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EA reportedly paid Ninja $1 million to stream 'Apex Legends'

Helios

Member
https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/13/ea-paid-ninja-1-million-to-stream-apex-legends/
A Reuters source claimed that EA paid Ninja (aka Tyler Blevins) a cool $1 million to play the game on February 5th. He might not have been obligated to play for long, either. An EA spokesperson told Kotaku that any streamed gameplay after "midday" on February 5th was "completely organic" -- that is, they wanted to keep playing.
That's a large amount even for Ninja. He acknowledged to CNN in December that he was making $500,000 per month (more "on a good month"), but that's split between Twitch, YouTube and sponsorships. This was twice as much for a single Twitch stream.
It's not certain how much other streamers were paid, although the initial wave included prominent broadcasters like Shroud (Michael Grzesiek) and Myth (Ali Kabbani). Respawn's Drew McCoy hasn't been shy about the goal. He told Reuters in an interview that the team wanted a "day where you couldn't escape Apex if you cared about games." It's a classic media blitz, just on live streaming services instead of TV.
Still, the amount shows just how important live game streaming has become, at least in the battle royale genre. Rather than opt for conventional media campaigns, companies are increasingly willing to spend millions ensuring their games dominate Twitch and similar services. That does raise concerns about streamers disclosing their payments (it's not always obvious), but it won't be surprising if this marketing tactic becomes more commonplace given how successful Apex has been.
 

Grinchy

Banned
They bet on the wrong horse, if that's true. Shroud is the de facto Apex streamer.

The amount of money seems insane, but there are some insanely lucrative sponsorship deals that big streamers can get, from what I have heard.
 
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kraspkibble

Permabanned.
holy shit. think whatever you want of the guy but if someone was paying me $1m i'd be fucking over the moon.

Epic probably paid him more to play Fortnite again lol. the guy is laughing all the way to the bank for playing video games.

They bet on the wrong horse, if that's true. Shroud is the de facto Apex streamer.

The amount of money seems insane, but there are some insanely lucrative sponsorship deals that big streamers can get, from what I have heard.
who?

lmfao. i'm not even a huge BR player but shit everyone and their kids know who Ninja is. Shroud ... i don't even know who the hell that is. they can only dream of being on the same level as Ninja.
 
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angelic

Banned
Why is 'Apex Legends' in quotation marks, were they inferring something else?

tenor.gif
 
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Grinchy

Banned
who?

lmfao. i'm not even a huge BR player but shit everyone and their kids know who Ninja is. Shroud ... i don't even know who the hell that is. they can only dream of being on the same level as Ninja.
He is a guy with 100,000 paying subscribers. He has always been a big twitch streamer, but he blew up like crazy with Apex. Ninja's viewership has dropped like a rock. He'd blow an old man for Shroud's numbers.
 

CyRuZ

Banned
Yet they complain that development is too expensive and their smaller dev's still just earn enough to barely get through the month. All while throwing money out the window for such pr bullshit and disproportionately high salaries for ceo's, cfo's, cco's, etc.
 

GenericUser

Member
This is unfortunately a sad reality we live in. Popular streamers have a large impact on how much exposure your product gets. For games such as apex, it seems as if paying streamers to play the game is a a smart choice, from a business perspective.
 

angelic

Banned
$500,000 a month and he still tries to get people banned. Label me a hater by all means, but I think it's safe to say Ninja is a talentless prick.
 
Anything is possible and from EA'a point of view is the cheapest way to advertise the game ,because that guy has a lot of followers,I believe this is how things will go from now on with advertising,a lot of BS from your favorite streamers,I for one never understood the idea to pay someone just for him to play a game and me watching it,but this is how things are these days,its kind off sad.
 

Helios

Member
who?

lmfao. i'm not even a huge BR player but shit everyone and their kids know who Ninja is. Shroud ... i don't even know who the hell that is. they can only dream of being on the same level as Ninja.
EX-CSGO pro. Quite popular actually, though not as mainstream as Ninja. I'd say he would've been much better at showcasing the game since he's really good at FPS.
 

YayNJ

Banned
That's a hefty chunk of cash. I can honestly hold my hands up and say I've never watched a stream ever, not on twitch or anything so this all goes over my head somewhat.
 
I used to watch Ninja when he was a poor scrub at H1Z1, just a better than average player in a shit game. He was real and fun back then.

Now he's way over his head and it's all a persona. Didn't watch him since, for retarded entertainment there is always the two time.
 

CeeJay

Member
Does this kind of investment pay off? Will they make millions off paying a steamer one million bucks to steam their game?
I think it's pretty clear that it did pay off, Apex was the fastest growing userbase I have ever seen and all that without any pre-release hype and without any tradition marketing and advertising...

They spent what sounds like a fortune on paying streamers but, how far would that budget have gone on traditional marketing?
 

TacosNSalsa

Member
He is a guy with 100,000 paying subscribers. He has always been a big twitch streamer, but he blew up like crazy with Apex. Ninja's viewership has dropped like a rock. He'd blow an old man for Shroud's numbers.
Ninja I think is bigger overall as he's moved past just twitch . If you're talking about just Twitch then I think he does much better than Ninja does..Last time I watched Shroud he was in the 60,000 viewership range.
 

Vawn

Banned
I don't have an issue with this except I feel it should have to be 100% clear that the video is sponsored content.

Other forms of media (television, radio, etc) are legally required to make it clear when someone is being paid to promote a product compared to offering an unbiased opinion.
 
Does this kind of investment pay off? Will they make millions off paying a steamer one million bucks to steam their game?

I think the game being F2P played a large part in the player base numbers, with streamers probably generating interest from the fortnite crowd in particular. Whether that will be converted into fortnite-like revenue from the mxts remains to be seen.
 

angelic

Banned
*shrug* So what if he got $1mil. Actors easily clear those numbers in commercials. It's no different.

Except he's not an actor, and he's not in a clearly marked commercial, apart from that, spot on. It's a clear indicator that these influencer shills are no better than any other low rent person who gets a sniff of fame. They almost all have personas of being one of the people, just another gamer next door like you, who just happens to have made it big. And you can join in, watch them play games, hit that donate button, because they're real, just like you.

Except he took a big fat bank transfer of 1 million dollars to promote the latest craze BR game, under the guise of playing it because it's fun. Some of the minor details have changed, but morally he's no different to TMartn and his CSGO lottery bullshit. But no one cares, and he will continue to make money hand over fist. Don't dismiss what a shill he is. Remember it for the next one.
 

nani17

are in a big trouble
Not a fan of things like this however yes I would except the money but would have made it clear it was a paid promotion. As long as you let the viewer know you've been paid for it I'm ok with it.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
holy shit. think whatever you want of the guy but if someone was paying me $1m i'd be fucking over the moon.

Epic probably paid him more to play Fortnite again lol. the guy is laughing all the way to the bank for playing video games.


who?

lmfao. i'm not even a huge BR player but shit everyone and their kids know who Ninja is. Shroud ... i don't even know who the hell that is. they can only dream of being on the same level as Ninja.


The guy with the god aim, someone Ninja would never be able to beat in Apex Legends.

Sure thousands of children watch Ninja. Buy he isnt as big as Shroud is for gamers in the know. Shroud is a frigging god. Ninja is annoying (imo)
 
The guy with the god aim, someone Ninja would never be able to beat in Apex Legends.

Sure thousands of children watch Ninja. Buy he isnt as big as Shroud is for gamers in the know. Shroud is a frigging god. Ninja is annoying (imo)

Ninja won that first Apex tournament, in which shroud was also participating, by the way.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
All the streamers who were paid to play Apex had a big ass logo on their stream Apex Partner or something like that
 

MMaRsu

Banned
The jealousy in this thread is intense.

uhh Dizzy is even better than Shroud. Ninja isnt that great at Apex? Where is the jealousy? Im not jealous of Ninja he deserves everything he gets man. Good on him. But in that tourney Dizzy carried that team.



Believe me now?

also, the streamers didnt even play against eachother they just farmed random servers for kills, not much of a tournament if you ask me.
 
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Ragnaroz

Member
I don't have an issue with this except I feel it should have to be 100% clear that the video is sponsored content.

Other forms of media (television, radio, etc) are legally required to make it clear when someone is being paid to promote a product compared to offering an unbiased opinion.
Twitch is as well. They always have to say that the content is sponsored and have that in the stream title.
 
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