Ninja (gamer) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ninja
Blevins in 2023
Personal information
Born	Richard Tyler Blevins (1991-06-05) June 5, 1991 (age 34) Taylor, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Live streamer YouTuber
Spouse(s)	Jessica Goch ​ (m. 2017)​
Twitch information
Also known as	NinjasHyper
Channel	Ninja
Years active	2011–present
Genre	Gaming
Games	Fortnite League of Legends PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Z1 Battle Royale Halo Apex Legends Call of Duty: Warzone Valorant
Teams played for	Cloud9 Renegades Team Liquid Luminosity Gaming
Followers	19.2 million
Ninja YouTube information 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 MrBeast DrDisRespect Marshmello Dude Perfect TimTheTatman CouRageJD DrLupo Drake Myth LazarBeam SypherPK Trevor May Subscriber and view counts updated as of March 12, 2023.

Richard Tyler Blevins (born June 5, 1991), known online as Ninja, is a famous American online streamer, YouTuber, and professional gamer. He started streaming by playing in esports teams for Halo 3. Ninja became very popular when he began playing Fortnite Battle Royale in late 2017.

He gained a lot of attention in March 2018 when he played Fortnite live with famous people like Drake and Travis Scott. This game session broke the record for the most viewers at one time on Twitch. Ninja's Twitch channel now has over 19 million followers, making it the most-followed Twitch channel as of December 2024.

Early Life and Gaming Start

Richard Tyler Blevins was born in Michigan, USA, and has Welsh family roots. He has two older brothers, Jonathan and Chris. When he was a baby, his family moved to the Chicago area, where he later went to Grayslake Central High School.

After finishing high school, he decided to become a professional video game player. He joined gaming teams, entered tournaments, and started streaming his games live for others to watch.

Ninja's Gaming Career

Becoming a Pro Gamer and Streamer

Ninja started playing Halo 3 professionally in 2009. He played for several well-known gaming teams, including Cloud9, Renegades, Team Liquid, and Luminosity Gaming. He began streaming his games in 2011.

He first played H1Z1 and then moved on to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). In 2017, he joined Luminosity Gaming as a Halo player. He then switched to H1Z1 and later to PUBG, where he won a big PUBG tournament in August 2017.

Fortnite Fame and Records

Soon after the PUBG tournament, Ninja started streaming Fortnite Battle Royale, which was a brand new game. His audience grew quickly as the game itself became super popular in late 2017 and early 2018. His followers on Twitch jumped from 500,000 in September 2017 to over 2 million by March 2018.

In March 2018, Ninja was the first Twitch streamer to reach 3 million followers. Later that month, he broke a record for the most live viewers on a single stream (not a tournament). He had 635,000 viewers while playing Fortnite with Drake, Travis Scott, and JuJu Smith-Schuster.

This huge stream inspired Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, to host a special charity event. At E3 2018, Ninja teamed up with electronic musician Marshmello and they won the event, donating the prize money to charity. In April 2018, Ninja broke his own viewing record again during his "Ninja Vegas 2018" event, attracting about 667,000 live viewers.

Partnerships and Game Impact

In June 2018, Ninja teamed up with Red Bull Esports. They held a special Fortnite event in Chicago where players could challenge him. In April 2019, Red Bull even released a special drink can with Ninja's picture on it.

Ninja's huge rise in popularity on Twitch is closely linked to how successful Fortnite Battle Royale became. In December 2018, Ninja thought he had made almost $10 million that year. Epic Games reported earning over $3 billion, mostly from Fortnite. Ninja also became the first PC player to win 5,000 Fortnite games that same month. To show how important Ninja was to Fortnite, Epic Games added a special Ninja-themed outfit to the game in January 2020.

In February 2019, news reports said that Ninja was paid $1 million by Electronic Arts to promote Apex Legends. This was another battle royale game that competed with Fortnite. He played Apex Legends on his Twitch stream and promoted it on social media.

Platform Changes and Return to Twitch

On August 1, 2019, Ninja left Twitch to stream only on Microsoft's Mixer platform. His wife and manager, Jessica, explained that his contract with Twitch made it hard for him to grow his brand beyond gaming. She also felt he was "losing himself" on Twitch.

Besides his many followers on Twitch and Mixer, Ninja also has over 24 million subscribers on YouTube as of April 2021. At that time, he was earning over $500,000 each month from streaming Fortnite. He believes the game's free-to-play model helped him grow so much.

When Mixer shut down in July 2020, Ninja was free to stream on any platform again. On September 10, 2020, he announced he was returning to Twitch with a new exclusive deal and streamed there the same day.

On September 1, 2022, Ninja changed his social media names to "User Not Found" and tweeted that he needed a break. A week later, on September 8, 2022, he announced his return. He said he would stream his content on many platforms at once, including Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

Other Public Appearances

Ninja and his family appeared on the TV game show Family Feud in 2015. After he became famous, his family returned to the show in August 2019 for Celebrity Family Feud.

In September 2018, Ninja made history as the first professional esports player to be on the cover of ESPN The Magazine. This showed how much he had become a mainstream sports star.

Ninja worked with a record label in October 2018 to create an album called Ninjawerks: Vol. 1. It featured original songs by electronic music artists and was released on December 14, 2018.

He was also featured in YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind. Ninja appeared briefly in an NFL commercial during Super Bowl LIII in 2019. He was the only person in the ad who wasn't connected to football.

Ninja has also released several books with the publisher Random House. One of his books, Get Good: My Ultimate Guide to Gaming, was published on August 20, 2019.

In 2019, Ninja appeared on the TV show The Masked Singer as "Ice Cream". He was voted off after his first performance and had to reveal his identity. He said he joined the show because his wife was a big fan.

In 2022, Ninja partnered with MasterClass to create a 30-day course. In this course, he gives advice on how to become a successful streamer.

In January 2024, Ninja got a lot of attention for getting a "low taper fade" haircut. This happened after a clip of another streamer singing about it went viral on TikTok. The meme is still popular, and Ninja has continued to joke about it.

Charitable Work

Ninja uses his platform to help others. In February 2018, he held a charity stream and raised over $110,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

During the first Fortnite Battle Royale esports event in April 2018, Ninja gave away almost $50,000 in prize money. He donated $2,500 of that to the Alzheimer's Association. Later in April, he joined other streamers for the #Clips4Kids charity event. They raised over $340,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

At E3 2018, Ninja and Marshmello won the Fortnite Pro-Am event. They donated their $1 million prize to a charity of their choice. In 2024, Ninja and his older brother Jonathan raised $93,000 for cancer research. They partnered with the University of Michigan and streamed from their football stadium.

Personal Life

Ninja, whose real name is Richard Tyler Blevins, married Jessica Blevins (née Goch) in 2017. He has two brothers, Jonathan and Chris. Jonathan also streams on Twitch under the name "BeardedBlevins." Chris is a teacher.

In March 2024, Ninja shared that he had been diagnosed with melanoma, a type of skin cancer. A week later, in April, he announced that he was officially cancer-free after a medical procedure.

Film and Television Appearances

Film

Television

Web Series

Awards and Recognitions

See also

• List of most-followed Twitch channels