Ninja (gamer)

Ninja

Richard Tyler Blevins[1](born June 5, 1991), more commonly known by his online alias Ninja, NinjasHyper, or Tyler Fortnite Ninja Blevins, is an American Twitch gamer and Internet personality. As of July 2019, he is the most followed streamer on Twitch with over fourteen million followers and an average of over 65,000 viewers per stream.[2] He is known for playing Fortnite on livestreams.[3] He was born in Detroit, Michigan, but raised in Chicago.

He usually streams the game Fortnite and his competitive duo partner is Reverse2k, another pro player.

Early life

Blevins's parents are of American Welsh descent.[4] He was born as Richard Tyler Blevins.[4] He went to Grayslake Central High School, where he played soccer, and was also a eager video game player.

Since he graduated from college, he decided to play video games professionally. From here, he had began entering gaming tournaments, joining professional organizations, and live streaming his games.[5] He formerly used Twitch to stream games, but later switched to Mixer. Due to the shutdown of Mixer in July 2020, Blevins no longer had to follow the promise to Twitch to only stream on their platform, which now allows him to stream on other platforms.[6] On September 10, 2020, Blevins revealed that he will return to streaming on Twitch.[7]

Financial success

Ninja is one of the highest earning live streamers, earning millions of dollars per year from many different sources of income all connected to his twitch channel. After his huge success and increase in popularity he gained many profitable sponsorship deals, including one with the energy drink company Red Bull.[8]

References

  1. "Ninja on Twitter". Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  2. "The Most Followed Twitch Streamers, September 2018". twitchmetrics.net. Archived from the original on September 19, 2018. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  3. "Top 10 Twitch Streamers". socialblade.com. Archived from the original on October 27, 2018. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  4. 4.0 4.1 "H3 Podcast #63 - Ninja". H3 Podcast – via YouTube.
  5. Keilman, John (August 2, 2018). "He’s got celebrity pals, millions of fans and (probably) millions of dollars: Meet Ninja, Chicago’s ‘Fortnite’ superstar" (in en-US). Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-ninja-fortnite-video-games-20180801-story.html. Retrieved August 5, 2018. 
  6. Stephen, Bijan (June 22, 2020). "Ninja, Shroud, and other top Mixer streamers are now free to stream on Twitch again". The Verge. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  7. Jarvey, Natalie (September 10, 2020). "Superstar Gamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins Returns to Twitch (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  8. "How Much Do Twitch Streamers Make?". Vlogging Hero. 2019-06-18. Retrieved 2019-07-21.