How Much Ninja Earned at the Peak of Fortnite
When gamers think 'Fortnite', they think of Ninja. The 33-year-old streamer took the world by storm as Fortnite surged in popularity. It's no secret that Ninja has had one of the most successful streaming careers of any creator, but he rarely provides any exact numbers. In a recent stream, Ninja has revealed how much money he made in just one month at his peak — let's explore.
Who is Ninja?
Tyler "Ninja" Blevins is a 33-year-old American streamer and influencer with over 19 million Twitch followers. He also has over 23.8 million subscribers on YouTube. As of December 11, 2024, Ninja is still the most-followed Twitch streamer of all time.
Ninja is most well-known for his Fortnite content. From 2013 tom 2017, he was a pro Halo player signed to teams including Cloud 9, Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses and Luminosity Gaming. He continued his pro career in Fortnite, where he won over 155,000 USD according to his Liquipedia page and took first prize in gaming convention E3's Fortnite Celebrity Pro-Am Tournament.
Ninja has collaborated with celebrities like Drake, Travis Scott and Marshmello, worked with brands including Red Bull and Master Class and even appeared on a Superbowl commercial. He is largely credited with bringing esports into mainstream athletic pop culture and has also been a contestant on The Masked Singer.
Ninja's content appeals to a variety of audiences both young and old and he remains extremely influential, but he is especially nostalgic for younger individuals who began gaming during Fortnite's 'golden age' in the late 2010s.
Ninja's Streaming Career
Ninja began streaming in 2017, shortly after Fortnite's release in September. As the game exploded in popularity, so did his streams. Just a year later, in 2018, Ninja became the first Twitch streamer to surpass 3 million followers. He also broke multiple Twitch records for the most concurrent viewers on the platform, first with 635,000 while playing with Drake, Travis Scott and basketball star JuJu Smith-Schuster and then again with a personal best of 667.000 live viewers during an exhibition stream event at the Luxor Resort and Casino's esports arena in Las Vegas.
Ninja developed a dedicated fanbase and his platform continued to grow. He became the first esports athlete to feature on an ESPN cover, and in 2019 Red Bull released limited-edition cans featuring his image.
Ninja's streaming talent was in high demand — in August 2019, Microsoft's streaming platform Mixer announced they were partnering with him. The two parties arrived at an unprecedented deal: according to Business Insider, Mixer would reportedly pay Ninja up to 30 million USD to exclusively stream on the site. The agreement made headlines worldwide, as it was an extremely risky move to an unknown platform. Some of Ninja's fans were dissatisfied with the deal and accused him of being a sellout.
When asked about the decision, Ninja's wife and manager Jessica Blevins told Business Insider: "With the wording of how that contract was going, he wouldn't have been able to grow his brand much outside of gaming." She elaborated that "It really seemed like he was kind of losing himself and his love for streaming" due to Twitch's restrictive terms and it was taking a toll on his mental health.
To recognize Ninja's influence on the game's success, Fortnite officially added a Ninja-inspired skin in January 2020. While Ninja was generally successful on Mixer, Microsoft officially shut down the platform in July 2020 after a four-year lifespan. Microsoft redirected most partnered Mixer streamers to Facebook Gaming. At this time, Ninja had been on Mixer for less than a year. He closed a multi-year deal with Twitch once again and has streamed on the platform ever since.
Ninja Reveals His Peak Earnings
🚨Ninja reveals he made $7,000,000 in a month during his prime❗️🤑💰 pic.twitter.com/brBAPfRXvY
— Bestfriend (@BestfriendKick) December 10, 2024
In a December 8 2024 stream with FaZe personality stableronaldo (FaZe Ron), Ninja discussed stream earnings and finances. At one point in the stream, Ron spoke about his best month of revenue in streaming and asked Ninja "What was your best month?"
At first, Ninja asked if Ron was asking about his full income or just Twitch revenue. When Ron answered "everything", Ninja mentioned that he didn't know an exact number. However, he did estimate that his best month was "6.7 to 7 [million.]" Ron was impressed, saying "6.7? Don't lie." He also called the number "disgusting" and "massive."
Ninja noted, "I don't think I've ever said that, by the way." He does clarify that "I mean, this was like, peak though. This was prime." Ninja is likely referencing his 2018-2019 era, when Fortnite's popularity was at its apex and he broke multiple Twitch viewership records.
