Big name streamers like Ninja have left Twitch for Microsoft’s Mixer because of the large amounts of money that Mixer has been able to offer. Popular streamers seem to be getting impressive deals to leave behind their former platforms, but what happens to the less famous streamers? Several of them it seems are getting ignored by Mixer, or not being given what they were initially promised.
Richard Blevins (Ninja) was reportedly given 20 to 30 million dollars to make the switch to Mixer. This was a huge move for the popular streamer considering he had been working on Twitch for several years and had amassed over 14 million followers. Ninja seemed to have no problems bouncing back from this, as he regained over one million followers in his first week - though part of that was due to the free subscription promotion Mixer ran to celebrate his addition to the platform. Twitch on the other hand, had already lost a massive amount of streamers prior to Ninja leaving. Ninja’s absence could prove very dire for the future of the platform.
Kotaku recently released a report detailing the stories of several smaller streamers and their issues with Mixer. One of the first people to sign exclusivity deals with the platform, Siefe Awade, recently switched to Facebook’s streaming service. Initially Mixer had given Awade a decent salary and other incentives to stream exclusively for the platform. He stayed on with Mixer for three years and was planning on a fourth when Mixer announced it had signed Ninja. When it came time to resign, Awade says, “They said they wanted me to stay, but the terms that they had were not something that I was comfortable with”. He also stated that he wanted nothing more than to stay with his Mixer community, but the platform wasn’t receptive to his ideas.
There were other streamers who felt a huge shift in Mixer around the same time that Ninja was signed on. Streamer Renée had initially worked out a plan with Mixer to eventually move her into a hybrid streamer/consultant role with the company. In 2018 Mixer was very on board with the idea of her and her boyfriend, streamer Derek “Punjistick” Mallon, giving advice on how to improve their platform. By 2019 though things had changed dramatically at Mixer. Renée says, “After a year, a lot of people shifted, and then people who were totally on board with us for that thing ended up either leaving the company or moved into places that couldn’t help us”. Eventually Renée and her boyfriend decided to move back to Twitch in order to continue making enough money to support themselves.
The world of video game streaming is changing very rapidly. Streamers are now being offered more money and opportunities than ever before, which on the surface is a good thing. The problem is that streamers now have to be more careful of being taken advantage of by these large platforms. Corporations have begun to realize how much money there is to be earned in this field, so now streamers must ensure that they are profitable to prove themselves to sites like Twitch and Mixer. While Mixer is working to acquire as many big names a possible, hopefully they can refrain from hurting the less famous streamers.
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Source: Kotaku
