The newest ESPN cover athlete is a Fortnite streamer

This is Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. He’s going to be featured on the cover of the October edition of ESPN The Magazine. A first for the publication. If you watch Fortnite gameplay streams, Ninja’s work is inescapable. He plays with celebrities, random people, other famous gamers, and of course, by himself. In April, he broke Twitch records by hitting over 600,000 concurrent viewers. The next month, Ninja broke his own record. By his estimate, he makes “close to” a million dollars a month from donations, subscriptions, and sponsorship deals. To an audience of a certain age, he is the next Michael Jordan or Joe Montana.