Shroud’s historic Twitch return makes him fastest-growing streamer

[jwplayer 91I9RIGm]Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek returned to Twitch after a post-Mixer vacation and the legendary FPS player and streamer has been rewarded by over 1 million new followers, giving him, by far, the platform’s fastest-growing channel.

Shroud joined Ninja by accepting a multi-million-dollar contract to exclusively stream on Mixer in December 2019. Eight months later, Mixer folded, and the two walked away with fatter bank accounts. According to reports, shroud’s contract was worth $30 million, causing speculation over his next deal. Now, after a light vacation, he’s back on Twitch and early statistics prove him to be the platform’s fastest-growing streamer by a very wide margin.

According to TwitchMetrics, shroud has gained 1,073,289 new followers over the last 30 days. That makes him the platform’s hottest channel by over 500,000, as no other channel has grown by even half a million over the last month.  

• Read more: Shroud slams toxic viewers for “ruining” Twitch tournaments

Ninja hasn’t been streaming as consistently, but he still ranks as the most-followed channel on Twitch, with a whopping 15 million users still awaiting the gaming icon’s streams. But thanks to his Valorant and variety streams, shroud is rising right back up the rankings. Now, at 8.1 million followers, he is right on track to battle with Tfue for the second-most followers on all of the platform (Tfue has around 9 million).

After announcing his return to Twitch in early August, shroud has cemented his status as one of gaming’s greatest streaming talents. From Valorant to Fall Guys, to Escape From Tarkov, the FPS beast returned with a goatee and a vengeance — as proven by how quickly his channel is growing on a daily basis.

• Read more: What is Bud Light’s Battle of the Best event? ft. shroud, DrLupo, more

In a testament to his community and presence, followers and brand partnerships have come easily for the head-clicker. Most recently, he was announced as a captain for Bud Light Seltzer’s Battle of the Best tournament, which features 16 streamers in a contest spanning four different games. 

As experienced in banter as he is in flick shots, shroud got right back into the thick of streamer trash talk by taking a shot at TimTheTatman in his announcement Tweet, noting that he will be “competing against some real gamers and TimTheTatman.”

Not all real gamers are legitimate streamer personalities, but shroud’s fans apparently think he is both. Gaining over 1 million followers in a month is impressive and the industry will be eagerly anticipating just how far this growth can go.