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Who had the most interactions with social media in April? Not Cristiano Ronaldo. Not Virat Kohli. Not the NBA superstar LeBron James. It's a 26-year-old player, Tyler Blevins, who is better known by his online name, Ninja. The Fortnite player generated 150 million social interactions in April. This is the same guy who was joined by Drake for a Fortnite feed on March 14th. One of the world's most influential games and e-sports, Ninja has recently announced a partnership with Red Bull and will participate in the Red Bull Rise Till Dawn event, which will take place July 21-22 in Chicago.
t2 caught up with Tyler, who has come a long way since working at Noodles & Company, by email.
Name: Tyler Blevins [19659004] Name: Ninja
Age: 26
Social Media: 14m on YouTube, 7.4m on Instagram, 2.76 on Twitter and 9.3m on Twitch
Great Moment: On March 14, Drake joined him for a Fortnite Flood late into the night, and both broke Twitch's record for the most simultaneous viewers of all the time. That night, they exceeded 635,000 simultaneous viewers
What about Fortnite that plunged you? Also, why do you prefer Fortnite to PUBG?
Fortnite is really the perfect storm of a match. You have the fact that it's free on almost all platforms, and everything about the game is nice. The fights are fun, the weapons are unique and the color variations add that epic "OMG GOLD SCAR" feel. The sound of the buzzing treasure chests up to the sound of the head "PA DINK" … it's just perfect.
I prefer that because the game is 10 times smoother than PUBG … [Fortnite game developer Epic] quickly handled a problem of overloading 3.4 million active users. The game is free, multi-platform (and growing), and it's just fun. In addition, being completely free helps to play.
What does it mean to be the most popular streamer on Twitch?
It feels good; my streaming ambitions took center stage when I left the world of professional gaming to focus on growing my full-time Twitch audience. Most viewers give only a few dollars here and there, but some have been known to go to the sea. And in one night, only one viewer gave me $ 62,000 in donations, which made me done – that's understandable – lose your head during my show. It's when everything started! I have not stopped working hard since.
There are millions of people watching people play games on YouTube. Here you are, on Twitch, which is a live entertainment. How important would this platform be in the coming months?
I knew I was missing out on millions of YouTube players who do not really know live streaming and who are just comfortable watching videos. That made me realize that I had the opportunity to tap into that audience if I simply developed my scene on YouTube and switched to live entertainment on my Twitch page.
What was life like in Grayslake, Illinois, where did you grow up?
I have always had a series of natural competitions. I always want to be the best; I like to compete. If I'm not good, I'll be angry and I'll be raging. My dad was the main influence, he liked video games when they started out and he bought them for us, but we went to sleep as soon as possible, like 18h or 19h, but he was playing on the consoles until # 39, at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. That's when I developed a taste for games.
What games did you play at the time?
My family owned game consoles like Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo and bought Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation games when they were released in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In November 2001, Halo, a multiplayer and futuristic war game, was launched on Xbox. When I was nine or ten years old, my brothers John and Chris asked me to play Halo with them. They thought I was too young to play, but I destroyed them all (laughs). Since then, I would stay beyond the wee hours and continue to work. I think my brothers thought, "Okay, maybe we will not play with Tyler anymore."
Playing Halo: Reach in Dallas in 2011 has made you popular. When you look back, what does Halo mean to you today?
I played for the first time in 2009 while attending a Halo 3 event in Orlando, but I gained notoriety when playing a more recent version of the game. Reach, in 2011 at competitions in Dallas, Columbus, Ohio and Anaheim.
The same year, I was doing about $ 100 a day streaming on Twitch. In 2012, my team won the 2012 MGL Halo 4 Fall Championships, getting the highest score of the last game. Since then, I've competed with great electronic sports teams like Team Liquid and Renegades. So Halo is really, really special to me because it was an early career. I liked playing it then and I would certainly like to play it now.
What are the things you want Epic to add to Fortnite?
Maybe a ranking system! A team doubles or solo a ranked playlist, and everything else is still unclbadified as it is now – that would be cool. I have the impression that the game is going so well and that they are doing everything so well that I do not want them to ruin anything. Again, the way they add everything, they do not need my advice!
On March 14, Drake joined you for a Fortnite Creek late at night. How was the experience?
It was epic! The livestream attracted 628,000 simultaneous viewers, setting a new milestone in terms of simultaneous maximum audience on an individual's channel. Joining our large and pbadionate communities was absolutely fun! I think it was a cultural moment in terms of raising awareness about the appeal of social video and I hope it continues to grow from here.
What is your message for young people who admire you?
This is a growing space, both in streaming and YouTube. It is very difficult to "make" as a first-rate broadcaster or YouTuber. I encourage every person to follow their dreams and believe that she can do anything, but the harsh reality is … the reality. People need to be true to themselves, and if entertaining and creating content is something that does not come naturally and that is really difficult, they should find something that they love and love. and do it instead.
Future Projects …
In the future, I have plans to do a lot more fundraising and works of art. charity, and I really try to capture the things that affect me. Last year, I raised over $ 10,000 for two women (moms) affected by bad cancer and I wrote them a check for five dollars each to help pay the bills.
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