Streaming wars: the top streamers that switched platform in 2019

• 1 Ninja

  

  Tyler Blevins' departure from Twitch came as a surprise, and his move to Mixer put the platform in a new kind of spotlight.

  Blevins had to rebuild his fanbase from scratch, and offered incentives such as a month's free subscription in order to pull his fans over to the new platform. Of course, not every single one of his 14.6 million followers made the switch to Mixer, but he did drum up a million subs in his first week there.

  At 2.7 million followers, Blevins has a cosier percentage of followers compared to what he had on Twitch, but that's still enough to make him the most popular creator on Mixer. Besides, one of Blevins' motivations was to 'get back to his roots', and what better way to do that than to rebuild on a fresh platform?

  
  

• 2 Shroud

  

  Just two months after Ninja's move, Michael 'Shroud' Grzesiek announced that he would also be leaving Twitch and heading over to Mixer. Like Blevins, Grzesiek left his seven million Twitch followers behind to create a brand new channel on Mixer,

  25-year-old Grzesiek is a former Counter-Strike professional, who competed as a part of esports team Cloud9 between 2014 and 2018. In April last year, Grzesiek stepped down from Cloud9 and professional CS: GO to pursue streaming full time. 

  As well as battle royale titles, Blevins and Grzesiek also have talent management company Loaded.gg in common. While estimates vary, it's fair to assume that Microsoft shelled out a hefty seven or eight digit sum to acquire the pair.

  
  

• 3 Ewok

  

  Soleil 'Ewok' Wheeler is another fast-rising streamer that moved from Twitch to Mixer in November 2019. At just 14 years old, Wheeler is making huge waves in the streaming space. She's also deaf, which makes her achievements all the more remarkable.

  Wheeler shot to fame back in March 2019 after her channel was hosted by Tim TimTheTatman Bater. Baher's fans instantly took to the 13-year-old, deaf Twitch streamer's bright personality and her channel subsequently took off.

  In July 2019, she became the first female streamer to sign with esports organisation, Faze Clan. She also picked up the gong for streamer of the year at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards.

  At the time of her switch to Mixer, Wheeler had amassed around 250,000 Twitch followers. Her Mixer channel currently has 114,000, half of her original audience number on Twitch, which isn't bad going at all.

  
  

• 4 King Gothalion

  

  Mixer kept up its massive acquisition efforts with the signing of Cory 'King Gothalion' Michael, a popular Destiny streamer.

  Michael made the switch in October 2019, somewhere between Shroud and Ewok's departures from Twitch. Similarly to the aforementioned streamers, Michael encouraged his fanbase of a million Twitch followers over to his new Mixer channel, which now boasts over 139k followers. 

  At the time, Michael said he expected the move to be a "tough decision" but then admitted that it was actually "easy peasy". 

  
  

• 5 Nick Eh 30

  

  Twitch wasn't just in the business of losing creators in 2019, it also attracted some larger names, including popular YouTube streamer Nicholas 'Nick Eh 30' Amyoony. 

  Amyoony's Fortnite content has earned him over 4.6 million subscribers on YouTube, and over 738,000 of them have followed him over to Twitch. While Amyoony is streaming exclusively on Twitch now, he's still uploading clips and highlights from those broadcasts to his YouTube channel for his larger fanbase.

  While this acquisition hasn't quite made up for the loss of Ninja or Shroud, it shows that Twitch still has something to offer new creators. But perhaps streaming exclusivity is less of a concern when creators can dodge that by uploading concise, edited clips of their Twitch streams to YouTube without breaching any contract terms. 

  
  

• 6 Courage

  

  While YouTube lost Nick Eh 30's streaming talents to Twitch, it also made another killer acquisition in November 2019 with Jack 'Courage' Dunlop.

  Previously, Dunlop had amassed over 2.1 million followers on Twitch before making the switch over to YouTube. Dunlop is also a member of gaming and esports group, 100 Thieves. 

  In a video uploaded to his new YouTube channel, Dunlop sat down and discussed his motives for wanting to move over to the platform. He said that making the switch has given him "more opportunities" and his departure from Twitch has eliminated his "fear of being tied down by a sub button".

  While YouTube certainly has no shortage of gaming creators, it still only controls just over a quarter of the streaming market and is lagging behind Twitch quite significantly, despite its size. 

  
  

• 7 Disguised Toast

  

  Popular Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics streamer Jeremy 'Disguised Toast' Wang also made the decision to wave goodbye to Twitch in November 2019.

  However, instead of heading over to Mixer like Ninja, Shroud and Ewok, Wang chose another destination - Facebook Gaming. 

  Since its launch in 2018, Facebook Gaming has made considerable efforts to establish itself as a unique destination for gaming content away from the main Facebook social network. It's also secured a number of high profile creators in its plight to grow.

  Wang had amassed over 1.3 million followers on Twitch since he began streaming in 2015. He's racked up over 200k followers on his Facebook Gaming page since November too.

  When making the switch, Wang said: "throughout my career, I’ve made it a priority to learn about different cultures and experiences. My move to Facebook Gaming will give me a larger platform to share my voice with a global audience and hear their perspectives on the gaming landscape."

  
  

• 8 Corinna Kopf

  

  Popular Instagram creator and practising streamer Corinna 'PoutyGirl' Kopf is also another huge, recent acquisition for Facebook Gaming. 

  After a brief stint on Twitch in 2019 where she racked up over 414,000 followers, Kopf made the decision to sign exclusively with Facebook Gaming in December 2019, where she aims to stream games such as Fortnite regularly. 

  Kopf has amassed over 195k followers on her Facebook Gaming page, which goes nicely with her 3.5 million followers over on her Instagram page. 

  At the time of the announcement, Kopf mentioned how gaming has become a huge part of her life over the last year, and said: "as a female gamer, it's so important for me to find a home that not only empowers myself but also all of you, in order to make a positive impact in the gaming world."

  Spanish creators Manuel 'Lolito FDEZ' Fernández and Sergio 'NexxuzHD' Moles Montes also joined Facebook Gaming in 2019. Both streamers have racked up over 1m followers each on their respective FB pages.

  
  

• 9 TimTheTatman, DrLupo and LIRIK

  

  After Ninja and Shroud made their move over to Mixer, the internet began to quickly speculate which of the pair's peers would be next to make the switch.

  On December 10th 2019, three of Twitch's top streamers, Tim 'TimTheTatman' Bater, Benjamin 'DrLupo' Lupo and Saqib 'LIRIK' Zahid all made the same announcement. This trio is also represented by Loaded.gg, alongside Ninja and Shroud.

  The announcement was that all three of them had resigned multi-year contracts with Twitch and that they weren't going anywhere. Each of them made videos explaining their choice.

  With the handfuls of streamers jumping ship over to Mixer, announcements from three of Twitch's top creators reassures their respective communities and also reaffirms that Twitch still has something to offer its top talent despite the number of professional departures from the platform.