Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins is arguably the biggest gaming-based social media influencer the world has seen so far. He is the first live stream gamer to break through to mainstream pop culture and build a reputation outside of gamer circles and has even appeared as a guest on The Ellen Show.
With a strong foundation in professional eSports, Ninja transitioned from eAthlete to full-time Twitch streamer in 2017, and the sky has been the limit ever since.
Ninja started his gaming career with Halo 3 back in 2009. 19 year-old Ninja signed with team Four Of A Kind, and quickly became known for his risky playstyle, with previous teammates referring to him as a “1v1 god”.
Ninja bounced across several teams between 2010 and 2012, ending up at Final Boss as a Halo Reach player. Soon after, Halo 4 began its first competitive season, and most teams moved on from Halo Reach to Halo 4. Ninja, as a member of Final Boss, won the first MLG Halo 4 Championship. It was around that time, in 2012, that Ninja started his Twitch and YouTube channels.
Between then and 2017 Ninja continued to play on the competitive Halo scene, playing for a number of teams and placing in several tournaments along the way. Ninja’s last major event as a Halo professional was Dreamhack Atlanta 2017, where he played as part of team Luminosity.
At this point, Ninja had already been splitting his streaming time between Halo and H1Z1 (what many refer to as the first modern Battle Royale game that sparked the genre to life), though it was clear to see that H1Z1 was where his heart was.
H1Z1 was the catalyst that helped Ninja’s stream begin to kick off. While he wasn’t the multimillionaire he is today, he was able to become a full-time streamer, transitioning from pro-eAthlete to live streaming entertainer.
Soon after PUBG came out, the streaming space was forever changed, and Ninja was at the helm of it. Ninja clearly drew on skills he had picked up in Halo and H1Z1 and was one of the highest quality PUBG streamers in its heyday.
The perfect fit, however, came in 2017, when Epic Games released the wacky, world-encompassing Fortnite. October 3rd, 2017, Ninja streamed Fortnite for the first time, and the quirky streamer who used to stream Halo with stuffed toys on his head while doing silly voices finally found the perfect playground for his particular brand of gaming entertainment.
It wasn’t until December 2017 that Ninja’s stream began to skyrocket, going from 5000 views in November 2017 to 100,000 views in Spring 2018.
He regularly streams with friends TimTheTatMan, Dr. Lupo, and Myth, happily plugging their channels and sharing his popularity. He’s streamed with massive celebrities like Drake and Marshmello. Ninja is possibly the first live streamer to become a household name in the mainstream, outside of gamer culture.
He organized the first major competitive Fortnite event, Ninja Vegas, and at one point, the event stream even reached 670,000 concurrent viewers, breaking all world records at the time.
Ninja competed in over 80 tournaments as a professional Halo player, finishing in the top 10 for all but 16 of those tournaments, and finishing in the top 3 in 20 of them. The highlights of his career are listed below, with a full list of his tournament placements being found here.
| Game | Date | Place | Prize | Event | Team |
| Halo Reach | 2010-10-17 | 3 | MLG Washington, D.C. Combine 2010 FFA | Ninja | |
| Halo Reach | 2012-04-08 | 1 | £ 1,000 | EGL 5 Blackpool | Str8 Rippin |
| Halo Reach | 2012-10-07 | 2 | AGL 2 Columbus | Elite Four | |
| Halo 4 | 2012-11-04 | 1 | $20,000 | MLG Dallas 2012 | Warriors |
| Halo 4 | 2013-01-27 | 2 | $3,000 | AGL 3 Chicago | Warriors |
| Halo 4 | 2013-03-31 | 1 | £ 900 | EGL 9 Blackpool | TEC Vibe |
| Halo 4 | 2013-04-14 | 2 | $3,000 | AGL 5 Nashville | Warriors |
| Halo 4 | 2013-05-12 | 1 | $3,000 | AGL 6 Pittsburgh | Misfits |
| Halo 4 | 2013-06-23 | 3 | $1,000 | UMG Chicago 2013 | Warriors |
| Halo 4 | 2013-07-21 | 1 | $5,500 | AGL 8 Knoxville | Requiem |
| Halo 2 Anniversary | 2014-12-21 | 1 | $750 | HCS North America Season 1 Cup 2 | Cloud9 |
| Halo 2 Anniversary | 2015-01-25 | 2 | $250 | HCS North America Season 1 Cup 4 | Cloud9 |
| Halo 2 Anniversary | 2015-04-11 | 3 | PGL Challenger Series 1 Playoffs | Noble Black | |
| Halo 2 Anniversary | 2015-05-17 | 3 | $600 | HCS North America Season 2 Cup 2 | Team Liquid |
| Halo 2 Anniversary | 2015-07-11 | 2 | $4,000 | PGL Challenger Series 2 Playoffs | Team Liquid |
| Halo 5 | 2016-01-10 | 3 – 4 | Halo World Championship 2016 North America Qualifier 3 | Team Liquid | |
| Halo 5 | 2016-01-17 | 3 – 4 | Halo World Championship 2016 North America Qualifier 4 | Renegades | |
| Halo 5 | 2016-05-31 | 3 – 4 | HCS Pro League Preview Tournament 2016 | Renegades | |
| Halo 5 | 2016-10-30 | 3 | $3,000 | UGC St. Louis 2016 | Evil Geniuses |
| Halo 5 | 2017-02-11 | 2 | $250 | Halo World Championship 2017 North America Qualifier 3 | Luminosity Gaming |
Ninja made headlines in early 2019 when revealed that he had earned almost $10 million in 2018. He claimed that at least 70% of that income came from people viewing his Twitch and Youtube channels, with the rest coming from sponsorships.
Reuters also reported that in March of 2019 Ninja may have earned as much as $1 million in direct sponsorship from EA Games in exchange for playing their new title, Apex Legends, on his live stream.
The details of his agreements with Twitch and YouTube are unknown, so we don’t know how much Ninja is currently earning in 2019. However, with almost 25,000 Twitch subscribers, 14.3 million Twitch followers, over 22 million YouTube subscribers, and regular sponsorship deals, we imagine that Ninja is probably doing quite well for himself.
While Ninja is known to dabble in a new game every now and then, he spends the vast majority of his time streaming Fortnite, the game that catapulted him to superstar status.
Fortnite’s eSports scene is young, but with developer Epic pledging $100 million in eSports prize pool money for its first competitive season, it’s likely to mature and develop.
Head here to dive into our Fortnite review and betting guide, as well as look at offers and bonuses from operators that run Fortnite betting. And remember: Fortnite is the kind of game that lends itself beautifully to live betting, so keep an eye out for sites that offer it!
If Battle Royale betting is your thing, you might also want to take a look at our PUBG guide to get the 411 on that game. While PUBG’s community isn’t as big as it once was, its still sizeable community tends to be made up of hardcore fans and gamers, meaning top-tier players are the norm, unlike Fortnite which is mostly populated by your average gamer. The higher level of play leads to the kind of betting that has fans on the edge of their seats.
As Battle Royale eSports Tournaments are still in their relative infancy, we’d recommend that fans of the genre head to Unikrn, where they can bet on live streamers every day of the week.