Tyler Blevins, who goes by the Twitch handle “Ninja” recently teamed up with another streamer “Drake” to play some Fortnite for his fans, and together they annihilated the record for most viewers by racking up over 600,000 concurrent visitors.
Now in an interview with CNBC Monday night, Blevins confirmed rumors that he makes upwards of $500,000 per month. He claims that not all of his income comes from Twitch, but he also has revenue streams coming in from YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.
Ninja also says that he has Fortnite in part to thank.
“This deal that Amazon Prime and Twitch Prime have together is incredible,” he said. “Twitch Prime allows people to like claim loot and collect loot with specific games, and they recently did a deal with Fortnite, which is the hottest game right now. And that actually is one of the main reasons of influx of subscribers currently to my stream.”
Tyler '@Ninja' Blevins says he makes $500,000 a month playing video games. pic.twitter.com/jk9fvOiNZV
— CNBC (@CNBC) March 19, 2018
It’s not all blind luck though. Blevins explains that he tries to be entertaining while also bringing high-level gameplay to his stream. He knows that it is impossible to retain viewers without engaging content. There are too many other content creators that people can follow. He understands that people are not just there to watch somebody play a video game — they are there to be entertained.
“I’m very goofy,” said Ninja. “If you’ve ever watched any of my streams or my YouTube videos — I do impressions and stuff like that all the time, and just crazy shenanigans.”
He feels his personality and shenanigans are what get people to hit the subscribe button, but don't go quitting your day job to be like him.
“You want to make sure you are securing your future and putting in the extra time to make this [pro streaming] happen as well.”
When asked what young people should do who want to be professional streamers should do, Blevins said, “Stay in school.”
His practical philosophy boils down to “don’t plan on making $6 million per year streaming.” He started while he was going to school and working. Even when he started to see money from his streams coming in, he stuck with his schooling and his part time job at a noodle bar. Streaming games was his self-imposed reward for doing well in school and work.
“You want to make sure you are securing your future and putting in the extra time to make this [pro streaming] happen as well," Ninja advises young people.
Sage words from a millennial with green hair.
https://www.techspot.com/news/73797-twitch-streamer-confirms-makes-500000-month.html
