Tyler Ninja Blevins' journey to fame: From pro gamer to decorated YouTuber
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, a popular streamer, began his career in 'Halo 3' tournaments in 2011. After six years, he discovered 'Fortnite' and began casually streaming in 2017.
Recognizing the potential of Epic Games' 'Battle Royale', Tyler shifted his focus to catering to a wider audience, leading to his current success and posting videos to YouTube and other social media platforms.
How did Ninja become famous?
After Ninja started posting family-friendly videos on Twitch, Ninja's following and subscriptions grew quickly. For many game lovers - most of them children - he was the new idol.
Furthermore, this happened not long after Twitch was acquired by Amazon and the Twitch Prime service was made available. Many fans used their Twitch Prime subscription in place of paying for a Ninja subscription.
As the streamer's fame increased, it was only natural that he would go from being an American gaming star to a global celebrity.
In no time, Ninja became the most popular person on Twitch, smashing records with both subscribers and followers.
2018 saw Ninja reach the height of his fame, about a year after he began streaming 'Fortnite'. Consequently, a variety of gamers from other fields, like music and sports, became interested in him.
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His partnership with NFL player "JuJu" Smith-Schuster, hip-hop artists Drake and Travis Scott, and English soccer superstar Harry Kane broke records on Twitch.
After Ninja broke the record for the most live concurrent viewers on Twitch and took the throne, he began receiving offers from other brands.
Brands such as Adidas, PSD, Red Bull, Uber Eats, and numerous others considered him the ideal representative of their products.
Epic Games decided to collaborate with Ninja on significant occasions, such as its E3 2018 gathering.
This was when Tyler and well-known DJ Marshmello collaborated to win an exhibition competition. His own skin, the first of the several "Icon Series" skins, received a reward for his contributions to the 'Battle Royale' game.
Awards won by Ninja
Ninja received a great deal of attention and praise in 2018. He was crowned Esports Personality of the Year at the Esports prizes and took home the Gaming and Live Streamer prizes from the Streamy Awards.
In addition, he received recognition at The Game Awards 2018 as Content Creator of the Year. He kept up his good work the next year, winning Twitch Streamer of the Year at the Shorty Awards and winning the Live Streamer award once more.
Ninja's impact was further highlighted when Time Magazine listed him among the top 100 most influential individuals globally in 2018.