The Fortnite-player Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has not streamed on Twitch for 48 hours. In that time, he lost 40,000 paid subscriptions. This means Ninja is missing about $100,000 a month. This shows the pressure that streamers are under.
Hard world out there: The Fortnite streamer Ninja is known for his work schedule. This is also called “grinding,” the time in the grind. While others might grind game hours or time at work, for Twitch star Ninja, it is the time “on air,” in his stream. The streamer has a grueling 12-hour workday, 7 days a week. But what happens when he takes a vacation or at least a break?
48 hours without streams for E3: During E3 2018, Ninja took about 48 hours off from streaming. But he was not lazy during that time. He traveled to Los Angeles, won the “ProAm” tournament of Fortnite, and secured $1 million for a good cause. While he was in LA, he took countless selfies with fans, which he diligently posted on social media. This surely did not hurt his popularity, but it did put a strain on his bank account.
The suffering of the young streamer
After E3 came the setback: On Twitter, Ninja wrote: “Do you want to know what problems streamers have compared to other jobs? I was away for less than 48 hours and lost 40,000 subscribers on Twitch. I’m back today to keep grinding.”
Lifestyle of a streamer: Ninja writes here about the great fear: the grind that streamers find themselves in. They are self-employed, have no legally regulated holidays or free days. They are responsible for themselves. Many streamers believe that you can only be successful on Twitch if you are online continuously every day and provide fans with what they want. If you take breaks or time off, you fall off the treadmill.
Burnout among streamers is widespread: Recently, streamers have more frequently taken creative breaks because they could no longer withstand the constant pressure to be entertaining and creative: For example, DrDisRespect made a media-wise break from his stream and took a break due to infidelity. Ninja also seems to be under pressure: Now to push through when everything is going so well with Fortnite.
$100,000 a month lost – but still a millionaire
But the job has its advantages: However, the job is also worthwhile for Ninja. Due to the hype around Fortnite and collaborations from Twitch with Epic Games, the number of subscribers on Twitch for Ninja has skyrocketed. For each paid subscriber, Ninja receives about $2.50 a month. The 40,000 subscribers he lost thus cost him about $100,000 a month (about €86,000).
However, Ninja likely has enough subscriptions left to get by. The hype around Fortnite has long made him a millionaire. And he can always recoup the subscriptions.
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