Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was living the dream on Twitch. He was one of the most-watched channels on the platform with millions of followers and tens of thousands of subscribers, with an estimated total earnings of $10 million in 2018 thanks to his streams.
And then, Microsoft came along with an undisclosed offer and signed an exclusive contract with Ninja for its own streaming platform, Mixer, on Aug. 1. Ninja is no longer a Twitch streamer and he’ll only be on Mixer starting Aug. 2 with a broadcast from music festival Lollapalooza while playing in Friday Fortnite.
He was already so big on Twitch that his move surprised a lot of people, something he recognized would happen and that he joked about in his Mixer announcement video.
But many people are curious to know how much money Mixer offered Ninja to move to its platform. He didn’t detail his contract, so nobody is sure, and so far, it’s impossible to know. But that hasn’t stopped people from speculating.
Twitch streamer Sebastian “Forsen” Fors gave his own “educated guess” based on his experience as a big streamer and former professional Starcraft and Hearthstone player. He took a conservative approach and he estimates that Ninja is on a contract that will give him between $6 million and $8 million a year for at least three years.
“You wouldn’t sign anything less than three years, but I don’t think Mixer would like to sign for more than three years,” forsen said. “Because once they sign, he’s already committed. You don’t do longer contracts in esports longer than three years.”
But the figure could be way higher than that, according to YouTuber Daniel “KEEMSTAR” Keem. In the latest edition of his Drama Alert show, he says that “the rumor around the street” is that Ninja may have secured $100 million from his Mixer deal. KEEM says this isn’t confirmed and it’s unclear if it’s $100 million per year or for the total duration of Ninja’s contract with the platform.
Despite those estimates, only Ninja and Mixer can confirm what the deal was and how much money is involved. So far, nothing has been revealed or leaked, so we have to stick with these estimates for now.
