Ninja (gamer)
| Ninja | |
|---|---|
| File:NinjaRedBullPromotional.png Ninja in a promotional shoot for Red Bull | |
| Personal information | |
| Born | Richard Tyler Blevins June 5, 1991 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupations |
|
| Organization(s) | Cloud9 Renegades Team Liquid Luminosity Gaming |
| Twitch information | |
| Also known as | NinjasHyper |
| Channel | |
| Genre | Gaming |
| Games | |
| Followers | 10+ million |
Last updated: 2 August 2018 | |
Richard Tyler Blevins[1] (born June 5, 1991), more commonly known by his online alias Ninja or NinjasHyper, is an American Twitch streamer and Internet personality. As of August 14, 2018, he is the most watched streamer on Twitch with over ten million followers and an average of over 50,000 viewers per stream.[2][3]
Career
Blevins was born Richard Tyler Blevins to American parents of Welsh descent.[4] Tyler Blevins' youth in the Chicago suburbs included video-games and sports. He attended Grayslake Central High School, where he played soccer, and he was also an avid video-game player. When he graduated, he decided to play video games professionally, entering tournaments, joining professional organizations, and started live streaming his games.[5]
As "Ninja", Blevins began playing Halo 3 professionally in 2009.[6] He played for various teams including Cloud9, Renegades, Team Liquid,[7] and is currently with Luminosity Gaming.[8] Ninja became a streamer in 2011 first with Justin.tv, then moved to Twitch.tv. He began playing H1Z1 at the start of its early access program with Steam, then moved to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds when it also entered Steam's early access program. He joined Luminosity Gaming in 2017 first as a Halo player, then to H1Z1, later moving to PUBG, where he won the PUBG Gamescom Invitational in the 3rd Person Squads classification. He began streaming Fortnite regularly and his viewership began to grow, which coincided with the game's growth in popularity.[7] In September 2017, he had 500,000 followers; in six months, that number grew by 250 percent.[9] In March 2018, Ninja set the Twitch.tv record for a single individual stream while playing Fortnite after he hosted a game with Drake, Travis Scott, and Juju Smith-Schuster.[10] In April 2018, he broke his own viewing record during his event Ninja Vegas 2018 where he accumulated an audience of 667,000 live viewers.[11]
Ninja has over 16 million subscribers on YouTube as of August 2018. He earns over $500,000 per month from streaming Fortnite, and credits the game's free-to-play business model as a growth factor.[12]
On June 17, 2018 Tyler had announced that he had partnered with Red Bull Esports. He also mentioned in the announcement that fans can challenge him at a special Fortnite event called the "Red Bull Rise Till Dawn" in Chicago, Illinois on July 21, 2018.[13]
Death hoax
In July of 2018, Ninja went offline on social media, as well as Twitch, which caused his fans to become worried about his whereabouts. An Instagram user posted a picture of him placed onto a picture of many famous deceased people, as well as Harambe with a background depicting heaven, with the text on the picture saying "Join us, Ninja" indicating he died. The poster's intent of this was to concern and work up actual fans of Ninja into thinking he died. Shortly after, another Instagram user decided to bring in Ligma, a rather small meme at the time, into the picture, saying that Ninja died of Ligma. According to Polygon, "Ligma is a joke similar to any joke in the 'Deez Nuts' camp; someone says 'ligma,' and when another person asks what ligma means, the response is, 'ligma balls.'" When a lot of people see the word ligma, they could see it as the name of a disease. Some fans actually believed Ninja was dead, so the user's intent of his post worked, but definitely not as expected.[14]
Charitable work
In a fundraising charity stream held in February 2018, Ninja raised over $110,000 to be donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.[15] During the first Fortnite Battle Royale Esports event in April 2018, Ninja gave away nearly $50,000 in prize money, with $2,500 of that going to the Alzheimer's Association.[16] Later in April, he participated in the #Clips4Kids event with other fellow streamers Dr.Lupo and Timthetatman, and in total, he helped raise over $340,000.[17] At E3 2018, Ninja and Marshmello won the Fortnite Pro-Am event and donated $1 million to a charity of their choice.[18]
Personal life
His family was featured in several episodes of the television game show Family Feud in 2015. According to The Brillion News, Ninja was the reason he and his team were able to make it onto the show. [19]
In August 2017, Tyler married Twitch streamer Jessica "JGhosty" Goch.[20]
Controversy
Ninja announced in an interview at a Samsung event with Polygon that he does not stream with female gamers out of respect for his marriage and to avoid the rumors that the streaming could create.[21] He received mixed reactions; some said that he should set the example and not make it more difficult for female streamers to rise to prominence, while others supported his cause, claiming that he should be allowed to do what he wants to protect his marriage.[22][23] Ninja issued a response to the critics, reaffirming his support for gender equality and restating his commitment to his marriage, this time mentioning some prominent female streamers by name.[24]
References
- ^ "Ninja on Twitter". Retrieved March 26, 2018.
- ^ "The Most Watched Twitch Streamers, August 2018". twitchmetrics.net. Archived from the original on July 4, 2018. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Top 10 Twitch Streamers". socialblade.com. Archived from the original on August 9, 2018. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "H3 Podcast #63 - Ninja". H3 Podcast – via YouTube.
- ^ Keilman, John (August 2, 2019). "He's got celebrity pals, millions of fans and (probably) millions of dollars: Meet Ninja, Chicago's 'Fortnite' superstar". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Montag, Ali (March 20, 2018). "How this 26-year-old went from working at a fast food joint to making $500,000 a month playing video games". CNBC. Archived from the original on July 20, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ a b Leslie, Callum (March 16, 2018). "How much money does Ninja make?". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on March 18, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Ninja Pulls Off Insane Save After Accidentally Impulse Grenading Himself". Archived from the original on March 24, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Meade, Dylan B. (February 27, 2018). "What the Hell Happened: Ninja's Twitch Takeover". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
- ^ Patrick Gill, Christopher Grant, Ross Miller, and Julia Alexander (March 15, 2018). "Drake sets records with his Fortnite: Battle Royale Twitch debut". Polygon. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Ninja's Vegas Fortnite event breaks Twitch viewing record - VG247". VG247. April 23, 2018. Archived from the original on April 23, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Kim, Tae (March 19, 2018). "Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins explains how he makes more than $500,000 a month playing video game 'Fortnite'". CNBC. Archived from the original on March 21, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "{title}". Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Alexander, Julia (July 23, 2018). "Creator behind Ninja's death hoax addresses the viral ligma meme". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Becht, Beth Heyn and Eli (February 20, 2018). "Tyler Blevins 'Ninja': Everything You Need to Know". Archived from the original on March 21, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Who Won Ninja Vegas '18? Full Roundup Including Highlights and Results". Twin Galaxies. Archived from the original on April 23, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Incredible Generosity of the Gaming Community Raises Huge Amount of Money For Charity - Ninja, Dr Lupo and More". Dexerto. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Goslin, Austen (June 12, 2018). "Ninja and Marshmello win Epic's E3 2018 Fortnite Pro Am". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Pantzlaff, Andrew (February 12, 2015). "Survey Says: Brillion natives win big on Family Feud". The Brillion News. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "The Knot Registry: Jessica Goch & Tyler Blevins". The Knot. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
- ^ Frank, Allegra (August 14, 2018). "Ninja explains his choice not to stream with female gamers". Polygon. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ Haasch, Palmer (August 13, 2018). "Twitch streamers have mixed reactions to Ninja's choice to not play with female streamers". Polygon. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "Fortnite: Ninja won't play with female gamers". BBC. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Ninja responds to criticism of his refusal to stream with women". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)