After just five days of streaming, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is boasting 1 million active subscribers on Mixer, the Microsoft-owned platform that made him jump ship from Twitch. “Thank you for all the incredible support,” Blevins tweeted when announcing the milestone. “I haven’t felt this good in a long time.”

Whether Blevins’ fans would follow him from Twitch to Mixer, a much smaller platform compared to Amazon’s streaming behemoth, has been a question on the minds of everyone in the streaming community this past week. One million subscribers over five days is an impressive feat regardless of platform, and it’s a strong testament to Blevins’ popularity and the strength of his personal brand regardless of platform. Yet it’s unclear how many of those subscribers will be still there in two months, after a free promotion expires and fans will have to pay a monthly fee to continue receiving exclusive perks.

Mixer’s decision to gift two free months of subscriptions to Blevins’ channel is an attempt to bring as many people over to the platform in as short a time as possible. But after that period runs out, the price will jump to at least $5.99 a month. (Mixer streamers can also earn money through the platform’s Sparks currency, similar to Bits on Twitch.)

Still, if Blevins continues growing at this rate, he might just break a few of his old records. He previously amassed more than 3 million subscribers on YouTube in just one month last year, during his meteoric rise alongside Fortnite. His account now has more than 22 million subscribers, making it even bigger than his Twitch channel.

Both YouTube and Twitch have something that Mixer currently doesn’t — an extremely large viewership base. Mixer only accounts for three percent of time spent watching game streams online; Twitch receives about 72 percent of time spent. It’s a big difference, and it’s what’s led other streamers, like Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm, to comment on how long Blevins’ viewership will remain high.

“I just have a feeling — and I’m just kind of going off gut right now — that unless they pick up somebody, a few other big names, I think [Blevins’] numbers are going to go down,” Beahm said on a recent stream.

Beahm added it has nothing to do with Blevins or his content, but rather “exposure on the platform.” The argument that many streamers have made is that Mixer needs a few more big names, which the company may be working on. YouTuber and podcast host Ethan Klein recently suggested that he spoke to a popular Twitch streamer who was also talking to Mixer in an effort to leave Twitch.

It’s unclear if Blevins’ subscribers will stay, but at least for the moment, he’s riding high.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/6/20757820/ninja-mixer-1-million-subscribers-fortnite-amazon-twitch-microsoft