Following superstar streamer Tyler ‘Ninja‘ Blevins’ highly-publicized move to Mixer, his manager and wife Jessica Blevins has revealed how part of that was due to the behavior of viewers in Twitch chats.
It’s no longer breaking news that Ninja has left the confines of Twitch to stream exclusively on Microsoft’s Mixer platform, and most of the details about that move have surfaced intermittently since it was announced.
Jessica recently spoke with Business Insider about the circumstances that prompted the transition, breaking down some of the key reasons for the major switch.
Both she and her celebrity husband have consistently claimed that finances were not the primary reason for the move, instead bringing up other factors that made them feel less comfortable about staying on Twitch.
In fact, in an October 2 interview, Jessica claimed that one of the bigger factors was actually his “toxic” Twitch chat.
According to the manager, Ninja’s happiness was a “major consideration for leaving,” and the fact that his chat had become “pretty toxic” had made him want to “press the reset button on everything.”
“I could tell, as his wife, the last few months on Twitch, he just didn’t seem like the Ninja that I knew,” she said to Business Insider. “He didn’t seem as enthusiastic, as loud, as hyped up about wins and motivated to stream. It really seemed like he was kind of losing himself and his love for streaming.”
Those familiar with chatrooms on Twitch will know that they can get pretty harsh and rowdy, especially if viewers are allowed to say whatever they want without much restrictions.
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Many streamers attempt to keep their chat in check by having rules that they and their moderators can enforce, with violators facing time-outs and even permanent bans from being able to type.
Many streamers who have a lot of subscribers will lock their chat in sub-only mode, so that only those who pay monthly to the channel have the liberty to speak in there.
However, despite all of these countermeasures, viewers can and often will misbehave, and considering how many subs Ninja reeled in every month, there’s no doubt that an ample amount of belligerent viewers were able to slip through the cracks.
While a significant reason, having a toxic chat on Twitch was obviously not the only reason Ninja decided to transition to Mixer.
Jessica explained how their negotiations with Twitch started to “not make sense” after a while, as the two sides continued to grow apart on what they would have liked to be included in the contract, such as freedom to use licensing deals and ability to grow his brand outside of gaming.
However, with Microsoft stepping in and picking up the pieces, the superstar streamer and his team were able to get their wishes met, and he’s faced tremendous success since completing the move.
He almost instantly shattered many of Mixer’s records, including reaching two million followers in less than a month and one million active subs after five days, and was able to reap rewards through his new relationship with Microsoft, such as hosting an exclusive Gears of War 5 stream prior to the game’s release.
