Fortnite has risen from simple “clone” of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (or in some people’s minds, a “copycat”), to its own game with its own quirks and personality. To that end, many things helped contribute to its rise in power. One of which was Twitch. The game has the honor of being the highest-viewed game streams on the platform, and much of this is due to Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. Last month, he shocked the world when he did a livestream with rapper Drake and got a bunch of views. And now, he’s topped that.
This comes from ESPN, who notes that a Vegas event featuring Ninja and Fortnite had a massive Twitch viewership of 667,000. That’s quite a lot. As for what the event was, it was a unique format that challenged players to try and beat Ninja at his own game…or at the very least, the game he’s known for. If they won the game, they got $2500, if they killed him in the game, they would get another $2500.
That’s a lot of odds to beat, but Ninja didn’t seem to mind, he welcomed the challenge, and interestingly enough, he actually did win one of the matches, and he came in second place twice.
“Bigger, better, more. That’s all I want to do, use this, grow as much as possible and spread a positive message,” he said. “I wouldn’t say there will be a pro league built around me, but I would love to be able to throw events like this — bigger, better, I’m talking a stadium.”
At present, there is no official league centered around Fortnite, so Ninja doing events like this wouldn’t just be special, they’d be unique. And given the popularity of the title, this could work in ways that other games couldn’t. So what will happen next? Only Ninja knows.
