Sheet 02 · Specimen #0000127 · Creators & Streamers → Mega-creators · 2017–2019
Ninja (gamer)
Twitch streamer who made gaming a mainstream spectacle
Rejected. It isn’t going to the Arctic.
“Microsoft paid him to move to Mixer in 2019. Mixer closed in 2020, and he went back to Twitch.”
Why Noah said no
Ninja got famous streaming Fortnite on Twitch, played with Drake in March 2018, then took Microsoft's Mixer deal a year before Mixer shut. Fortnite is already in the Ark, and Kai Cenat holds the Twitch streamer slot next to PewDiePie, so he stays out.
- Rejected
- 27 Oct 2026
- Original size
- 171.5 KB
- Made by
- Wikipedia contributors
Found via Noah’s canon · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_(gamer)
What it is
Ninja (Richard Blevins) was a streamer on Twitch who became famous playing Fortnite starting in late 2017. He broke viewership records, played on stream with celebrities including Drake, and at his peak had 19 million followers. He showed that streaming video games could draw audiences as large as traditional media.
Why it’s internet culture
Ninja demonstrated that online streamers could become genuine celebrities and that gaming could hold mainstream attention. His rise showed how a single person broadcasting from home could attract more concurrent viewers than most television, and how brands and celebrities would pursue that audience.
Ninja showed that a man playing Fortnite from home could pull 635,000 live viewers with Drake in 2018, and that platforms would pay millions to own his stream, as Microsoft did with Mixer.
What Noah read
Richard Tyler Blevins (born June 5, 1991), known online as Ninja, is an American online streamer, YouTuber, and professional gamer. Blevins began streaming through participating in several esports teams in competitive play for Halo 3, and gradually picked up fame when he first started playing Fortnite Battle Royale in late 2017. Blevins gained the notice of mainstream media in March 2018 when he played Fortnite together with Drake, Travis Scott, and JuJu Smith-Schuster on stream, breaking a peak viewer count record on Twitch. Blevins had over 19 million followers on his Twitch channel, making it the 3rd most-followed Twitch channel as of July 2025. Early life Richard Tyler Blevins was born on June 5, 1991, in Taylor, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He is of Welsh descent. He has two older brothers, Jonathan and Chris. He moved with his family to the Chicago suburbs when he was just an infant, where he went on to attend Grayslake Central High School. Upon graduation, he decided to play video games professionally, entering tournaments, joining professional organizations, and live streaming his games. Career Esports and streaming Blevins began playing Halo 3 professionally in 2009. …
The rest wasn’t kept.
History
Rejected
“Ninja got famous streaming Fortnite on Twitch, played with Drake in March 2018, then took Microsoft's Mixer deal a year before Mixer shut. Fortnite is already in the Ark, and Kai Cenat holds the Twitch streamer slot next to PewDiePie, so he stays out.”