Ninja drops Twitch exclusivity, starts streaming on YouTube, Facebook, and more

pcgamer.com:

One of the most popular streamers has decided that an exclusivity deal isn't enough. Tyler «Ninja» Blevins has dropped his contract with Twitch and plans to stream on all major platforms at the same time.

After seemingly(opens in new tab) staging a sudden hiatus last week, Ninja has returned to announce that he won't sign a deal with Twitch or YouTube, but will instead stream simultaneously on both of them, as well as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

«When you sign an exclusivity contract, it's usually a big fat check that's tied to it. That's guaranteed money, that's sustainability, that's comfortable. But right now, I'm basically on my own,» he said while playing Fortnite on his first multi-stream today(opens in new tab).

«Technically, people like Twitch and YouTube and Facebook, they don't want people to stream on another platform, they don't want to lose viewers to another platform. In a perfect world, all three of the companies want you exclusive there,» he said.

Last week, after teasing his hiatus and changing his social media profiles to say «User Not Found,» Ninja's Twitch partner checkmark disappeared. Now that he's back, presumably he's no longer bound by the «multi-year» contract he signed(opens in new tab) with the platform in 2020. In order to stream everywhere, he's opted out of allowing subscriptions entirely on the platform as a Twitch affiliate. Twitch released the restrictions(opens in new tab) on partners streaming to TikTok and Instagram last month, but they're still not allowed to broadcast on YouTube or Facebook—its two biggest rivals. And affiliates aren't allowed to multi-stream at all.

Took a little time off, but now I’m back…and I’ll be live EVERYWHERE tomorrow at 12CST