It would appear that Amazon-owned Twitch isn’t pulling any punches now that popular video game streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has moved to its competitor, Microsoft-owned Mixer. The former Twitch Partner’s channel on the streaming service still includes all his old videos, clips, and so on, but the landing page has now been co-opted to point viewers to other popular live channels.
“The Ninja you’re looking for is in another castle,” the notice at the top of the landing page for Ninja’s Twitch channel now reads. “Check out these popular live channels.” The first part is an obvious reference to Nintendo’s Mario games, and the second is an equally obvious ploy to grab any eyeballs that wander to the now-defunct channel. As of writing, 30 different popular channels currently streaming Fortnite appear below the notice. This includes, but is not limited to, TimTheTatman and DrLupo’s channels.
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As Dexerto notes, the swap from Twitch to Mixer by Ninja was a major one for all involved, as Ninja had previously been the most-followed channel on the platform with nearly 15 million followers. Though there is surely no replacing Ninja, there are two main contenders for most-followed channel on Twitch now, with Michael “shroud” Grzesiek and Turner “Tfue” Tenney essentially competing for the spot given that they are less than 100,000 followers away from each other.
Given how intimately tied Ninja’s meteoric viewership was to the rise in popularity of Fortnite, it’s unclear when any other channel will gain as many followers barring a breakout video game success story and some convenient timing on the part of a streamer. It’s also unclear whether the full might of that nearly 15 million followers will actually follow Ninja to Mixer, though he appears to be off to a solid start.
What do you think of Twitch using Ninja’s old page like this? Is it a smart move, or do you feel it comes across as a little desperate? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!
For more on Ninja, you can check out our previous coverage here.
