When Mixer offered an exclusive contract to popular Twitch streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins. That kicked off what has now come to be known as "The Live Steaming Wars". 

After that, Twitch, Facebook Gaming, and Youtube started to quickly gather contracts with the most popular streamers to stream on their platform exclusively. 

Ninja was the most popular among them all with a 14.7 million follower count. He was the single largest Twitch steamer on the platform. When he signed with Mixer in August of 2019 (in a deal that was reportedly worth 20 to 30 million dollars). Ninja was reported to have lost 10 million viewers. The most popular streamer in the world, lost over half of his viewers when he moved to Mixer. 

With Ninja gone, steamers were looking for their next golden boy. Insert Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek.

Shrouds number increased exponentially til it hit its peak at 13 million followers. While not quite "Ninja numbers" he doubled the person in second place (Timothy "TimTheTatman" Betar).   

Then Mixer came knocking and Shroud answered the door. A few months after Ninja signed with Mixer, Shroud announced that he was partnering with Mixer also. No reports on what he was offered, but if it was anything close to what Ninja was reported to have made. The decision was easy, but will his fans follow? 

The answer to that was a huge "nope". Shroud's number fell a third of what he was getting on Twitch. 

Mixer over all was doing good though. Their viewer count increased by 3 million in August (when Ninja started streaming for the platform). However, Twitch's numbers also saw an increase from 850.6 million to 932.1 million. 

Mixer was dying, a very slow and painful death. April's StreamElements and Arsenal.gg - a live-streaming industry reporting site - posted that Twitch grew 100% every year and Facebook Gaming saw a jump to 238% from its previous year. Mixer on the other hand only grew two-tenths of a percent. 

With Mixer dead and gone, and Facebook Gaming taking over. What does this mean for Shroud and Ninja? 

Vivek Sharma, head of Facebook Gaming says “It’s up to them and their priorities,”. It seems to me that Facebook will not go after Mixer's larger exclusive streamers. Even their (Facebook's) largest streamer, Jeremy "DisgusedToast" Wang, isn't exclusive to Facebook Gaming and can stream on Twitch if he wants too.

Mixer is officially being taken down July 22nd. What does this mean for both Shroud and Ninja? They are now free of Mixer and can return to Twitch. 

But the real question here is. Will their audience welcome them back with open arms?

*Edit: According to Richard Lewis who is an esport journalist. Both Ninja and Shroud were offered to stay with Facebook Gaming - signing and exclusive contract - for double what their Mixer contract was. They both refused and decided to just take their pay off and become free agents. 

Mixer is reportedly paying Shroud 10 million dollars while Ninja is walking away with 30 million dollars. 

This has been James with Game Fix. Game on everybody!