Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has been streaming on Twitch again for a few months. Although he still has the most followers there, his viewer numbers are no longer as high as they used to be. He is also still teased about Mixer and has to deal with trolls. He spoke about this with the New York Times.
This is how Ninja’s career went:
- Ninja benefited greatly from the hype surrounding Fortnite. In March 2018, he had over 600,000 concurrent viewers together with rapper Drake, setting a Twitch record. By August of that year, he became the first streamer to reach 10 million followers.
- In 2019, he stated that he hadn’t really lived in 2018; he was a slave to the stream.
- In August 2019, he switched to the competitor Mixer from Microsoft, where he reportedly received 20 to 30 million dollars. However, he had significantly fewer viewers on the platform.
- In June 2020, Microsoft then announced that Mixer would be shutting down.
- A few months later, Ninja returned to Twitch and was briefly back to being number 1. But that didn’t last long.
- Currently, Ninja mainly streams Valorant and occasionally Fortnite and LoL. In the last 14 days, he had an average of 16,030 viewers. This puts him exactly at 100th place among the most-watched channels on Twitch (via Sullygnomes).
Ninja is still teased about the Mixer deal, regrets nothing
What did Ninja say? In the interview, Ninja mentioned that it takes a thick skin to survive as a streamer. After his transition from Mixer back to Twitch, he was no longer number 1. And that’s exactly what he was teased about:
When we came back from Mixer, I knew I would no longer be the biggest streamer in terms of viewer numbers. You don’t become the No. 1 streamer, leave, come back, and suddenly be number 1 again.
People come into my chat and say: “You are falling off. LOL. Good Mixer move, man.” The Mixer move was smart. I regret nothing of what I’ve done.
Even during his time at Mixer, there were always people criticizing him for the switch. Ninja is considered very ambitious and stated that he was afraid the hype surrounding Fortnite would fade and his career would evaporate.
On Mixer, he had a secured income in the millions and felt much more relaxed because he didn’t have to stream every day.
As early as summer 2020, he reacted annoyed to such statements. In a video (from minute 0:31), Ninja said that he reached millions outside of Mixer on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok and that he is doing financially exceptionally well:
However, Ninja later admitted that he was already frustrated with his low viewer numbers on the platform.
What is currently bothering Ninja the most? Ninja is particularly annoyed by being teased by people with silly names who actually enjoy being criticized in the stream:
When you respond to them, they say: “He said my name!” Their name is then PeepSniffer69, and they read their name, and their next comment after I’ve roasted them is that they giggle like a little schoolgirl and say: “You noticed me!”
That’s the worst.
This isn’t just a problem on Twitch, but of general internet culture. He wishes this anonymity didn’t exist and that people were held accountable.
The law should be able to trace which person is behind the insults and then call the parents of little “Jimmy”. In general, he advises parents to listen to their children when they play alone in their rooms. They would learn a lot about their child’s character that way.
Ninja generally sounds annoyed
What else was discussed? During the interview, the Twitch streamer spoke about trolls as well as streaming with women. Here, too, Ninja showed annoyance, as such streams often lead to rumors:
I thought I would do everything in my power to ensure that no one could spread rumors or make YouTube clickbait videos: ‘Ninja is playing a lot with this person lately. They are flirting. Here is a clip.’
Do you know how to prevent that? By not allowing it! That’s what was going through my mind. I still stand by the fact that as a married man, you shouldn’t really spend much time alone with a woman. I mean, she could be your best friend, that’s totally cool.
But if I happen to start playing with a woman that no one knows, then people will start talking. So if I play with female gamers, I do that in a big group so there isn’t this one-on-one interaction.
His career is a success: Ninja seems somewhat frustrated, although he has done many things right in his career. Because now he is also present outside of streaming platforms and has further expanded his brand:
- He was on stage at Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2018
- He participated in the Masked Singer in 2019
- He now works as a voice actor for cartoons
- He has his own merchandise and released a shoe
Yet somehow it feels like no one truly appreciates his success. This comes across in the interview.
On Twitch, much revolves around viewer numbers, which many streamers proudly share. Yet the biggest of them, xQc, considers much of it to be fake:
Twitch celebrates the numbers of its streamers – but the biggest says: “All fake”
