Twitch streamer sad because Fortnite doesn’t love him anymore: “Feel like Epic hates me”

Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins had his heyday with online shooter Fortnite in 2018. But in 2022, he feels like he no longer plays a major role in Epic’s plans. He says he feels the studio hates him right now. He’s annoyed that he doesn’t get the support that other new content creators get. In addition, Epic has postponed the resale of its skin.

What is it with Fortnite and Ninja?

• The game “Fortnite: Battle Royale” experienced a rapid rise from the winter of 2017, reaching a peak in March 2018 and was the biggest gaming topic in the world at the time. In 2018 and a few more months in 2019 there was a real “Fortnite mania”: The online shooter was everywhere: in children’s rooms, on Twitch, on television.
• Simultaneously with Fortnite, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins became a star on Twitch. The notorious trash talker and over-ambitious flamer bit back his swearing, donned a hairband, downed Red Bull after Red Bull, and streamed Fortnite like a maniac.
• Ninja reached new dimensions, was the first with more than 10 million followers on Twitch, was invited to big talk shows, harbored plans to build a huge brand around himself – like David Beckham he wanted to be.

Even then, Ninja said how much he benefited from Fortnite: He earned crazy sums from the “Creator Code”. But: From his point of view, it could have been even more in 2018 if the developers behind Fortnite, Epic Games, had only really supported him.

What was Ninja’s problem with Fortnite? Even at Fortnite’s wedding, Ninja etched that he didn’t get “the love” that he was actually entitled to.

So he complained for months in 2018 and 2019 that he actually had to get his “own skin” in Fortnite. It also resonated: He should then also share in the sales proceeds. For months, Ninja jealously eyed every reference in Fortnite to other content creators.

It seemed like Ninja thinks Epic is making a mistake in not putting him at the center of everything they do “to get even richer”. Ultimately, Ninja got his “own skin” in January 2020 – but in his opinion it came too late because the big hype was already over.

Ninja says he’s ‘more sad than angry’

Ninja now complains about this: In 2022, Twitch streamer Ninja isn’t as big a deal as it used to be. A viewer asked him when his skin will be back in the Fortnite item shop.

But Ninja looked at a loss. He said the skin was originally scheduled to come back to the item shop on April 11th, but that was pushed back at short notice:

I have a feeling Epic hates me right now, seriously. I have a feeling I’m getting the short end of the stick.

ninja

Ninja is annoyed that the streamers Ludwig and Loserfruit get both events in Fortnite that are sponsored by Epic. However, he did not receive an offer to do so.

Maybe Epic would try to promote other content creators, not just him. But he and his team had been promoting the skin’s return for a month and now it’s just been postponed.

It makes him more “sad than angry,” he says.

This is behind it: It’s been a pattern with Ninja over the years that he’s extremely ambitious and always complained why he wasn’t being pushed further up the ladder even when he was already at the top.

From his point of view, Epic is following the wrong approach of betting on several horses and not just preferring him.

From the outside, it looks as if Epic doesn’t want to clearly identify anyone as a “super draft horse”, but rather put on many faces. But Ninja just doesn’t seem to be able to get used to the idea even after 5 years.

Ninja loses 88% of his viewers on Twitch in 3 years: “I’m kinda stuck”