Like Netflix, there are also subscriptions, though you don't have to subscribe to watch. Like traditional TV, there are ads, and streamers make money based on how many people watch those ads. Twitch, which now boasts 2.2 million streamers around the world, gives its content creators three ways of generating revenue. Blevins suggests the number is closer to seven figures. The most commonly reported figure is $500,000 a month.
Ninja to headline TwitchCon's Blackout tourneyĮvery day, people tune in by the hundreds of thousands to watch him play, and he's making bank doing it. In April, he logged the most social media interactions in the entire sports world, beating out the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Shaquille O'Neal and Neymar. With 11 million Twitch followers and climbing, he commands an audience few can dream of. Since then, Ninja has achieved what no other gamer has before: mainstream fame. At its peak, Ninja and Drake's game, which also featured rapper Travis Scott and Pittsburgh Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, pulled in 630,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch, Amazon's livestreaming platform, shattering the previous record of 388,000. He shot to fame in March after he and Drake played Fortnite, the video game phenomenon in which 100 players are dropped onto an island and battle to be the last one standing while building forts that are used to both attack and hide from opponents. If you haven't heard of Ninja, ask the nearest 12-year-old. And that means he could lose money in the hundreds of thousands. Even though he's headlining today's celebrity event, because he's not livestreaming on Twitch, he's losing subscribers - 40,000 of them, to be exact, by the end of the two days he'll spend in LA. All the while, he's trying not to get irritated at the things first-class accommodations cannot accommodate: "I lost 15,000 subs yesterday," he says. In his room at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, already dressed in jeans and a purple jersey featuring his logo of a masked warrior, he lets his signature shock of dyed hair - blue today! - dry before styling it. He'll team up with music producer Marshmello against NBA stars Paul George and Andre Drummond and actor Joel McHale. It's June, and he is in Los Angeles for the biggest tournament of his life, the Fortnite Celebrity Pro-Am, where 50 gamers will be paired with 50 celebrities to duke it out for $3 million in charity prize money. More kids have appeared.įOR TYLER BLEVINS, it is the summer of more: more people, more events, more fame. Yes, he will sign that $2 bill, but only after he finishes the game.įive hours later, Ninja turns off the stream and collapses in his chair, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. No, Ninja will not play squads with them. Ninja," brings him fries, makes sure he has enough water and acts as a first line of defense against the adoring crowds.
Every so often, he turns to smile at his wife, Jess, sitting patiently behind him, and at one point mouths "I love you." Jess, whom at least one kid calls "Mrs. Ninja doesn't go to the bathroom all afternoon. Lollapalooza founder and Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell stops by too, his 13-year-old son in tow. Is that cool?"īenny, the Chicago Bulls' mascot, drops in to play and gifts him a jersey. When that happens, he leans over and says, "Hey, buddy, I'd like to take my picture with you. Some kids are too shy to ask for a photo, staring at him in awe. Hot and exhausted as he is, he takes pictures with every single kid who shows up after each game, bending his stringy frame so that his face is level with theirs. Throughout the day, Ninja, 27, talks about wanting to watch rapper Logic perform that night from a room with no mics and no cameras. Even when we're out and about at night, it's just so much," he says, before turning on the camera to broadcast himself to millions. It's about 1:30, later in the day than he usually starts streaming. Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, the object of their adoration, is tired. "It's Ninja! It's Ninja! He plays Fortnite!" On a sweltering afternoon in Chicago, with the bass from the closest stage at Lollapalooza booming in the background, a dozen kids cluster at a tent to watch a pale, gangly young man with neon pink hair play a video game.