In 2018, the hype around the online shooter Fortnite was so great that the stars of Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Turner “Tfue” Tenney rose on Twitch. Both couldn’t stand each other at that time and became the two biggest streamers on the gaming platform. However, after 2018, their careers somewhat stagnated – that is changing now with the resurgence of Fortnite on Twitch.
How big are the two in terms of followers? Tfue and Ninja are the two US streamers with the largest channels on Twitch – by a wide margin:
- Ninja has 17.49 million followers – that is still 5 million more than the second-placed AuronPlay in 2022, a Spanish-speaking streamer. However, in the last six months, Ninja ranked only 344th in average viewership.
- Tfue has 10.9 million followers – closely followed by xQc (10.16) and shroud (10 million), but Tfue still has a comfortable lead over the number 3 among English-speaking streamers. In the last 180 days, Tfue was ranked 743rd in average viewership.
The Flamer Who Reformed and His Great Rival
How did the two become so big? Both owe their enormous success primarily to Fortnite:
Ninja was one of the best players at the beginning of the Fortnite craze in late 2017, regularly dominating “Random Lobbies”: He took out unsuspecting beginners in droves and looked like a shooting god while doing so.
With skillful partnerships with rising streamers like TimTheTatman and DrLupo, his channel kept growing. The feared perpetual flamer even paid attention to his image: For the sake of the kids, he kicked the cursing habit.
In 2018, he even made it into the mainstream, being invited to talk shows and becoming huge on Twitch. During that time, he also earned an enormous amount of money.
Tfue joined Fortnite later but was even better as a player than Ninja. He managed to qualify as the only major content creator for the Fortnite World Cup . Ninja had always failed in that despite all his ambition and nearly lost his mind over it.
Tfue was also significantly younger, constantly cursed, puffed up, and got extremely upset, attracting fans who perceived Ninja as “too soft.” Tfue also repeatedly sought conflict with Ninja, believing Ninja couldn’t stand him and somehow turning him into his nemesis.
Ninja Gets Rich and Tfue Gains Muscle
How did both careers go after Fortnite? Both careers have somewhat declined: Ninja took a very lucrative detour to the Mixer platform. Since that ended, he streams again on Twitch, but not with the same ambition as before – also the success is nowhere near as great.
Ninja played games like Apex Legends, LoL, or the old Final Fantasy XI, engaged in strange deals with Raid: Shadow Legends , or launched his own “How to Become a Super” streaming course.
From 2021 to 2022 alone, Ninja lost about 29% of his viewers. He is long gone from his former heights – missing almost 90%.
Tfue has been working mainly on his upper body in recent years and enjoying life.
On Twitch, things have not been going so well: In the last 365 days alone, he lost almost 40% of his average viewers. Tfue played popular and modern shooters like Apex Legends or CoD Warzone but hasn’t had the same success as before for a long time.
Tfue has always been known for his great aiming:
Fortnite Without Building Drives Viewership Up by 81%
What’s different now? With the start of the new season in Fortnite, Epic has removed “building.” This has now taken Fortnite to new heights.
Both Ninja and Tfue are now playing “their old favorite game” again:
- Tfue played Fortnite for 21 hours in 7 days and had an average of 19,600 viewers. Overall, he improved his average viewers during that time by 63%.
- Ninja played 40 hours of Fortnite in 7 days, having an average of 15,653 viewers. That is at least an increase. The week before, he hadn’t streamed at all, but compared to the two weeks prior, that was an increase of 49%.
- Fortnite itself has also improved significantly in the last 7 days. The average viewership rose by 81%.
Ninja at 180 in Fortnite:
The most successful streamer overall is xQc. He rose at the time when Ninja left the platform. Ninja himself is in 3rd place for total watched hours; Tfue ranks 7th.
Maybe the two will soon be fighting for the top spots again, while casually flaming each other just like in the old days.
