When popular streamer Ninja announced that he was leaving Twitch for Microsoft’s Mixer, most were quite shocked at the news. The famed Fortnite streamer was leaving the platform where he amassed over 14 million followers, taking the uncontested top spot on Twitch.
Following Tyler “Ninja” Blevins’ surprising move, many rumors ensued, with one of them pointing to a contract that could be well over $50 million. But Ninja’s wife and manager Jessica Blevins is saying that it wasn’t about the money.
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Speaking to Business Insider, Jessica said that “money was the last thing on our mind,” and lauded Microsoft’s efforts to bringing Ninja over to Mixer. According to Jessica, there were ongoing discussions with Twitch for their next big step, but they felt that Twitch “did not listen to us.”
“Everything we were asking, it never came back reflecting our wishes — and that’s completely outside of finances,” Jessica said. This lead the duo to question their future on Twitch, with the final straw being a new contract that limited their licensing deals and the ability to pursue opportunities beyond gaming.
“With the wording of how that contract was going, he wouldn’t have been able to grow his brand much outside of gaming,” Jessica said, adding that “there were already conflicts with his current sponsors and resigning with that platform.”
With everything that was going on, Jessica revealed that Tyler wasn’t as enthusiastic as before, as he was looking like “he was kind of losing himself and his love for streaming.”
When Microsoft entered the picture, the Mixer deal happened smoothly. It took just a couple of weeks, a very short period when compared to several months of talks with Twitch. The move restored some of Ninja’s spirit.
“And this last month of him streaming on [Mixer], he’s completely different. He’s back to that energetic, pumped-up Ninja,” Jessica said. “I don’t know if you can hear him screaming in the background right now, because he’s sniping people in ‘Fortnite,’ but, like — and this is just his wife speaking — hearing that excitement and seeing him so happy, I’m really, really happy we made it. It was a leap of faith, and Microsoft’s been nothing but amazing to us.”
[Image Credit: Tyler “Ninja” Blevins/Twitter]
