Ninja became the first Mixer streamer to reach 1 million followers, less than a week after announcing he was ditching Twitch for Microsoft (MSFT)

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• Less than a week after joining Microsoft‘s video game streaming platform, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has become the first streamer on Mixer to amass more than one million followers.
• Ninja announced an exclusive streaming deal with Mixer on Aug. 1; he was previously the most followed streamer on Twitch, Amazon’s video game streaming platform.
• Ninja’s one million Mixer followers are still just a fraction of his Twitch audience, but his early success has sparked impressive growth for Mixer and inspired some other Twitch streamers to try Microsoft’s streaming service.
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Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has secured his place as the world’s most recognizable professional gamer; the 27-year-old is now the most popular streamer on Mixer, less than a week after signing an exclusive deal with Microsoft’s video game streaming platform. Before joining Mixer he was the most popular gamer on Amazon’s streaming platform Twitch, boasting more than 14 million followers.

On Aug. 1 Ninja announced that he would be moving his stream to Mixer, starting with a live weekend event from Lollapalooza 2019 from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4. On Aug. 6, Ninja became the first Mixer streamer to earn more than 1 million followers.

While Ninja’s Mixer following is still just a fraction of the fanbase he had amassed on Twitch, the rapid growth has proven that Ninja has a dedicated following that’s willing to leave Twitch to watch him play live.

Read more: Ninja ditching Twitch for Microsoft’s Mixer was a brilliant decision — here’s why

Ninja’s arrival has sparked some impressive growth for Mixer too; the Mixer app saw 650,000 downloads in the five days since Ninja joined the platform, which is roughly 10 times more downloads than it saw in the prior week, according to data from SensorTower.

Ninja is best-known for playing "Fortnite," the battle royale game that has taken the world by storm. But he’s also expressed a desire to pursue other opportunities as "Fortnite" starts to stagnate. The deal with Mixer will provide a level of financial stability and future opportunities to partner with Microsoft and the Xbox brand.

His successful debut has also encouraged other video game streamers to consider Mixer as a meaningful alternative to Twitch. Since launching in 2016 Mixer has struggled to develop an audience while Twitch and YouTube Gaming dominated the video game streaming space.

Mixer shares many of the same features as its competition, but Ninja is the first major talent to prioritize the platform. If his exclusive deal continues to bring new users to Mixer, he certainly wont be the last.

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See Also:

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• Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez partied with Lloyd Blankfein and model Karlie Kloss aboard billionaire David Geffen’s superyacht
• A married couple making an indie game received violent, racist threats after agreeing to an exclusivity deal with the creator of ‘Fortnite’

DON’T MISS: Ninja wants to be more than just ‘the Fortnite Guy,’ but the world’s most popular gamer is headed into uncharted territory

SEE ALSO: People are calling Ninja a ‘sellout’ over his big deal to abandon Amazon’s Twitch for Microsoft’s Mixer

Source: Business Insider – kwebb@businessinsider.com (Kevin Webb)