Twitch Inks Exclusive Streaming And Appearance Deals With Summit1G, Dakotaz, JoshOG

The post-Ninja Exodus talent lock-in doesn’t look likely to ease up anytime soon. Twitch’s latest multiyear exclusive livestreaming deals are with three top gamers: Jaryd “Summit1G” Lazar (5.3 million followers), Brett “Dakotaz” Hoffman (4.4 million), and Josh “JoshOG” Beaver (1.7 million).

“Twitch is home, and hopefully always will be home,” Lazar said in a Twitter video announcing the deal. “I’ll see you guys on the channel, and thanks again for allowing me to do what I do. I appreciate it very much.”

The deals mandate all three will continue to stream only on Twitch. They’ll also continue to appear at Twitch gaming events and activations.

“Summit1G, Dakotaz, and JoshOG have each made it a priority to cultivate genuine connections among their fans while demonstrating their ongoing support for the community at large through participation in broader Twitch events,” Michael Aragon, Twitch’s SVP of content, said in a statement. “At a time when community is paramount, these creators are a core part of Twitch’s mission to bring people together, and we’re excited to continue our partnership.”

Lazar mainly plays first-person shooters (FPS), and recently saw his audience spike to 200K concurrent viewers per broadcast while streaming upcoming shooter Valorant

. Hoffman, meanwhile, is a primarily Fortnite streamer whose channel was one of Twitch’s top ten most watched in 2018. Beaver, another FPS expert, recently won three back-to-back Call of Duty: Warzone tournaments.

“Over the last decade, these streamers garnered loyal fan bases and built successful brands on Twitch,” said Brandon Freytag, cofounder and SVP of talent at Loaded, the trio’s management company, which brokered the deal. (Loaded represents a number of other big-name gamers, including Ninja, Shroud, CouRage, DrLupo, and TimTheTatman.) “We are very happy that they have the opportunity to continue doing what they love while providing their fans with the livestreaming content they want to watch.”

As mentioned, this is the latest in a long, long string of creator deals signed by Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Mixer following Ninja’s exit from Twitch to Mixer last August. Twitch has signed folks like Dr DisRespect, TimTheTatman, DrLupo, NickMercs, LIRIK, and NickEh30; YouTube has snagged PewDiePie, CouRage, LazarBeam, Muselk, and Valkyrae; Disguised Toast moved to Facebook; and Shroud, King Gothalion, and FaZe Ewok moved to Mixer.