light of the news, Ninja said that he would be taking his fans into consideration before making a decision for the next chapter of his lucrative streaming career, and now it seems his mind is made up.

Out of nowhere on July 8, Ninja set out a simple tweet revealing he was going live to stream on YouTube with TimtheTatman, the first official confirmation that Google’s video-sharing site could be his new home for livestreams.

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Shortly after Mixer shut down there was a bit of speculation that Ninja could be headed to YouTube instead of Twitch, thanks to a brief test stream that he accidentally tweeted out.

As of yet, there’s no word whether or not Ninja received any kind of signing bonus for taking his talents to YT, but as one of the world’s most popular streamers and considering the fat stacks of cash he received from Mixer, it wouldn’t be that big of a surprise.

He turned down a contract offer to stream on Facebook that would yield “almost double” the amount he got from Mixer, according to esports insider Rob ‘Slasher’ Breslau. Ninja was reportedly making around $30 million from his contract with Microsoft-led company.

Watch Ninja’s YouTube stream


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In the chaos that ensued from the Mixer shutdown, people speculated that Ninja would probably be making his long-awaited return to Twitch. The Fortnite streamer would routinely have around 37,000 viewers per broadcast on Twitch compared to a mere 8.5 thousand on Mixer, according to TwitchTracker.

How many viewers he’ll pull in on average for YouTube remains to be seen, but his first stream will have added interest.

With the news of Mixer closing its domain, Ninja will look to get back to the high-view count streams that he had on Twitch, except on a whole new platform, yet again.

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About The Author

Alan is a former staff writer for Dexerto based in Southern California who covered esports, internet culture, and the broader games/streaming industry. He is a CSUF Alum with a B.A. in Journalism. He's reported on sports medicine, emerging technology, and local community issues. Got a tip or want to talk?