Fortnite: Watch the 59 Seconds Ninja Drops Everything on Twitch – Is It Real Or Is He Acting?

The streamer with the most followers on Twitch, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins (31), seems to have had enough. During a running stream in Fortnite, he pauses, says he just can’t take it anymore and breaks everything off. Observers are puzzled: is it just for show or for real? MeinMMO shows you the Twitch clip from Fortnite and asks for your opinion.

This is the situation:

• Back in 2016, Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was just one of many shooter streamers swimming in Twitch’s midfield. Blevins averaged around 1,300 viewers and regularly threw tantrums and flare-ups: he had made a name for himself as an e-sports pro in Halo and now played popular online shooters like PUBG
• At the end of 2017, Ninja’s breakthrough came with Fortnite: He streamed the brightly colored shooter from Epic like a madman and suddenly gained millions of followers. Ninja went to new heights on Twitch, got invited to talk shows and grinned from the cover of a sports magazine. In 2018 he reached an average of 78,000 viewers and was online almost constantly. In that year he ripped off 2,767 hours in Fortnite. Ninja later said: He did not live during this time, was a slave to the stream
• In 2022, this glory days were a long time ago, Ninja is now a “normal streamer” with an average of 10,000 viewers, albeit one with the absurd number of 18.3 million followers – even today, these are dimensions that no other streamer has ever penetrated is

Ninja’s career is inseparable from Fortnite:

“I’m so fed up – I can’t take it anymore”

These are the 59 seconds Ninja throws everything down:

• Ninja is playing a normal round of Fortnite and just got himself a kill, his duo partner, Sypher, asks him something but Ninja doesn’t respond at all
• Sypher asks, “Ninja?” but the streamer coughs, laughs, and says, “I can’t take it anymore mate – I’m fed up”
• Ninja then says he’s fed up with the players, all that stuff. He needs a break from streaming. He tells the chat that he doesn’t know when he’ll be back on the air. He needs to get out of here. Then he ends Fortnite and the stream is just gone.

Ninja apparently throws everything down: No more Twitch partner

What happened afterwards? Ninja hasn’t streamed since then and shut down his social media channels by deleting the profile picture and replacing his name with “User Not Found”.

Also, he is no longer a Twitch partner.

What’s behind it? There are two possibilities:

• Ninja actually had a “burnout” moment and really threw everything down
• He only simulated this “collapse” as a PR stunt because he wants to draw attention to himself to make a big announcement

The weird thing is that he announced the stream by saying, “Great things are coming.”

Cynical PR gag or honest performance?

What is each option? It happens that streamers suffer from “burnout” and take breaks. The structure of Twitch encourages self-exploitation with chasing subscribers, fear of falling behind, and constant comparison with competitors. It’s stressful and exhausting.

And that Ninja is fed up with playing Fortnite is plausible:

• Ninja has been playing the game Fortnite on Twitch for the last 180 days 471 hours – almost nothing else. While that’s a lot less time than he ripped off for his wedding, he’s back to becoming a typical One Game streamer
• Ninja had been playing League of Legends, Apex Legends or Final Fantasy XI extensively for the past six months – he has since given up on all of that and devoted himself fully to Fortnite again
• That could mean that he just can’t take Fortnite anymore

So it’s plausible that Ninja needs a break. Usually streamers announce such breaks “quietly” on Twitter and not during a stream.

Also, Ninja came back to Twitch about 2 years ago after his foray into Mixer. “2 years” is also the typical duration of a Twitch contract.

It is therefore quite possible that Twitch’s exclusive contract with Ninja has expired and that he is now announcing a new change.

What do you think about that? We have created a survey on MeinMMO where you can give your opinion on the situation. You have one vote in the poll.

Write us your opinion in the comments. Was the situation played or do you think Ninja really burned out?

In fact, “streamer burnout” is widespread. It would be cynical for Ninja to simulate this real problem here to get attention:

Twitch eats its children – A German streamer says “It will destroy me”