Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, the biggest name in Fortnite and one of Twitch’s most popular stars, is leaving the platform to stream exclusively on Mixer. The news comes via a tweet from the streaming star, with him dubbing the move “the next chapter.” Mixer is a fledgling streaming service owned by Microsoft that launched as Beam back in 2016, and later rebranded in 2017. The Ninja exclusivity marks a major get for the platform, which has struggled to catch up to competitors like Twitch and YouTube.

“I have been holding on to this for quite some time,” Ninja said in a brief follow-up video, “and I’m just super excited to let everyone know. I’ll be streaming on Mixer full-time now and I’m honestly at a loss for words. I’m freaking out in the best ways. I feel like I’m going to get back to the streaming roots.” He goes on to say that his streams will be “the exact same,” so don’t expect Ninja to get away from Fortnite any time soon.

For a long-time Ninja was Twitch’s biggest star, and he has remained among the platform’s most popular personalities. In a statement to The Verge, Twitch said:

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. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

The news comes just days after Ninja was seemingly everywhere at the inaugural Fortnite World Cup Finals in New York City; he competed in two different tournaments and even served as a color commentator for much of the event. Ninja also has a level of mainstream attention rare amongst streamers. He’s appeared on the cover of ESPN’s magazine and was featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. This week he’ll be appearing at Lollapalooza in Chicago.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/1/20750393/ninja-mixer-exclusive-twitch-fortnite-streaming-gaming-announcement