Sponsorships are nothing new for full time YouTube and Twitch streamers/video creators, but Ninja has brought it to a whole new level. According to a report from Reuters, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was paid $1 million by EA to tweet and stream Apex Legends during its launch on the morning of February 4, 2019.
Ninja’s first tweet about Apex Legends was:
SO happy to be back streaming for you guys! Going live, playing the Apex Legend Battle Royal! #ApexPartner https://t.co/QC3Dpr8MTr
— Ninja
(@Ninja) February 5, 2019
His initial stream included #ApexPartner to identify he was playing it as part of a sponsorship, something his next stream made even more clear with the title, “Apex Legends today | This is not an ad anymore… Game is just fun !”
He continued to stream and tweet about Apex Legends until about February 19, 2019, prior to his weekend vacation in LA. After that it was back to Fortnite, save for March 1 when he streamed Apex with fellow streamers Lupo (DrLupo) & Tim (Timthetatman) to promote the release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on digital platforms. His only tweet about Apex Legends since then has been from earlier today:
Also I see so many hacker tweets about Apex and that questionable wingman change. Really want to see @PlayApex get this right. But also remember it took fortnite 1-2 months to release their GOD TIER hacker update where we almost never saw them again.
— Ninja
The “wingman change” he is referring to is the recent balance update that reduced the rate of fire, Skullpiercer headshot damage, the rate of hip fire decay, and increased the hip fire spread. He also mentions “hacker tweets” most likely referring to the amount of videos going around of players using game hacks in order to never miss their shots among other awful cheats. Many in the Reddit community for the game have been asking for more aggressive anti-cheat measures which Respawn has responded to by stating they have now banned 355,000 cheaters on PC and are not going to stop there.
According to the report Ninja was paid the $1 million just for that initial day of streaming, which is insane.
The 27-year-old, famous for his hair color changes – currently a bright, turquoise hue – tweeted about the free-to-play game early on Feb. 5 and streamed the action to his more than 13 million followers on game-streaming site Twitch. For this he was paid around $1 million, a source told Reuters.
Shroud, another popular streamer, was also paid, though his amount has not yet been disclosed. Thanks to the efforts of EA and the surprise release of Apex Legends, the game has been a massive hit gaining 1 million unique players within the first eight hours of launch and attaining 50 million players in one month.
The post Tyler “Ninja” Blevins Was Paid $1 Million to Promote Apex Legends by EA by Steven Santana appeared first on DualShockers.