EA Reportedly Paid Ninja A Million To Stream Apex Legends
Misael Duran 
According to a report by Reuters, the streamer Ninja may have earned a pretty penny for playing on his channel EA’s Apex Legends.
Apex Legends is one of the latest battle royale sensations that hit the gaming scene last month. Developed by Respawn Entertainment, the same studio who did the Mass Effect series, and published by Electronic Arts, Apex has proven to be very popular.
EA went all out with the marketing for Apex, and possibly even paid certain streamers to cover the game. Streaming sites like Twitch have grown increasingly more popular, particularly among children and younger people. Professional streamers have millions of subscribers, and some have even become millionaires from their streaming.
Ninja, real name Tyler Blevins, is the most followed streamer on Twitch; he currently has over 13 million subscribers. He streams around twelve hours a day, and is known for playing a lot of battle royale games on his channel, especially the insanely popular Fortnite.
According to Reuters’ sources, EA paid Ninja a million dollars to tweet about Apex Legends on February 5, and to stream the game on his channel. While a million may seem excessive, it has been reported that Ninja may actually earn millions a year on his streaming alone.
With streamers becoming more and more popular on the internet, it makes sense for video game publishers and developers to have some of the more popular streamers play their games. Some of these big time streamers have millions of subscribers, with thousands of daily views. If a publisher is able to convince any of these streamers to play their games on their channel, that would expose their game to possibly millions of watchers.
It is also relatively easy money for Ninja to earn. Simply tweet about the game, and play it for a while on his channel. Who wouldn’t say yes to that kind of money? It is an easy win for everyone, and with Apex Legends become a huge hit, maybe this strategy of paying streamers may have paid off for EA.
At this moment, Ninja and EA have yet to officially comment.
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