In 2009, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was a professional Halo 3 player who hopped between esports organizations like Cloud9, Renegades, and Team Liquid. Little did he know that he’d one day become the face of Twitch.
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Ninja started streaming in 2011, although it was more of a pastime than a career. He gained traction in 2016 and 2017 after pivoting into battle royale titles like H1Z1 and PUBG, averaging between 2,000 and 4,000 viewers.
Still, the best was yet to come. That happened when he started streaming Fortnite in the back half of 2017. Two worlds collided and as the game exploded in popularity, so did Ninja’s viewership on the Amazon-owned platform.
The energetic star hit milestone after milestone, going from 500,000 followers in Sep. 2017 to three million in March 2018, making him the most-followed streamer on the platform at the time. He was also the first streamer ever to reach that number.
From there, he became a global superstar, collaborating with celebrities like Drake, Travis Scott, and Marshmello and appearing on mainstream media talk shows like The Tonight Show, Starring Jimmy Fallon.
In Aug. 2019, Ninja signed a streaming exclusivity deal with Microsoft’s now-defunct streaming platform, Mixer. His wife, Jessica Blevins, said he was losing his love for streaming at the time, and the contract allowed him to grow his brand elsewhere.
When Mixer folded in July 2020, he signed a deal with Twitch for an undisclosed amount. But despite being the most-followed streamer on the platform, he didn’t renew in 2022, opting to stream on all platforms instead.
Ninja at a glance
- Real Name: Richard Tyler Blevins
- Age: 31
- Birthday: June 5, 1991
- Nationality: American
- Partner: Jessica Blevins
- Awards:
- Streamy Awards 2018 Gaming Award
- Streamy Awards 2018 Live Streamer Award
- Esports Awards 2018 Streamer of the Year
- Streamy Awards 2019 Live Streamer Award
- Org: None (formerly Cloud9, Renegades, Team Liquid, and Luminosity Gaming)
What games does Ninja play?
Ninja’s most-streamed game is Fortnite, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. The blue-haired Twitch star streamed it for a mind-boggling 6,105 hours, which amounts to 55 percent of his total stream time.
The next closest is PUBG and H1Z1, which he streamed for around 1500 and 1000 hours, respectively. However, he hasn’t touched them since 2018, and we’ll likely never see him stream them again.
Further down the list, we have VALORANT, on 614 hours streamed and 5.5 percent total stream time, followed by League of Legends, on 543 hours streamed and 5 percent total stream time, both of which he still plays.
What is Ninja streaming setup?
Ninja’s Peripherals:
- Monitor: Alienware AW2518H
- Keyboard: Steelseries Apex Pro TKL
- Mouse: Logitech G Pro X Superlight
- Mouse Pad: HyperX Fury S Pro X-Large
- Headset: Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro
Ninja’s Gaming PC:
- CPU: Intel Core I9-9900K
- GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 3070
- MOBO: Asus Rog Maximus XII Hero
- RAM: Teamgroup T-Force Delta Rgb 32gb
- Case: NZXT H700i Ninja Edition
- Liquid Cooling: NZXT Kraken Z73
- HDD: Seagate 4TB Barracuda
- SSD: Western Digital SN550 1TB
- Power Supply: NZXT NP-1pm-e850a E-series 850w
- Fans: NZXT Aer Rgb 140mm
Ninja’s Streaming PC:
- Case: Phanteks Eclipse P600S Matte White
- Cooler: Deepcool Castle 360 AIO White
- CPU: Intel Core i9-12900k
- MOBO: MSI MPG Z690 Force Wifi
- RAM: G.Skill Trident z5 32gb DDR5 6000Mhz C40
- GPU: EVGA 3060 XC 12gb
- SSD: Mushkin Pilot 1TB Gen3
- Fan: Lian Li Uni sl120 x7
- PSU: EVGA 750 watt GA
How much does Ninja make?
Leaked data suggests Ninja made $1,378,790 between Aug. 2019 and Oct. 2021 from his Twitch streams. However, that barely begins to scratch the surface of how much money he’s made throughout his career.
In addition to having money pour in from sponsorship deals, book sales, merchandise, and his YouTube channel, Ninja reportedly earned between $20 to $30 million from his contract with Mixer in 2019.
Where is Ninja from?
Ninja was born in Detroit, Michigan, but his family moved to Chicago when he was still a baby, so he grew up there.
Why is Ninja so popular on Twitch?
Ninja was one of several streamers whose popularity boomed at the height of Fortnite’s peak in 2018.
He had the perfect combination of incredible skill at the game and an energetic, entertaining personality, which appealed to the masses and made him especially popular among younger viewers.
Ninja’s most popular Twitch clip
Ninja has countless highlights from his Fortnite days clipped on his Twitch channel. However, his most popular one has nothing to do with gaming. Instead, it’s a clip of when he did an over-the-top re-enactment of an “e-girl” streamer.
So what’s next for Ninja?
After hitting the absolute pinnacle of the streaming, Ninja has dialed things down a notch to make the grind more bearable. Rather than streaming Fortnite exclusively like he used to, he streams what he wants, when he wants, and on whichever platform he wants.
That said, Fortnite has still been his most-streamed game by a long shot in 2022 compared to other titles. So, there’s a good chance he’ll keep playing it until something more appealing comes along.
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