Tyler “Ninja” Blevins can be considered a living legend of online social media and Esports. Despite his young age, his accomplishments have made him a true force, unprecedented in the history of culture in general and esports in particular.
Blevins – a young man who has changed the way people play games and how everyone interacts with each other. It is impossible to summarize the importance of Ninja’s contributions with just a few simple statistics. However, it is interesting to take a closer look at some of the biggest victories he has achieved so far.
Ninja and Drake set an unprecedented internet record with 635,000 concurrent viewers
On a night in mid-March 2018, Drake and Tyler “Ninja” Blevins – two masters of modern media – created a “storm” on the Twitch platform. Viewers witnessed something extraordinary: the meeting of Michael Jordan and Larry Bird during the 1987 NBA Playoffs. This was also the first time Vin Diesel and Paul Walker raced on the streets in Fast & Furious.
Over 635,000 people watched the two giants engage in a digital battle, breaking a new Twitch record. A massive number of fans and gamers regarded this as one of the biggest moments in gaming history. This event echoed in the community for a long time afterward, with Blevins becoming an extremely hot search term almost immediately afterward. With the Ninja brand reaching new heights, Blevins faced challenges in collecting world records afterward, including his own.
Continuing to set records: 667,000 concurrent viewers
A few weeks after the historic broadcast with Drake, Blevins became even more famous and was ambitious to achieve further glorious feats. This time, he aimed to surpass a total of 635,000 viewers in his next broadcast.
And the reality was even more spectacular than imagined: there were 667,000 viewers on Twitch at the same time. In addition to the massive online audience, the crowd watching live at the Esports Arena at the Luxor Resort and Casino in Las Vegas contributed to this extraordinarily grand achievement.
According to Metro, Blevins ranked third in social media engagement in March 2018, behind only two “monsters” Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James. At just 26 years old, it is clear that the legend of Tyler Blevins has only just begun its exciting first chapters.
Ninja is the first esports athlete to be featured on the cover of ESPN Magazine
Since going professional, esports has seemingly not been fully recognized in the sports flow in general. Outsiders continue to question the legitimacy of esports, debating whether playing games like Mario World should be considered athletic talent.
When Blevins unexpectedly appeared on the cover of ESPN magazine in October 2018, it was nothing short of an explosion. The first esports athlete to do so, another grand victory for seasoned gamers and streamers. However, the most amazing aspect of this event was that esports began to gain respect, and professional gamers were regarded as real athletes.
There is still much work to be done for esports to receive the respect it deserves in the professional sports community, but Ninja’s prominent appearance on the cover of ESPN magazine is a major milestone.
The first player to achieve 5,000 wins with Fortnite.
Blevins set another record at the end of 2018 when he became the first player to achieve 5,000 wins in Fortnite on PC. That may not seem like a huge achievement, especially compared to some of his other feats, but do you think there are players who left Fortnite with just one win?
The answer is hard to determine, but everyone seems to agree that the average win rate is around 1-3%. Clearly, not many players have tasted victory within the confines of the battle royale, and even “high-level” gamers don’t do it often. According to Dexerto, Ninja played 13,500 matches to reach the 5K win milestone, with a 37% win rate. And that is why Ninja is regarded as the face of Fortnite.