One week ago, an event about the black hole took place in Fortnite. This caused huge viewer numbers on YouTube and Twitch. However, Fortnite’s long-time top streamer, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, was not streaming on Mixer at all. What was going on?
Why did Twitch explode? Last Sunday, on October 13, an event took place in Fortnite. It had been announced for a long time and a countdown was ticking down.
No one knew at the time: The event turned out to be much bigger than expected and made headlines worldwide.
Epic pulled off a special PR coup: The event made the previous world of Fortnite implode and get sucked into a black hole.
For almost a day and a half, no one could play Fortnite.
The actual event caused a huge turnout on Twitch and YouTube. Overall, 6 million people are said to have watched on the channels. People had no idea what was going on and wanted to discuss it.
At Twitch streamer Tfue, 340,000 people watched at the peak.
Ninja was in a private jet to a football game
What was up with Ninja? Earlier, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins would have had crowds in his channel in such situations. During the Butterfly event in November 2018, 350,000 people watched Ninja on Twitch.
But this time, everything was silent. Ninja did not stream the event on Mixer.
Ninja explained to his fans that he preferred to fly with his in-laws and his wife’s brother to a football game. He had access to the field. A private jet flew them there.
That seemed more important to him at the moment. The game took place on Monday evening, and Sunday was a travel day for Ninja. Ninja was born in Detroit and is therefore clearly a fan of the Detroit Lions, while his wife’s family apparently supports Green Bay.
In the end, Ninja was terribly upset about the football game. Because the Green Bay Packers won 23:22.
Ninja accused the referees of having favored his opponent. In protest, Ninja announced that he would never attend a game again.
More free time thanks to Microsoft deal
What’s behind it: The interesting thing here is that Ninja would probably never have missed a Fortnite event during his Twitch days because he was extremely trapped in the “grind” of Twitch, fighting for every viewer and every subscription.
A “live event” in Fortnite was always the highlight of a season and guaranteed attention.
The Twitch Ninja of 2017 and 2018 was dependent on the viewers’ favor and believed he had to be on air every free minute to avoid losing viewers and thus missing out on money.
That seems to have changed now:
- Ninja said, he hadn’t had a life in 2018, but was “a slave to the stream.”
- The deal with Microsoft and Mixer now seems to provide him a stable income in 2019, making him less dependent on fluctuations in viewership.
Billionaire Cuban says: Ninja is doing everything right
Billionaire Mark Cuban (Shark Tank) sees Ninja’s switch as the right decision.
Because while others criticize Ninja’s switch, Cuban says: The big streamers have no life on Twitch. Ninja made the right decision to switch. One has to consider that Ninja now has to stream much less on Mixer.
The Twitch streamers work as if crazy out of fear of losing their audience.
Cuban says. “When someone throws a ton of money at you, sometimes the best decision is to say ‘yes.'”
Whether Microsoft was pleased that Mixer played hardly any role in the Fortnite event is unknown. They had to take some ridicule for it.
37 people reportedly watched the event on Mixer, eSports journalist Rod Breslau mocked.
