Ninja is responsible for the streaming industry\u2019s success today Tyler \u201cNinja\u201d Blevins was the catalyst that brought gaming into the eye of mainstream media. He may not have as many viewers now as he did in his prime, but Ninja walked so streamers today could run. Before 2018, gaming was seen as a subculture of nerddom exclusive to children and adults living in their parents\u2019 basements. Streamers weren\u2019t signed by the Dallas Cowboys, and A-list celebrities weren\u2019t making guest appearances at video game award shows. Gaming was a hobby, and very few streamers were able to garner enough subscribers and donations to consider it a full-time job. But that all changed when one skinny kid with blue hair played Fortnite with the world\u2019s most famous rap artist. Today, streaming platforms fight over content creators. Streamers rake in millions of dollars from contracts, donations, brand deals, and creator codes. But the gaming scene could look completely different if it weren\u2019t for Tyler \u201cNinja\u201d Blevins. Fortnite sets the perfect stage With the growing popularity of the Battle Royale genre, Twitch streamers started to notice an increase in viewership. Games such as PUBG and Day Z were among the first to pit 100 players against each other in a fight to the death. Viewers were hooked. Pivoting from the development of a zombie survival game, Epic Games released what would become the world\u2019s most popular Battle Royale: Fortnite. And Ninja was there as one of the first streamers to capitalize on its inevitable popularity. Fortnite was immediately popular for a few reasons: It was free for everyone, available on most platforms, and its unique building mechanics would add a layer of gameplay that no other game could offer. Viewers loved to watch their favorite personalities fight to be the best out of 100 players. Ninja being one of the first to start playing Fortnite in 2017 meant more people would flock to his streams. But it wouldn\u2019t be until a few months into 2018 that his career skyrocketed. Ninja, Drake, and Fortnite During the first few months of 2018, Ninja already had a ridiculous number of viewers. Maxing out at just over 100k concurrent viewers a day, Ninja\u2019s average viewer count was more than what top streamers can muster today. While Ninja was flirting with the glass ceiling of success, it wouldn\u2019t be until March 15, 2018 that he would burst through it. That would be the day that Ninja would squad up with world-famous superstar and rap icon Drake. That night, Ninja\u2019s stats were off the charts, but that wasn\u2019t what broke the mold for Twitch streamers. This was one of the first times that major mainstream news outlets were reporting positively on video games. CNN, The Washington Post, Business Insider, BBC. What seemed like taboo to cover was now on the front page of these outlets. Many headlines excluded the mention of Tyler \u201cNinja\u201d Blevins favoring Drake as a \u201crecord-breaking\u201d gamer. Ninja from Fortnite A wave of news stories praised Drake for playing with Ninja from Fortnite, and now gaming is a socially acceptable hobby. Hey, if the world\u2019s coolest and most-popular rapper plays Fortnite then it has to be cool, right? Along with the increased popularity gaming saw as a whole, watching people play games became far more popular. And with his name making international news, many new viewers ran to Ninja\u2019s stream to see what this \u201cFortnite\u201d was all about. It\u2019s obvious that Drake used Ninja as a marketing tool. Before the release of a new project, he would garner as much attention as possible, and playing Fortnite with Ninja was a genius move on his part. Ninja now had everything to lose. His time with Drake catapulted him into the spotlight and he could choose to kill the momentum or use this opportunity to make a name for himself. And in turn, he would be blazing a trail for future streamers to do the same. Ninja opens doors for gamers A few streamers have praised Ninja for opening doors that may never have been opened otherwise. And Ninja\u2019s career for the rest of 2018 and into 2019 would be a series of Blevins opening these doors. Over the next year, Ninja would sign with Redbull, host his own tournament in Las Vegas, play Fortnite live at Lallapalooza, and squad up with Drake a few more times. However, he started to break into mainstream media frequently by appearing on Jimmy Fallon, being the first Esports athlete to appear on the cover ESPN Magazine, and even hosted New Year on Time Square. And in mid-2019, Ninja would sign a contract with Mixer that would completely change how platforms operate. Just as athletes are traded between teams, Ninja leaving his home team of Twitch popularized this idea that other platforms could scout and sign streamers. Ninja changes the streaming landscape Since 2018, a lot of shocking events surrounding Ninja\u2019s career have become the norm. Ninja playing with celebrities and signing brand deals with major companies was insane when it first happened. Now, no one bats an eye when a streamer tweets \u201cbig announcement soon\ud83d\udc40\u201d. When Ninja left Twitch for Mixer, it was the first time streamers were seen as purchasable assets. Now, streamers expect multiple platforms to offer them multimillion-dollar contracts when their current one is up. Streamers are frequently in movies and commercials. People who have much smaller communities on Twitch are advertising McDonald\u2019s sandwiches. Gamers are making \u201cbig money moves\u201d behind the scenes all because some blue-haired kid did it first. Ninja is still killing it Compared to Ninja\u2019s unbelievable stint in 2018-2019, his streams now might seem disheartening. He has around 10% of the viewers he had at his peak. He\u2019s not setting records and his name is rarely in headlines anymore. But you\u2019d be mistaken if you think Ninja \u201cfell off.\u201d He debuted his acting career in Ryan Reynold\u2019s \u201cFree Guy,\u201d and is the voice of Party Monster in the upcoming animated film Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. Aside from what he\u2019s doing in his career, Ninja\u2019s legacy lives on in other streamers. Ludwig\u2019s big move to YouTube is thanks to Ninja\u2019s move to Mixer. TimTheTatman\u2019s signing with Complexity can be attributed to Ninja bringing gaming into the mainstream. You may not agree that Tyler \u201cNinja\u201d Blevins is as important a figure as this article makes him out to be. But I implore you to consider where your favorite streamer \u2013 if not gaming as a whole \u2013 would be if not for Ninja\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ninja is responsible for the streaming industry\u2019s success today Tyler \u201cNinja\u201d Blevins was the catalyst that brought gaming into the eye of mainstream media. He may not have as many viewers now as he did in his prime, but Ninja walked so streamers today could run. Before 2018, gaming was seen as a subculture of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}