The Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is the biggest star on Twitch and earned 10 million US dollars in 2018. But that came at a high price, as he says now: He did not live his life in 2018. He was a slave to the grind of streaming.
So 2018 was for Ninja: The year 2018 for Ninja was almost entirely about Fortnite and Twitch. According to his own statements, the streamer spent almost half of all the hours of the year, 4,000 hours, playing and streaming Fortnite.
The daily routine consisted of 12 to 14 hours in stream. In addition came:
- special streams with stars like rapper Drake
- PR actions like the strange promotional stream for Fallout 76.
- appearances on talk shows
- his own events, like the one in Las Vegas
Even on New Year’s Eve, Ninja was at a major live event in New York, hosting a New Year’s stream there. Blevins apparently wanted to take advantage of the hype around him and the game Fortnite while it was still hot.
It was worth it for Ninja, he earned about 10 million US dollars in 2018 and became the biggest streamer of all time on Twitch. But that apparently came at a price.
So far in 2019 for Ninja: Now in January 2019, Ninja is taking it a little easier.
On January 23, he tweeted that he would be away for a few days to spend time with his wife and father.
In recent days, he is taking more and more breaks and has relaxed his otherwise rigorous streaming schedule.
At the moment, he is probably on the way to the Super Bowl and will not be able to stream from home for a few days.
Why this is something special: Ninja is incredibly ambitious and apparently thinks – typical for a gamer – in “high scores.” At the height of his ambition in 2018, Ninja could and did not want to take a break.
He seemed obsessed with his “subscriber count.” These are people who support him on Twitch by subscribing.
Whenever he was not streaming, his subscriber count would drop. Because subscriptions expired and were not renewed if Ninja was not visible on Twitch.
Ninja explained, when he took a 2-day break, he lost $100,000 in subscriptions.
This is what Ninja says now: The current break seems to have led to a change of heart for Ninja. In the stream he now says:
“I am so much more relaxed right now. After last year, I don’t stress about my subscriber count anymore. I know what I’m capable of when I have the time to stream as much as possible and to do these 12 to 14-hour streams.
I did not live my life in 2018. I was a slave to the streaming grind. And I do not regret it at all. But it’s nice to take a little rest and relaxation.”
This reflects the situation: It’s an interesting insight into the mindset of a streamer. This “Twitch grind” is a major problem for many streamers, who feel they lose everything they have built up if they just take a short break.
Since there are no regulations for streamers, the impression arises that every minute they are not streaming, they are losing ground. And they could always do more, one more event, one more special PR action, one more appearance to take advantage of the moment.
Apparently, Ninja was completely in this mindset in 2018 and now sees with a little distance that there is another way. One can certainly notice his ambition. Ninja is sure that as soon as he streams again, he can make up for the ground he is currently losing to rivals like Tfue.
The younger competitor, Turner “Tfue” Tenney, is currently regarded as the best Fortnite player in the world and has probably overtaken Ninja in subscriber count.
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