Why Did Ninja Leave Twitch And Should I Do The Same?
When Tyler ‘Ninja’ Belvins shook up the streaming world back in August by leaving Twitch and joining the Microsoft backed Mixer, we have been having a lot of questions from our customers, friends, family and even those who know absolutely nothing about streaming asking what this means for twitch, mixer, Ninja and the smaller streamers on the platforms.
The most common question widely asked is ‘why did he leave?’ closely followed by ‘should I leave too?’
Well the short answer to the former is, well, money. There have been many reports speculating Ninja was offered a 7 figure payout for the move. Wow!
Despite a rapid decline in viewership and a falling subscriber count, why did Microsoft pay all that money to snatch Ninja away from a platform he was seemingly happy to be on?
He is a massive name in the industry, not just the face of Twitch but the face of streaming, the face of Fortnite, some may say the face of modern video gaming.
Mixer knew that Twitch were such a dominant force in the streaming world that any new streamer making a start had really only one choice of where to have their channel.
Yes, mixer exists and it’s popularity has been on the rise for sometime but like it or not, it was never a household name.
Some have speculated that perhaps Twitch got a little too comfortable with their success and maybe, with the backing of the mighty Amazon behind them, they got a little complacent. If this is true, their complacency has certainly been punished. All of a sudden, it’s Mixer that is grabbing the headlines. Even at the recent TwitchCon in San Diego, a lot of the big announcements made were overshadowed by the competition. Not just Mixer too! YouTube gaming, Facebook Gaming and the new Caffeine streaming service that has recently been given a massive cash injection, have all cropped up recently as options for streamers new and old and mentioned under the same umbrella as the streaming giant Twitch.
So, is Twitch finished?
Nope. Not at all. If there is one thing we can take away from Twitch Con 2019 it’s that, by listening to the feedback they have been so publicly given, Twitch want to look after their partners, they want to make the usability of their platform easy and unique, they want advertising to be less annoying, they even went as far as changing up their branding to create a fresh, revitalized Twitch. With Amazon behind them, it’s hard to imagine that they would ever be toppled, even by a giant like Microsoft!
So, Ninja is rich, twitch has just about got over licking its wounds after having lost its poster boy and Mixer is basking in glory with its new found popularity. What does that mean for us? Or rather -
Should I stay on twitch or move to mixer? Or if you’re new to streaming - ‘Which should I pick to start with?
Well, the best way to approach this is with a few simple straight up facts in the form or numbers about the two -
Twitch -
Oldest and first streaming platform of its kind - formed in 2011 and acquired by Amazon in August 2014 for a cool - $970m.
10 million monthly users.
31st most popular website … IN THE WORLD!!
46 billion minutes watched per month.
15 million unique daily visitors
Mixer -
Formed by Microsoft in 2016, making it a relatively young company.
26% - the percentage of viewers that are on mixer just to see Ninja… Yes, a quarter of the mixer viewership is just there for Him!
125% increase year-on-year for website visits to Mixer.com
4th largest live streaming platform in the world (YouTube 2nd, Facebook Gaming 3rd). A reminder here that Mixer is only 3 years old…
14 thousand average concurrent streamers.
So, in short, what do these numbers tell us for each? Let's summarize -
Mixer -
New kid on the block and growing…and fast.
With how interactive and easy to use mixer is, this is quickly becoming the new preferred platform for new streamers. Mixer links with Windows and Xbox seamlessly and being a new and growing platform there is a lot less competition that means no where near as many other streamers to compete with. This means there is much more opportunity to build a solid and engaged audience and also makes partnership opportunities much more accessible.
Mixer is growing at a super fast rate and this might be the perfect time to jump on board.
There are downsides to mixer though. -
Mixer streamers, even the big ones are unlikely to pull in the kind of numbers that twitch do. The viewership just isn’t there. The amazing fact of Ninja pulling in 25% of Mixers viewership perhaps says more about the amount of viewers than it does about Ninja himself as even with the massive share of audience as a whole he doesn’t pull in anywhere near as many overall views as he did on Twitch even when taking into account his figures.
Twitch -
Twitch is big, Like 72% of the entire market big.
These guys know what they are doing and while they have had their fair share of bad press recently there is no denying they have a winning formula. As I mentioned earlier Twitch is literally a household name, a monster in the streaming world. The audience is there on twitch. If you set up a twitch account do everything right you can be certain the viewers will be there to watch you.
Recent page customization updates mean twitch has become even more fun to use and much more enjoyable as a viewer and streamer. Watching older broadcasts is also much easier on twitch meaning you have much more scope as a content creator on the platform.
There is a massive increase on twitch of non gaming related content too so there are huge opportunities for channels that aren’t just Fortnite!!!
Downsides, well the is a few here too.
It’s hard to imagine a time when twitch are dethroned as the kings of the live streaming world but competition recently has been fierce. The strength in viewer numbers is there now but will it continue as Twitches competition strengthen? The earlier mention of Ninjas move to Mixer is proof of how far companies are willing to go to get the masses to their platform. What lengths will the likes of Facebook and YouTube go to get viewers away from twitch? Well all of this is yet to be seen.
In our opinion there is good reason to support both as a platform of choice for your stream. If you’re new to streaming, why not give Mixer a go? If you’re on Twitch and don’t have a massive audience, why not switch to mixer and see how it goes?
Have a large and engaged audience base on Twitch? I would echo the actions of the many thousands of mid tier streamers and stay where you are. Twitch isn’t going anywhere, neither should you.