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Tyler “Ninja” Blevins’ move from Twitch to Microsoft’s livestream platform Mixer had immediate ramifications for the newer brand in the form of exposure and viewership for Blevins’ broadcasts from Lollapalooza.
But perhaps the more interesting effect that Blevins’ move has had so far is with other Fortnite streamers on Twitch. Outside of the viewership that the World Cup provided toward the end of July, Fortnite viewership overall has been down significantly from 2018, when the game was at its apex.
However, even without Blevins around for the past couple of weeks, viewership of Fortnite has been about the same as it was in the month or so prior to his move. While a big part of that is likely related to competitive professionals getting back to focusing on their personality streams, a few examples of viewership growth suggest that some of Blevins’ audience has stayed on Twitch, simply moving to other influencers.
Some would think that Turner “Tfue” Tenney would be a prime beneficiary of Blevins’ exit from Twitch, but so far, it appears as though his average viewership hasn’t changed significantly since August 2 when Blevins announced his move.
Tenney, who has been the most-watched personality streamer on Twitch so far this year, has had an average of 47K concurrent viewers (CCV) since August 2. However that figure is identical to the average CCV he had from June until August 1. With about 100 hours of airtime since August 2, it’s safe to say that Blevins’ move from Twitch hasn’t done much to help or hurt Tenney’s audience.
Meanwhile, Fortnite World Cup solo competition winner Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf has emerged as a formidable source of viewership for Epic Games’ title since winning its biggest prize. His 1.3M hours watched since August 2 includes an average of 23K CCV.
Though Giersdorf could have benefitted from Blevins’ departure from Twitch, the clout of being a World Cup champion certainly has played a more vital role in the development of his channel.
On the other hand, a couple of known commodities on Twitch have seen their average viewership boosted since Blevins’ departure, and it doesn’t take too much investigation to figure out why.
Tim “TimTheTatman” Betar and Ben “DrLupo” Lupo are a pair of streamers with reliable brands, consistent broadcast hours, and strong communities. They don’t put up the same sort of viewership as someone like Tenney or Blevins on a consistent basis, but their personality streams are well-known by many, in part because they often times play Fortnite on-stream with Blevins.
Prior to Blevins’ exit from Twitch, Betar and Lupo spent the summer with moderate success on Twitch recording average viewership figures of 19K and 7K CCV, respectively, from June 1-August 1.
In just the past few weeks, with no Fortnite esports tournaments to compete with and Blevins not on Twitch, each personality has seen a significant jump in average viewership for their Fortnite streams.
Since August 2, Betar has recorded an average of 31K CCV for his Fortnite streams, and Lupo has improved the average CCV of his Fortnite streams to 11K CCV. Overall, the two have seen a combined 16K boost in their average CCV.
Even though, Blevins has left Twitch for Mixer, he hasn’t stopped playing with his streaming friends like Betar and Lupo on a regular basis, and while Betar and Lupo stream games with Blevins, viewers can hear all of the same interactions and antics between the three streamers that they would if they were watching Blevins’ stream on Mixer.
Its yet to be seen what type of lasting effect Blevins’ departure from Twitch will have on Fortnite viewership as a whole, but for now, it appears that it has provided somewhat of a positive benefit for influencers that Blevins is particularly close to.
