Ninja explains why he thinks streamers want Fortnite to “die”
One of the most popular faces in Fortnite, Mixer streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, has a new theory on why he thinks so many streamers are being so critical towards the game, and the reason they want the battle royale to go away.
It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Fortnite dies. The game has gone from early access to a cultural phenomenon in just over a couple of years. It’s been a driving force on sites like Twitch and YouTube, creating careers for some players and personalities while catapulting some of them into stardom.
One of the Epic Games title’s stars has arguably reached the realm of superstardom in Ninja. The popular streamer signed a bananas deal to stream exclusively with Mixer, and has seen his career rise to levels where he can sign Adidas deals, stream with celebrities, and launch wildly popular merch lines.
NinjaBut Ninja is well aware of the haters that are out there, and has a theory for why so many of those haters are streamers that want Fortnite to burn up after its time in the sun.
“This is my new theory,” he said while streaming the battle royale with Reverse2k. “Everyone is trying to now hate on Fortnite, and wishing that the game would die, so that another game could come out, so they can blow up and become famous with a new game.”
The 28-year-old then performed a mocking impression of “all the butthurt kids who don’t like Fortnite” complaining about no one watching them.
“I’m so good, but no one watches me, so like Fortnite’s dumb! It’s bad! I’m waiting for the new game to come out. When’s the next game gonna come out so that I can stream it and then I can be the biggest!” he mimicked.
Despite Ninja’s theory about what young streamers’ opinion about the game is, he also holds on to the belief that Fortnite will never go away. When Reverse2k brought up a hypothetical situation about it ending, Ninja quickly corrected him, saying, “It is not gonna end, I promise you.”
Epic GamesThe idea of upcoming streamers looking for new games to help “launch their careers” isn’t very far-fetched, as recent big releases are testament to a popular game’s ability to boost streaming stars. More recent titles like Apex Legends and Escape from Tarkov are helping newer streamers reach insane heights, while also bringing in fresh sets of eyes on already established personalities.
Fortnite itself has created more stars than just Ninja, and while many of these streamers branch out to play other popular games as well, a lot of them don’t stray too far from the iconic title that helped them accomplish so much.
The success of the battle royale hasn’t stopped other games from becoming popular on their own, and thus hasn’t stopped newer streamers from “blowing up” with the success of those titles. If, and this is a big if, Fortnite were to end, it’s hard to imagine any new game completely filling the void it would leave.