It's Clear Why Ninja Has Lost 98% Of His Viewers

If you're at all familiar with Twitch streaming, then you probably know the name Tyler "Ninja" Blevins. Ninja was far from the first Twitch streamer, but he was one of the first streamers to become a mainstream success. Even before all the fame, Ninja was an avid gamer, but he switched to streaming full time in 2017 and never looked back. Before long, thousands of people were showing up on Twitch to watch Ninja play "Fornite." As the game became more and more popular, Ninja's reach grew, and people who showed up for "Fortnite" ended up staying because of his personality.

There's a surprisingly long list of celebrities who stream on Twitch, with everyone from Snoop Dogg and Drake to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez getting in on the action at one point or another, but it's not very often that streamers become celebrities outside of their own space. For Ninja, streaming was just the beginning. He managed to achieve a level of mainstream success and Ninja even had a bit of a Hollywood career. However, since the height of his fame in 2018, Ninja has lost a whopping 98% of his viewers. So what happened?

Before he was a streamer, Ninja was a pro gamer. He started playing "Halo" at a professional level as early as 2009, almost a decade before he ever went live on Twitch. Ninja made a name for himself in the gaming community as a top-notch "Halo" player, winning a number of competitions. He won his first professional tournament in 2012, coming in first place as a member of the team Warriors at the "Halo 4" exhibition at MLG Dallas. He went on to scoop the top prize at AGL 6 Pittsburgh as a member of the G4C Misfits and he came in first once again at AGL 8 Knoxville as a member of Team Requiem.

Ninja's history as a competitive gamer meant that he wasn't completely unknown when he started streaming on Twitch in late 2016. Still, he didn't suddenly become known as a great entertainer overnight. Ninja's Twitch viewership exploded in 2018 thanks in part to the overwhelming popularity of the streamer's go-to game: "Fortnight." He found himself streaming to hundreds and then thousands of viewers every single night. In April 2018, Ninja hosted a live event at the Esports Arena in the Luxor Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, and he shattered Twitch's viewership record at the time. During the event, Ninja's viewership peaked at 667,000 concurrent viewers. In terms of numbers, this was the high-point of Ninja's streaming career.

Like the games they play, streamers often see their popularity cycle. Ninja was never going to be able to sustain his peak for long, and to a certain extent, his drop in viewership is completely predictable. With that said, Ninja's viewership has also taken some unexpected blows that had nothing at all to do with the regular churn and flow of popularity on the internet.

In 2019, Ninja shocked his followers by announcing that he would be leaving Twitch for Mixer. Changing platforms isn't unheard of in the streaming industry, but there's always a risk that some fans won't be willing to make the jump. Ninja signed an exclusive deal with Mixer, so his fans had to make the switch or say goodbye. Unfortunately, Mixer didn't last. Microsoft shuttered the platform in 2020, forcing the streamer to transition for a second time.

Today, Ninja's remaining fans know they can find him on Twitch and YouTube, but there's another reason he's still losing viewers: "Fortnite" simply isn't as popular as it once was. Epic's massive free-to-play game has had a long life, but, though it's far from dead, gamers are beginning to look for something new. Divisive "Fortnite" seasons have driven players away, and at times even Ninja has expressed frustration with the game. He's still streaming "Fortnite," though, meaning his success remains tied to the game.

At his peak, Ninja had 667,000 people watching him play "Fortnite," but he's lost more than 98% of his viewers in the years since that impressive feat. "Now I get like seven or eight thousand across Twitch and YouTube," he revealed during a candid interview with the BBC in September 2025. "So that's something that the internet and trolls remind me of every day and the last couple of years have been rough." His moderators have even had to get involved to ban certain accounts that endlessly spam messages about the issue.

The constant online harassment has worn Ninja's patience thin, but he still enjoys streaming. He will continue doing it as long as people keep showing up to watch him, no matter what the overall figure is. "I still love it and have a community that is strong and stays with me," he said. "I'm a gamer and an entertainer at heart — it's in my blood." Ninja's fans shouldn't be holding their breath for the streamer to hit a second peak like his first, but they can also rest assured that he's not thinking about quitting just because the vast majority of his fans have tuned out.