‘$50m’ Ninja deal causes Mixer downloads to double

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins’ defection from Twitch to Mixer has seen downloads for the Microsoft app rise significantly.

According to data firm Sensor Tower, downloads for the Mixer app doubled on the iOS App Store following Thursday’s announcement that Ninja had signed an exclusive streaming deal with the platform. Mixer briefly hit No.1 on the US App Store, having been around No.750 prior to the news.

New app installs across both the App Store and Google Play hit an estimated 26,000 on Thursday, up 100 percent week-over-week from 13,000 installs on Thursday July 26.

“At its current ranking, we expect the app to add at least 100,000 first-time users today on the U.S. App Store alone,” said the Sensor Tower report. “This would represent a 2,400 percent increase from the 4,000 it added one week ago on Friday, Jul. 27, or 25 times more users.”

Mixer was launched by Microsoft as Beam in 2016 and later rebranded. Signing Ninja, who had some 14 million followers on Twitch, marks a huge coup for the platform as it attempts to compete with streaming giants Twitch and YouTube.

According to The Verge’s senior editor, Tom Warren, Microsoft paid over $50 million to secure Blevins’ services.

Blevins was one of Twitch’s most popular streamers, known for his Fortnite streams.

He has achieved mainstream success unprecedented among game streamers, having appeared on television chat shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and on the cover of ESPN magazine. This weekend he’ll be appearing at Lollapalooza in Chicago.