According to sources, Ninja and shroud have walked away from the Mixer closure a lot better off, says esports journalist Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau.
It will come as no surprise that top streamers Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins and Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek were well compensated for moving their channels from Twitch to Mixer. But, how much has the pair made now that Mixer has ended operations?
Ninja was the first to make the move, making the announcement in August 2019, and shroud followed in October, meaning Twitch had lost two of its top 10 streamers in a matter of months. There were various reasons the streamers gave for their move, but of course, it had to make sense financially.
Ninja was the trailblazer for moves away from Twitch, when he switched to Mixer in 2019.In December 2019, a report from Bloomberg claimed that “the biggest streamers are earning as much as $40 million over three to five years.” This would work out anywhere between $8 million and $13 million a year for Ninja and shroud.
Now, of course, they won’t be fulfilling the rest of their contracts with Microsoft’s platform, and instead, it has been reported, have been paid out of their remaining obligations.
After the news broke, esports journalist Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau tweeted that according to sources, Facebook Gaming had actually offered double the original Mixer contracts to retain shroud and Ninja.
Sources: Facebook offered an insane offer at almost double for the original Mixer contracts of Ninja and Shroud but Loaded/Ninja/Shroud said no and forced Mixer to buy them out. Ninja made ~$30M from Mixer, and Shroud made ~$10M
Ninja and Shroud are now free agents
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) June 22, 2020
However, the pair apparently turned this offer down, and Breslau’s sources state that Ninja and shroud made around $30 million and $10 million respectively, from their time on Mixer.
For the time being, both streamers are free to explore their options, which include a return to Twitch. YouTube Gaming has also been upping its efforts to compete with the Amazon-owned platform though, and could be lining up a move for them now.
Ninja said that he “has some decisions to make.”
I love my community and what we built together on Mixer. I have some decisions to make and will be thinking about you all as I make them.
— Ninja (@Ninja) June 22, 2020
Shroud simply said he was “figuring out my next steps.”
Blevins already has over 20 million subscribers on YouTube, and shroud 7 million, over two channels. This would give them a strong base on YouTube, although the audience for gaming livestreams (at least in the west) is still predominantly on Twitch.
Ninja’s old channel still exists on Twitch, all 14.7 million followers intact, but has laid dormant since his Mixer move. Shroud’s 7 million follower channel is also still there, primed for his return, should he choose to make it.
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