Twitch has locked up some of its top names under exclusive contracts, after months of exclusive Mixer and Facebook Gaming deals made streamers like Shroud, Ninja, and Disguised Toast jump platforms. Ben ‘DrLupo’ Lupo, Saqib ‘Lirik’ Zahid, and Timothy ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar all announced simultaneously today that they will stream exclusively on Twitch
The deals are “in the millions of dollars” per year, according to esports journalist Rod Bresleau, who broke the news of the contracts ahead of the official announcements. DrLupo, TimTheTatman, and Lirik are all represented by the firm Loaded – which also represents the now Mixer-exclusive streamers, Shroud and Ninja.
Competing streaming services have been peeling off both Twitch’s biggest streamers and some of the platform’s most notable niche broadcasters, so it’s little surprise to see Twitch lock down some of its top remaining talent. Every streaming platform is dependent on its talent for success – though early numbers suggest that exclusive deals aren’t necessarily bringing huge viewer numbers to platforms like Mixer.
Regardless, we can always count on goofball announcement skits to accompany this kind of news.
— DrLupo (@DrLupo) December 10, 2019
Excited to continue my partnership with @Twitch pic.twitter.com/gU0BvvlKEL
— Lirik (@LIRIK) December 10, 2019
I have an announcement… pic.twitter.com/2B9xhWdl7l
— timthetatman (@timthetatman) December 10, 2019
Don’t expect the streamer contract war to conclude any time soon.