'Fortnite' Streamer Ninja Has Now Hit 1.5 Million Subscribers on Mixer (UPDATE)

UPDATE (August 22, 2019): Just two weeks after Fortnite streamer Tyler Blevins aka Ninja announced that he had amassed one million subscribers on his new streaming platform Mixer, the gamer took to Twitter to celebrate yet another milestone: 1.5 million subscribers and two million follows. It’s no doubt an amazing feat, and probably a much-needed positive boost for Ninja amid his recent altercations with Twitch.

Signing on Ninja to stream exclusively for Mixer has definitely been a smart and lucrative deal for Microsoft, but it’s also important to note that the tech giant is currently bearing the costs of all 1.5 million subscribers, due to a two-month-free deal that Microsoft is offering to Blevins’ subscribers. With each subscription weighing in at $5.99 USD per month, one can assume that Microsoft is absorbing nearly $6 million USD in value.

1.5 million subscribers on @WatchMixer and almost 2 million follows. The best part, there are still people who dont know I have made the switch which makes me happy knowing there is room to grow and continue the rise.

— Ninja (@Ninja) August 20, 2019

UPDATE (August 7, 2019): Ninja — one of Fortnite‘s biggest streamers — has gained one million subscribers since leaving Twitch and moving over to Microsoft’s streaming platform Mixer. The feat took only five days, and Ninja took to Twitter to express his gratefulness to his fans, saying “thank you for all the incredible support. I haven’t felt this good in a long time.”

It’s important to note that new subscribers to Ninja’s channel have been given free access for two months. Once the period is over, subscribers will meet a charge of at least $5.99 a month, and many suspect his follower count to drop once the free period is over.

Regardless, if Ninja’s Mixer subscriber base continues to grow at its current rate, he would be on track to break his previous record last year, where he accumulated three million subscribers on his YouTube channel in just one month. The channel now has more than 22 million subscribers.

Today we hit 1,000,000 active subscribers on mixer ^-^ thank you for all the incredible support. I haven’t felt this good in a long time. pic.twitter.com/kdLgBJk0Ud

— Ninja (@Ninja) August 6, 2019

UPDATE (August 3, 2019): Earlier today, Ninja made his Mixer streaming debut, and his viewership for the session turned out much better than his average Twitch numbers. In particular, during the entire six hours of streaming Fortnite, Ninja averaged 57,000 viewers, as opposed to his lesser 40,000 average on Twitch over the past few months.

At one point during his session, when he streamed with recent Fortnite World Cup champion Bugha, Ninja’s stream hit a peak viewer count of 95,877, more than double of his Twitch average. When Ninja first announced he’d move over to Mixer exclusively, the question on everyone’s mind was: would his fans move over to an entirely new platform — arguably one much less popular than Twitch — just to continue following him? With statistics like this today from his Mixer debut, it seems the answer to that concern is now clear.

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ORIGINAL STORY (August 1, 2019): After making his mark (and his millions) by streaming Fortnite on Twitch, Tyler “Ninja “Blevins has announced a major move. In a tongue-in-cheek video uploaded to his YouTube channel, the 28-year-old gamer has revealed his plans to leave Twitch to exclusively broadcast on Mixer.

In the video in which he reveals the move, Ninja answers questions asked by a variety of reporters (all played by Ninja himself, of course), asserting that “it’s the same me, just a different platform. … I feel like this is a good time to get back in touch with my roots and remember why I really fell in love with streaming in the first place.” The news comes after Ninja popped up everywhere at the first-ever Fortnite World Cup Finals in New York, solidifying his devotion to his game of choice.

Purchased by Microsoft in 2016, streaming service Beam introduced Xbox and Windows-specific services before rebranding as Mixer in 2017. As Streamlabs notes, Mixer racked up approximately 12 million hours of stream time in Q2 2019, a 43% boost over the previous timeframe. Furthermore, approximately concurrent viewers rose by 30% to approximately 55,000 fans, who participated in streams from approximately 1.97 million channels in the past quarter, though each boasts an average of only 10 viewers per channel.

“We’ve loved watching Ninja on Twitch over the years and are proud of all that he’s accomplished for himself and his family, and the gaming community,” Twitch said in a statement to The Verge. “We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.”

Head to Ninja’s Mixer channel to watch his forthcoming streams and check out the reveal video above.

Most recently, Fortnite‘s latest update introduced a two-player mech suit.