With Twitch drops heavily inflating viewership for Riot Games’ upcoming tactical shooter VALORANT, some influencers on other platforms are being negatively affected by the event’s exclusivity.
While established streamers like Summit1g and TimTheTatman continue to reel in massive viewership totals on Twitch, other content creators who used to dominate the platform, like Mixer’s shroud and Ninja, haven’t had the same level of success playing VALORANT.
On The CouRage and Nadeshot Show, the duo and DrLupo discussed what viewership could have been like for those two content creators had they stayed on Twitch for an event like this.
Lupo was quick to suggest that shroud’s move to Mixer certainly hindered his ability to make a large profit from the VALORANT closed beta release and drops on Twitch associated with it.
“That’s why Summit’s stream is exploding right now is because CS is his wheelhouse,” Lupo said. “I mean, shroud was on Cloud9 for forever right? So people would flock to that. On Mixer, he had what 14k today? For Mixer, that’s incredible right, but dude, I want to say shroud would be at like 350,000 (viewers) on Twitch.”
CouRage, who moved from Twitch himself in favor of a deal to exclusively stream on YouTube, understands the pain that shroud and Ninja are feeling on Mixer right now. Not having access to those beta drops certainly hurts his ability to attract viewers. But being confident in his decision, CouRage knows that shroud and Ninja are as well.
“At the end of the day, we all have reasons that we’ve made the decisions we’ve made,” CouRage said. “There’s times where I’m like, ‘dang, sure, I wish I had VALORANT drops on my stream.’ But am I confident that one day YouTube will have drops for something that Twitch doesn’t have drops for? And my ass is going to have 500,000 viewers, and I’m going to take the nicest trip to Tahiti after and sip piña coladas on the beach and blow my nose with the hundred dollar bills I made in revenue from those streams, you better believe.”
CouRage added that he knows shroud and Ninja are doing well for themselves with the money that they’ve made off of their respective deals to stream exclusively on Mixer—and Nadeshot echoed that opinion.
“Can you imagine if I was getting this Mixer money right now,” he said. “Fuck, I wouldn’t be talking to none of y’all. I’m dropping off the face of the Earth if on this Ninja-Mixer deal. No bullshit.”
Nadeshot previously had a deal to stream on MLG.tv. He admitted, however, that his deal wasn’t nearly as good as the top deals are now for exclusive streaming rights. While lacking the ability to capitalize on VALORANT beta loot drops on Twitch is certainly painful in the short term, Nadeshot knows shroud and Ninja are still better off on Mixer.
“It’s like you’re in fucking prison, and nothing can change that for however many years you signed that contract,” he said. “But what I would say to Tyler and shroud is that the money is worth it. I don’t know the exact details of their contracts, but the money they’re making now is generational wealth. They’re going to be able to take care of their family… for I don’t know how long just to make this sacrifice.”
