Tyler Blevins “Ninja” Biography 2024: Age, Net Worth, Family, Education, Personal Life, Relationship, Height, Career, Awards and Nomination
Richard Tyler Blevins, also known as Ninja, is an American online streamer, YouTuber, and professional gamer.
He rose to fame by streaming gameplay from various esports teams, notably in Halo 3, before gaining widespread recognition for his Fortnite Battle Royale streams starting in late 2017.
Blevins garnered significant attention from the mainstream media in March 2018 after playing Fortnite alongside Drake, Travis Scott, and JuJu Smith-Schuster, setting a new peak viewer count record on Twitch.
With over 18 million followers on his Twitch channel, Blevins currently holds the title of having the most followers on Twitch as of March 2023.
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
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| Born | Richard Tyler Blevins June 5, 1991 | ||||||||||||
| Occupations | |||||||||||||
| Spouse | Jessica Blevins (m. 2017) | ||||||||||||
| Organizations |
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| Website | teamninja | ||||||||||||
| Twitch information | |||||||||||||
| Also known as | NinjasHyper | ||||||||||||
| Channel | |||||||||||||
| Years active | 2011–present | ||||||||||||
| Genre | Gaming | ||||||||||||
| Games |
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| Followers | 18.6 million | ||||||||||||
| YouTube information | |||||||||||||
| Channel | |||||||||||||
| Years active | 2011–present | ||||||||||||
| Genre | Gaming | ||||||||||||
| Subscribers | 23.7 million (main channel) 23.75 million (combined) | ||||||||||||
| Total views | 2.50 billion (main channel) 2.5 billion (combined) | ||||||||||||
| Associated acts |
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| Last updated: March 12, 2023 | |||||||||||||
Early Life
Blevins hails from the Metro Detroit region and has Welsh ancestry.
He is blessed with two elder siblings, Jonathan and Chris.
During his infancy, his family relocated to the suburbs of Chicago, where he later enrolled at Grayslake Central High School.
After completing his studies, he made the bold choice to pursue a professional career in video gaming.
This involved participating in tournaments, affiliating with professional organizations, and live streaming his gameplay.
Career
Esports and Live Streaming
Blevins started his professional Halo 3 career in 2009.
He competed for different teams such as Cloud9, Renegades, Team Liquid, and most recently, Luminosity Gaming.
Transitioning to streaming in 2011, he initially played H1Z1 before moving on to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Joining Luminosity Gaming in 2017, he excelled in various games, including PUBG where he emerged victorious in the PUBG Gamescom Invitational Squads classification in August 2017.
Following the PUBG Gamescom Invitational, Blevins began streaming Fortnite Battle Royale, coinciding with the game’s surge in popularity in late 2017 and early 2018.
His Twitch followers skyrocketed from 500,000 in September 2017 to over 2 million by March 2018.
By March 2018, he became the first Twitch streamer to surpass 3 million followers.
During a stream in the same month, he set a record for the largest concurrent audience on an individual stream, reaching 635,000 viewers while playing Fortnite with Drake, Travis Scott, and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
His success led to Epic Games organizing a charitable pro-am event at E3 2018, where Blevins, paired with Marshmello, emerged victorious.
In April 2018, he broke his own viewing record during Ninja Vegas 2018, attracting around 667,000 live viewers.
Partnering with Red Bull Esports in June 2018, Blevins hosted the Red Bull Rise Till Dawn Fortnite event in Chicago in July 2018.
In April 2019, Red Bull honored him with a limited-edition can featuring his image.
Blevins’ surge in popularity on Twitch is closely linked to the success of Fortnite Battle Royale.
In December 2018, Blevins claimed to have earned nearly US$10 million that year, while Epic Games announced revenue of over US$3 billion in 2018, largely due to Fortnite.
He achieved the milestone of being the first PC player to reach over 5,000 Fortnite wins in the same month.
Recognizing Blevins’ significance to Fortnite’s triumph, Epic introduced a Ninja-themed cosmetic outfit to the game in January 2020 as part of an “Icon Series” featuring other real-life personalities associated with Fortnite.
According to Reuters, Blevins received a payment of US$1 million from Electronic Arts to endorse Apex Legends, a rival battle royale game to Fortnite, by playing it on his Twitch stream and promoting it on social media during the game’s release in February 2019.
On August 1, 2019, Blevins transitioned from Twitch to stream exclusively on Microsoft’s Mixer platform.
His wife and manager Jessica informed The Verge that the Twitch contract restricted Ninja’s ability to expand his brand beyond gaming, and due to the state of Twitch’s community, he felt like he was losing himself and his passion for streaming.
With a substantial number of subscribers on Twitch, Mixer, and over 24 million subscribers on YouTube as of April 2021, Blevins was earning more than $500,000 per month from streaming Fortnite, crediting the game’s free-to-play business model as a contributing factor to his success.
Following the shutdown of Mixer in July 2020, Blevins was released from his exclusivity deal, allowing him to stream on other platforms.
On September 10, 2020, Blevins disclosed his decision to resume streaming on Twitch after signing an exclusive multiyear agreement.
He wasted no time and began streaming on the platform on the same day.
Exactly two years later, on September 1, 2022, Blevins made a change to his social media profiles, such as Twitter and YouTube, by adopting the name “User Not Found” and incorporating background graphics that conveyed the message “Time Out”.
Simultaneously, he tweeted, “I just need a break…I don’t know when I will be back, or where”.
However, on September 8, 2022, Blevins announced his comeback to streaming, revealing his intention to simulcast his content on various platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
Blevins and his family made appearances on multiple episodes of the television game show Family Feud in 2015.
Later, in August 2019, they returned as contestants on Celebrity Family Feud.
In September 2018, Blevins became the first professional esports player to grace the cover of ESPN The Magazine, marking a significant milestone in his journey to mainstream sports fame.
During October 2018, Blevins collaborated with the record label Astralwerks to curate an album titled Ninjawerks: Vol. 1, featuring original songs by electronic music acts. The album was officially released on December 14, 2018.
Blevins was among the Internet celebrities featured in YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind.
Additionally, he made a brief appearance in the NFL’s “The 100-Year Game” ad during Super Bowl LIII in 2019, alongside several professional football players, despite having no direct ties to football.
Furthermore, Blevins has authored several books in partnership with publishing house Random House.
One of his works, titled Get Good: My Ultimate Guide to Gaming, was published by Random House imprint, Clarkson Potter, on August 20, 2019.
In the second season of the Fox reality music competition The Masked Singer, Blevins participated under the guise of “Ice Cream”.
Unfortunately, he was eliminated after his initial performance to Devo’s “Whip It” and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”.
Blevins mentioned in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he agreed to take part in the show due to his wife’s admiration for it.
Lastly, in 2022, Blevins collaborated with MasterClass to develop a 30-day curriculum offering advice on how to succeed as a streamer.
Charitable work
Controversies
In December 2016, Blevins exposed the personal information of a donor as retaliation for using a racist screen name and message.
This action, known as “doxing”, violates Twitch’s rules, which state that it can lead to an “indefinite suspension”.
Despite being reported, Blevins only received a 48-hour suspension, leading some to speculate that his large following on the platform played a role. Blevins later admitted that he deserved the punishment.
In March 2018, during a stream with Nadeshot, Blevins accidentally used a racial slur while rapping to Logic’s “44 More”, a song that did not contain the word.
This incident sparked controversy among his viewers and the public. Blevins later apologized for any offense caused, clarifying that he did not intend to use the word and attributing it to being “tongue-tied”.
In July 2018, false rumors of Blevins’s death spread due to the fictional disease “Ligma”.
As a result, Blevins instructed his moderators to ban users who mentioned the word in his Twitch chat, as it was being excessively used in setting up the Ligma joke.
In August 2018, Blevins announced that he avoids streaming with female gamers out of respect for his wife and to prevent any rumors that could arise from such collaborations.
This decision received mixed reactions, with some arguing that he should support female streamers, while others supported his choice to prioritize his marriage.
In response to criticism, Blevins reiterated his support for gender equality and emphasized his commitment to his marriage, mentioning specific female streamers by name.
He stated that women are welcome to play with him in group settings or at events, as he believes it helps to avoid unnecessary drama and rumors in their lives.
In October 2018, Blevins reported a player for “having a higher ping” than him.
This led to a player claiming on November 16, 2018, that they had been banned as a result of the report, which Epic Games denied.
Both of these incidents caused backlash against Blevins on social media.
In November 2018, Blevins faced backlash for falsely accusing IcyFive, a Fortnite player, of stream sniping.
After being eliminated by IcyFive, Blevins’s teammate, DrLupo, advised him to watch out for a specific “emote”, which IcyFive happened to perform.
Blevins took this as evidence of stream sniping and promptly reported the player.
He even went as far as stating that he would do everything in his power to ensure IcyFive’s banishment and offered him a deal to avoid reporting if he left the game immediately, despite already reporting him.
However, since IcyFive was not watching the stream, he did not comply.
Blevins assumed IcyFive was intentionally ignoring him and resorted to using his phone in an apparent attempt to contact Epic Games directly.
In response, IcyFive denied stream sniping Blevins and uploaded a video as proof.
DrLupo, later on, expressed his disbelief in IcyFive’s alleged stream sniping, explaining that using an emote was a common reaction to an increase in spectators after eliminating a popular player.
He also disapproved of Blevins’s actions, likening them to a rant.
Blevins eventually apologized to IcyFive on Twitter, but also accused him of playing the victim and exaggerating the incident, labeling him as “naive” for assuming players would be banned solely based on his word.
Personal life
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Ninja has been married to his wife Jessica since 2018.
Ninja has two brothers, Jon and Chris. Jon also streams on Twitch as “BeardedBlevins”. Chris is a teacher.
On March 26, 2024, Ninja revealed he had recently been diagnosed with melanoma, a form of skin cancer.
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Family Feud | Himself | Contestant |
| 2019 | Celebrity Family Feud | Episode: “Ninja vs. Juju and Jerry Springer vs. Doug Flutie” | |
| 2019 | The Masked Singer | Ice Cream | Season 2 |
| 2021 | Nickelodeon’s Unfiltered | Himself | Episode: “Donut vs. The Volcano” |
| 2022 | Duncanville | Slayer | Episode: “Gamer vs. Gamer” |
| 2022 | Home Economics | Himself | Episode: “Melatonin 10 Mg Tablets, $14.99” |
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Free Guy | Himself | Cameo | |
| 2022 | Hotel Transylvania: Transformania | Party Monster | Voice |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Streamy Awards | Breakout Creator | Nominated | |
| Creator of the Year | Nominated | |||
| Gaming | Won | |||
| Live Streamer | Won | |||
| The Game Awards 2018 | Content Creator of the Year | Won | ||
| 2019 | Shorty Awards | Twitch Streamer of the Year | Won | |
| Streamy Awards | Creator of the Year | Nominated | ||
| Live Streamer | Won | |||
| Forbes 30 Under 30 | Games | Included | ||
| 2020 | Kids’ Choice Awards | Favorite Gamer | Nominated | |
| Streamy Awards | Live Streamer | Nominated | ||
| 2021 | Kids’ Choice Awards | Favorite Male Social Star | Nominated |
Notes
- Subscribers, broken down by channel:
23.7 million (Ninja)
31.8 thousand (Ninja Shorts)
21.6 thousand (Ninja Extended) - Subscribers, broken down by views:
- 2.50 billion (Ninja)
1.61 million (Ninja Shorts)
273.66 thousand (Ninja Vods)
Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Ninja net worth is estimated to be total of $40 million as at March 2024.
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