THR Cover: Superstar gamer Tyler Ninja Blevins sets a course for Hollywood
After Tyler Blevins signed a first-of-its-kind exclusive deal with Mixer last year, the streaming service shut down, making Blevins, who was photographed July 23 in Illinois, a very coveted free agent:"It was a little nerve-wracking, but also exciting," he says.Natalie JarveyThe world's No.
It's little wonder Hollywood is so eager to tap into that stardom: Add up every movie ticket sale in 2019 and the total is still less than half the $109 billion that digital games brought in. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told investors last year that "we compete with more than HBO." And Blevins is the industry's unofficial ambassador — what Tony Hawk was for skateboarding in the '90s, Ninja is for video gaming.
When Blevins goes live as Ninja, he morphs into a louder, more energetic version of himself. He's charming and funny and expertly talks to the tens of thousands of people who regularly tune in. Typically, he joins up with other streamers — guys with names like TimtheTatman and DrLupo, who have millions of followers of their own — and they chat about their lives while playing.
But the primary source of income for streamers like Blevins is the platforms, like Twitch and YouTube, which split advertising revenue with gamers. Streamers also make money from subscriptions and donations . For most streamers, an extended hiatus like this would be a career killer. Conventional wisdom is that every hour you're not streaming, you're losing subscribers. Blevins used to stress over the number of fans he'd lose when he took a break for, gasp, business calls or in-person appearances. He doesn't anymore. In fact, this break might be the best thing that could have happened to him.For the past decade, Blevins has been running on the hamster wheel of streaming fame.
At this point, Blevins was making a comfortable six figures, and he and Jessica, who studied communications and human resource management in college, were managing his career from their small apartment. While he was streaming for 10-plus hours a day, she would be on the phone, trying to convince anyone who would listen to sponsor him., and Blevins noticed that it was attracting many young players, even as a lot of hard-core streamers wrote it off as childish.
Blevins announced the move Aug. 1 with a glossy video of a faux press conference where he interviewed himself about the move. "It's the same me," he declared, "just a different platform." Soon, several other top streamers, including Polish-Canadian gamer Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek, joined him at Mixer. Twitch, feeling the pressure, rushed to lock down the big personalities who remained, and YouTube Gaming joined the dealmaking fray.
When news broke that Microsoft was shutting down Mixer — no, executives didn't bother calling its biggest star to give him a heads-up — it almost came as a relief. His camp says the relationship ultimately ended amicably. Now he has time to sit back and make sure that the next deal he signs is "smart." And, after his 11 months at Mixer, he's no longer worried that his audience will bail.
He's looking at all his options, says Josh Swartz, COO at Blevins' management firm, Loaded, with a focus on a flexible streaming schedule, ad revenue benefits and "the ability to create content that expands beyond live streaming through TV, film and other entertainment opportunities." But he's taking his time. "I'm pretty comfortable and confident that everything's going to be OK," he says.
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