Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has just released a Tweet with a video attached, which states that from today onwards he will be streaming exclusively on Mixer, a rival platform of Twitch. The popular streamer has been on Twitch since back in 2011, when it was still Justin.tv. Over that time he has amassed a record-breaking 14,718,282 followers, making him Twitch’s biggest streamer - for a time.

The news has come as a shock to many, and his tweets provide some insight into his decision. The first is a staged press conference video in which he talks about how he is the “same me, just a different platform.” As the video continues he’s asked questions by some interesting audience members, including one dressed as a bush from Fortnite.

Talking about his excitement for the move Ninja calls it “a really good chance to get back in touch with my roots and really remember why I fell in love with streaming in the first place.”

He followed up the heavily produced video with a much more personal face cam one, which he suggested gave a little more information.

The second video doesn’t actually offer any extra insight, as he just emphasises his excitement and talks about how he wants to “get back to his roots.”

Reactions on social media have been mixed. Some have suggested he got paid a great deal to move and many are sceptical about how exactly the change “goes back to his roots,” especially after he emphasized that “streams will be the same.” There are also people upset about their subscriber streaks and subscriptions they have recently paid for.

Via: The Verge

Ninja has posted a link to his new Mixer page, which is currently offering a free subscription for a limited time, presumably to help placate subscribers during the change. His Twitch page currently remains unchanged, with some fans still dropping subs in the chat, even after the announcement.

With such a high profile streamer now on their books this is good news for Mixer, the Seattle-based live streaming platform.

Mixer was launched in February of 2015 as Beam and has a focus on video gaming. It was purchased by Microsoft in October of 2016 and has since been integrated into their other services. It was rebranded as Mixer in 2017.