Early in January, Tyler1 made his triumphant return to League of Legends after his indefinite ban. He broke the viewership record for Twitch with 382,000 viewers.
Dr. Disrespect took a break from streaming after publicized drama, then came back in early February to break the viewership record set by Tyler1 just a month prior with 387,000 viewers.
Two big milestones like this, what could compare?
This is a question 26-year-old Tyler “Ninja” Blevins answered. In the middle of March, Ninja made Twitch history by accumulating over 650,000 viewers, almost doubling the previous record. Oh, the world-famous rapper Drake was there as well.
Ninja turned his burgeoning success into an opportunity to play Fortnite: Battle Royale on stream with Drake. Drake even helped get the word out during the stream by tweeting out the link.
playing fort nite with @ninja https://t.co/OSFbgcfzaZ
— Drizzy (@Drake) March 15, 2018
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Not only did Drake join Ninja to play Fortnite, but other celebrities took notice and wanted to get in on the action. Steeler’s wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster and rapper Travis Scott joined up to form a squad. Soon after this, memes were exploding on Twitter of this iconic squad.
LEGENDARY @drake @ninja @trvisXX pic.twitter.com/PNLfgRFutu
— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) March 15, 2018
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At first glance, a person might say this is just cool. How nice of Drake to play a game with this streamer. How awesome of other celebrities to take a break from their busy lives to relax and play a game. This means so much more.
If a person logged on to Twitter during the stream, Ninja and Drake were the top trends, and it was not close. It is hard to imagine the number of people who saw the stream, the tweets, the news stories the next day, etc. So much publicity for a community which continues to grow every single day.
For a growing community, a celebrity endorsement such as this can mean everything. Word will be spreading like wildfire, word of how Drake was playing games on a website called Twitch. How an NFL player was not only excited about playing the game that night but cannot wait for what the future holds.
I just wanna shoutout the goat @Ninja for having me, I got MAJOR love coming your way homie. This is just the beginnin I promise‼‼‼
— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) March 15, 2018
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The future of the gaming community looks brighter and brighter every day. This could only be the beginning. The world cannot ignore the rise of the gaming community as icons like Drake embrace it. At some point, the world will no longer have a choice but to take Twitch and competitive gaming seriously.
