It was nearing midnight when I opened up Twitter and began to scroll. I mindlessly swiped my finger up, quickly glancing at the memes and news stories populating my timeline, only pausing when my eyes caught a tweet from Drake.
Drake? Ninja?
Drake AND Ninja?
Drake AND Ninja playing Fortnite?
No way. No. Freaking. Way.
After repeating “holy shit” a few times, I grabbed my computer to pull up Ninja’s Twitch stream.
For those that may not know, Ninja, or Tyler Blevins, is the most well-known video-game streamer in the world. Along with other streamers, Ninja broadcasts live gameplay through Twitch, a popular live streaming platform, so that fans can learn strategy, interact with him, or watch him play the games they love.
As the stream loaded, my phone buzzed as group texts blew up my screen — everyone’s reaction the was the same as mine, “what the hell is happening?” I continuously pressed the volume button on my laptop, as if there were extra speakers would suddenly sprout from my computer.
And then I heard it. On March 14, 2018, I heard the sound of gaming breaking into mainstream culture. Soon after Ninja and Drake started streaming together, other celebrities likeTravis Scott and Juju Smith-Schuster joined in on the fun. At the stream’s peak, Ninja’s broke 628,000 concurrent viewers, smashing the record for any single-creator.
My excitement in that moment didn’t stem from Drake playing with Ninja specifically, my excitement came from the gravity of two stars from completely different worlds crossing paths. On all of our screens, we witnessed a shift in the narrative of gaming in real time — the ripples of which are still being felt today.
The Ninja + Drake stream catapulted the world of gaming into everyday culture. And there’s two reasons why:
Timing is Everything
Fortnite first launched on July 25, 2017 but didn’t gain much traction until September of that year when it re-released as a “battle royale,” a video game genre that blends exploration and scavenging elements of a survival game with last-man-standing gameplay. Within 50 days, the game amassed over 25 million players, and it continued to gain momentum for the year leading up to the legendary Ninja + Drake stream. With eyeballs drawn in, Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, released the the game for iOS on March 15, 2018 (the day after the Ninja + Drake moment), making it accessible to anyone with an iPhone.Breaking Barriers
Through their stream, Drake opened the door for other celebrities, musicians, and athletes to openly stream gameplay of Fortnite–he gave it his stamp of approval. You soon had the likes of Neymar, forward for Paris Saint-Germain, and Marshmello, a world famous DJ, playing Fortnite and streaming it to their millions of followers. Drake’s expressed interest in the game encouraged celebrities from every corner to follow his lead, and of course, fans followed suit.
I have no doubt that even without Drake, gaming would have reached a similar peak at some point in the future. As for how long that would have taken, I’m not sure, but I’m confident the industry would have gotten here.
What Drake did instead, was act as a magnifying glass, concentrating all the light into an area that was ready to light on fire. For Drake, this is identical to his work in the hip-hop community, which has been coined as “The Drake Effect.”It’s a well-known phenomenon where everything the rapper touches turns to gold (except for maybe sports teams); he can take any song from relative obscurity and make it a chart-topping hit. In this case, Drake happened to work his magic with Fortnite. This was gaming’s first key to the city.
On all of our screens, we witnessed a shift in the narrative of gaming in real time — the ripples of which are still being felt today.
After unlocking the first gate, the fire spread, blending traditional sports with the rising esports genre, and bringing NBA players, NFL players, and international soccer superstars into the mix — further validating the form. Professional sports have historically resisted validating esports as a viable “sport,” often ridiculing gamers and professional players because they weren’t true ‘athletes’. But to me, it’s no coincidence that just within the last year, brands like Nike and ESPN, companies who produce athletic gear and broadcast live sporting events, have suddenly shifted to cater to the esports market. They needed a nudge to believe in the entity. This was gaming’s second key.
And the final key? Well, Epic created it.
What Epic did was latch onto the runaway train — not by doubling down on the celebrities that played its games, but by betting on the everyday consumer, regardless of if they were new to gaming or not. Epic gambled that these celebrities’ followings would lead to a piqued interest in Fortnite, and it was right.
Epic created tournaments open to the public, cash prizes, and collaborations with groups like Marvel ( *Thanos snap*), furthering the feeding frenzy. Rather than Drake or Ninja individually, Epic found the ultimate success. The company knew just how much fuel to add to the fire, but also when to douse the flames (see Infinity Blade).
Drake, Ninja, and Fortnite blew the gates to gaming open, and esports will continue to grow in size and strength, partly in thanks to Gen Z. As this group strays away from traditional sports and spends more time watching and playing non-traditional ones, like esports or World Chase Tag (52% of Gen Z males prefer non-traditional sports), the gaming world will continue to influence the market and brands — $143 billion dollars in purchasing power helps.
This past November, Fortnite eclipsed 200 million players, and a few weeks ago Epic reported a concurrent player count of 10.7 million. Recent battle royale newcomer, Apex Legends, has been creating waves of its own — smashing the record number of users to play a game in astonishing fashion. The game now holds records like 25 million players in just one week and 50 million in just a month. This same feat took Fortnite over 6 weeks and 16 weeks, respectively, to achieve.
As ridiculous as these numbers are, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface — the esports industry is set to cross the billion-dollar threshold in 2019, with brand investment expected to increase 48 percent year-over-year as the fan base continues to grow.
Are Drake and Ninja responsible for the e-sports craze?
No.
Did Drake and Ninja create a $1 billion mammoth through a Twitch stream?
No.
But they did give the industry the spark needed to finally begin its sprint.
*This post was originally written on Medium, published March 14, 2019*