Uber-popular Twitch streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins has opened up about his recent stint of not streaming, explaining why he thinks it’s a good thing to take a break from the spotlight and why he doesn’t care too much about his sub count anymore.
Before returning for a quick nine-hour stream on January 28, it had been a week since Ninja had been live on Twitch – running only one rerun in that time.
While his fans missed his daily streams, the 27-year-old had been taking a break by spending time on vacation with his wife – Jessica ‘JGhosty’ Blevins – as well as his parents. However, he did have time to return, briefly, to play some Fortnite with his pals Tim ‘TimTheTatMan’ Betar and Jack ‘Courage’ Dunlop.
Upon his brief return to streaming, Ninja spoke about taking time away from Twitch, stating: “So, I’m just really so much more relaxed man. After having the year that I did, I don’t stress out too much about sub count anymore, like, at all. I know what I’m capable of when I have the time to stream as much as possible. You know, doing those twelve to fourteen-hour streams.”
“There are other things that are coming up right now. I didn’t live my life last year man, I was a slave to the stream grind and I don’t regret it whatsoever but it’s nice to be able to do just a little bit of R&R.”
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It’s a slight change in attitude from Ninja who admitted in his ESPN interview last September that he had worries about not streaming – especially when it came to doing something big.
“When I’m not streaming, I have time to reflect on all the growth, and I don’t like that,” Ninja told ESPN’s Elaine Teng in his ESPN The Magazine interview. “I’m like, ‘I haven’t played a celebrity in a while. I haven’t done something big in a while. Is it because I’m slowing down?’”
More recently, Ninja stated on stream – on January 15 – that had become annoyed by people looking for the ‘next big thing’ on Twitch, even though he, at the time, had been sitting pretty at the top.
No longer being too concerned about his sub count is certainly a change for Ninja but he has achieved more than many streamers ever will – and he seems pretty happy in doing so.