Ninja made huge news last week when he left the popular streaming platform Twitch in favor of the lesser-known one, Mixer. This week, Twitch made a reference to Super Mario Bros over Ninaj’s now disused channel, letting users know he is no longer with the streaming service.
To say that Twitch is displeased with Ninja’s departure is an understatement. Within 30 minutes of Ninja’s Twitter announcement, Twitch demonetized his account, removing that little partnered checkmark. Seeing their most followed content creator leave their platform had to sting.
Reported by Kotaku, today, Twitch put a banner on Ninja’s channel that reads “The Ninja you’re looking for is in another castle” and proceeds to recommend other content to watch. The quote is a reference to the original Super Mario Bros game where Mario would make it to the end of a castle, attempting to save Peach, only to find that she’s in another castle.
Meanwhile, as Twitch nurses some hurt pride, Ninja has earned roughly half a million followers on Mixer. That is likely from Mixer’s promotional event where users can subscribe for free for a limited time to Ninja’s new channel. Before his departure, Ninja had nearly 14 million followers on Twitch. His Fortnite streams earned him a couple of book deals and what appears to be a pretty lucrative deal with Microsoft in exchange for exclusive streaming on Mixer.
Not enough time has passed to see if Ninja’s move will boost Mixer in the way the Microsoft owned platform hopes, but with half a million followers in one week, it’s looking good for them.
