10 Recent Truths About Gaming We've Just Learned

9. Twitch Got Some Hefty Competition, Thanks To Ninja

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Livestreaming has become one of the most profitable industries that anyone can break into, and if there's one person who stands above the rest in terms of popularity, it's Tyler Blevins, aka, Ninja. For years, Ninja streamed his games on Twitch, like nearly everyone else, but things changed in August 2019.

Ninja made the announcement that he was leaving Twitch behind to work solely on Mixer, the livestreaming platform owned and operated by Microsoft. The details of the deal aren't known, but it's estimated Microsoft ponied up between $20 and $30 million to entice Blevins over to its platform. That's a lot of money to play video games, but it's a drop in the bucket and the bucket is getting bigger.

Twitch has long been the dominant force in livestreaming, and there's a lot of money behind it. Amazon purchased the platform in 2014 for a cool $1 billion, and it's become a profit-making machine. Microsoft is now in direct competition with Mixer, and that's thanks, mostly, to Blevins.

Now that there is serious competition in the world of livestreaming, expect more money to begin changing hands between players and platform owners. Also, with more competition, there's more room for players to move up the ranks to hopefully match Blevins' success and one day earn a Fortnite skin of their own.

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Jonathan is a graphic artist, illustrator, writer, and game designer. Jonathan retired from the U.S. Army in 2017 and enjoys researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects. He writes for ScreenRant, CBR, NerdBastards, Listverse, Ranker, WhatCulture, and many other sites online. You can check out his latest on Twitter: @TalkingBull or on his blog: jonathanhkantor.com