The fact that the American streamer received a substantial paycheck to leave Twitch was a certainty — but few expected such a large amount. According to Justin Warden — CEO of Ader that has been in the confidences of this partnership — the sum paid by Microsoft to get Tyler "Ninja" Blevins to become an exclusive streamer Mixer would be between 20 and 30 million dollars. The information comes directly from a CNN Business report.
It's simply the biggest contract ever obtained by a streamer, which is explained by the very high popularity of Ninja. Last year the streamer broke audience records for Twitch, with 14 million subscribers on the meter. The contract between Ninja and Mixer was repeated for Shroud and Ewok. Microsoft hopes to drain the viewership of Twitch by attacking massive and international communities — a daring gamble which is still struggling to produce results today knowing that Ninja "only" peaks at 2.8 million Mixer subscribers.
The streaming star claimed that financial motivations didn't influence his decision. Instead, he pointed out the differences in functionality and tools between both platforms.
However, the amount of money involved in this move gives us a clearer idea of the extent of the streaming platforms' war — with YouTube getting stronger early this year.