Ninja is the first gamer on the cover of ESPN Magazine
Ninja is the first professional gamer to feature on the cover of ESPN Magazine. The 27-year-old streamer, real name Tyler Blevins, is most famous for playing Fortnite and has more than 11 million followers on Twitch.
He reached the mainstream earlier this year when he broke Fortnite streaming records after playing with Drake.
But some people are questioning if a gamer should be in the same category as athletes.
Ninja started off as an e-sports competitor, mostly playing Halo. He switched to streaming, becoming known for battle royale - or last player standing - game Player Unknown's Battlegrounds. But when Fortnite introduced its battle royale mode, Ninja jumped ship and then started getting really big.
Back in March, Forbes reported that he had 3 million followers and 4 million YouTube subscribers. He now has 11 million Twitch followers and 18 million YouTube subscribers.
Related: Ninja explains his choice not to stream with female gamers
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Ninja raked in nearly $10 million in 2018
Twitch superstar Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has finally settled the debate over just how much he earned in 2018. CNN reports that the gaming phenom pulled in close to $10 million last year, a little tidbit that he revealed to CNN during his press campaign on New Year's Eve in New York City. (He also tried to get the good people of Times Square to "floss." They weren't having it.)
Ninja has more than 20 million subscribers on YouTube, and 12.5 million followers on Twitch, 40,000 of whom are paid subscribers. Ninja told CNN that he thinks of himself as an entrepreneur, comparing his stream to a coffee shop. "They're gonna find another coffee shop if you're not there ... you have to be there all the time," he said to CNN.
And when he says "all the time," he means it. The streamer said he goes live for roughly 12 hours a day, which adds up to about 4,000 hours of gaming over the year.
Also at Fortune.
Previously: Tyler Blevins ("Ninja"): The First Gamer on the Cover of ESPN Magazine
Related: Facebook/Instagram vs. Twitch and YouTube
YouTube Announces "Channel Memberships" and Other Ways for Creators to Make Money
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:45PM (11 children)
It makes sense. Since professional sporting is all about one thing . . . money! Otherwise why would it be called "professional"? So they'll recognize anything as a sport if there is money to be made. Money to be made is a result of lots of followers willing to fork over money. Did you see the part about millions of followers?
So I wonder when they will recognize youtube videos of "jackass style stunts" as a sport? Don't laugh. I suppose gamers do engage in a physical endurance competition. Running from police as a sport? Evading border patrol as a sport?
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:54PM (2 children)
Video Gamers Head To The Gym To Enhance Competitive Edge [npr.org]
How esports competitors prepare, mentally and physically [venturebeat.com]
Cryotherapy, tho?
Science shows that eSports professionals are real athletes [dw.com]
I guess the missing link for me would be calories burned per hour of intense gaming. Anyone got that?
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(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:47PM (1 child)
I doubt it's very high as you're still sitting in a comfy chair, most probably in a nice air conditioned building.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @11:28PM
The brain burns a lot of calories, and I bet the increased adrenaline causes some extra burn, so overall I'd say the calories burned will be significantly higher than sitting on the couch watching Netflix. Well, unless you're chillin'
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:57PM (6 children)
Yes, but esports aren't sports. Only fat sweaty nerds think that esports are actual sports.
How pathetic to people have to watch other people playing games?
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:12PM (4 children)
Your comment is insensitive to the pro gamer community. We just had the Jacksonville tragedy, and Ninja himself recently recovered from the deadly disease ligma.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:15PM
How is that relevant to sports or esports?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 20 2018, @05:17PM
A long time ago, like 15 years, on a different green site, I had a sig: gamers are the root of all evil.
That would probably not fly in today's PC world. Er, I don't mean the magazine. But . . . nevermind.
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(Score: 1) by oldmac31310 on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:58PM (1 child)
wow. I learned something I really did not need to know. Thanks a lot.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @08:04PM
Ligma is a serious condition. Possibly even a state of mind.
Glad to see you're still with us after the cereal harvest thing.
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(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 20 2018, @06:44PM
Yes, but esports aren't sports. Only fat sweaty nerds think that esports are actual sports.
Neither is golf or bowling but that doesn't seem to stop anybody.
How pathetic to people have to watch other people playing games?
Agreed, it's pathetic that people watch games like football.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:53PM
That's most winter sports, isn't it? Let's fling myself down a hill and off a cliff - yeah, that's totes rad, duuuuud! Nah, it's lame - I'm gonna slide down a twisty-turny ice-slope lying on a tea-tray! Do it head first, I dare you! Wohhhh kewl idea bro!
Eläma On laiffi.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:04PM (2 children)
I loved playing baseball, football and american football as a kid but I can't stand to just watch it. Fortnite is a scrub game with a simplistic playing style that beckons the lazy gamer. I guess thats why its number one. WOW did the same thing with the MMO. Simplistic crafts and trading with obvious quest solutions drove it forward over more intricate and complex MMO's of the time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:18PM (1 child)
We get it, you're a hipster gamer. Once something reaches mass appeal, it clearly is plebeian and has very little worth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @08:07PM
You don't get it.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Pino P on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:44PM
I don't consider most esports to be legitimate sports. It's not because they're not athletic. It's because they are proprietary.
Because nobody owns tennis, nobody can sue a city for putting up a tennis court, and nobody can sue a sporting goods manufacturer for selling regulation-spec tennis rackets and balls. Because nobody owns basketball, nobody can sue a basketball league to block it from forming, selling tickets to matches, and selling broadcast rights to regional radio and TV stations. Because nobody owns chess, nobody can sue the producers of a movie about chess, such as Paramount's 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer (also titled Innocent Moves), solely because it depicts chess. Nor can anybody sue for making mods to chess, such as replacing pieces [wikipedia.org] or randomizing the back row [wikipedia.org], and running a tournament around those mods.
An esport, on the other hand, has an owner. You can't make your own software for playing Fortnite because Epic Games owns the exclusive right to distribute copies of Fortnite. And because Nintendo owns the exclusive right to perform Super Smash Bros. publicly, Nintendo can and has shut down Super Smash Bros. tournaments. (See "Why Nintendo can legally shut down any Smash Bros. tournament it wants" by Kyle Orland [arstechnica.com].) True, some video game publishers allow esports leagues to make matches available for live or VoD streaming, but under current law, publishers can withdraw this permission for any reason or no reason, leaving a league without a sport to play. And publishers routinely withdraw this permission a few years after a game's release when they online matchmaking servers and sue those who develop or run third-party matchmaking servers.
Over the long term, guarding esports from publisher tyranny would require the development of a video game distributed as free software and free cultural works, so that leagues can use it as they see fit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:11PM (4 children)
Ninja explains his choice not to stream with female gamers [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:56PM (3 children)
I already put it in the summary.
That controversy was hilarious.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @05:08PM (2 children)
Ok, the only thing that amazes whatvgigantic jackasses those streamers are. I read A Forbes or WsJ article on Ninja and how much he makes. The guy expresses himself like a full-on fuckwit. I would like to have a ton of money right now too, but not for the price of being such a fuckhead, sorry for epithets.Oh, hell the article wasTime Money section, I think.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @05:19PM (1 child)
Devil's advocate: any prominent public figure that interacts with people online, but particularly streamers like Ninja, will face routine harassment, death threats, and even swatting. Tyler Blevins is married. If he streams (plays video games) with a female gamer who is not his wife, both parties will face even more harassment and wild relationship rumors from fans who enjoy relationship "shipping" and drama. So he chooses not to stream with other women. He unwisely explained this decision to a certain news outlet, and certain feminists lost their marbles over it, even though it is his decision to make and it doesn't really warrant the degree of backlash he got.
Unless there is something else you are referring to that he said or did. I don't know much about him. Oh, apparently he said the n-word in a "rapping" context. Although you will hear that word plenty of times in an "angry while gaming" context, probably coming out of the mouths of 12-year-olds.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @06:36AM
The only thing I meant is that a lot of people pay a lot of attention to YouTubers and Streamers, who display as much intelligence as an artichoke. I know a lot of people aren't very intelligent, not to bring up Carlin, but let's think how stupid an average person is and realize half of them are stupider than that. I think I'm just frustrated that intelligent stuff like space exploratoon, science and tech aren't appreciated enough. I recently read a screenplay fpr the movie Idiocracy and hell take it, it feels like we are living in an environment from this goddamn movie, and we are really goign down the drain, Trumpo being prime example. Will we let morons, policos, autocrats and other trash take over our planet's future? Sorry for the diatribe.