Ninja Talks Fortnite, Vegas '18 Event, And Esports

The infamous streamer Ninja hung out yesterday on the H3 Podcast, where he discussed things like breaking the live-viewership world record again with his Vegas event this past weekend, among other things. H3 dedicated a highlight video directly on Ninja’s thoughts about esports and its future.

During the 10 minute highlight video, Ninja gets into the difference between sports and esports when it comes to viewership. During the broadcast, discussion was brought up that an average NBA basketball game garners around 2 million concurrent views, which they compared to major esports events like Riot Games’ League of Legends Major, and gets blown away in numbers on a regular basis by esports.

“I’m just happy I’m at the forefront of it… The goal is obviously to obviously never stop, but to be 10 years from now. This is the year, 2018, right... A couple more games with Drake, I think I’ll be there!”

Discussion compared just a single event like Ninja Vegas 18 or even when Ninja himself streamed with Drake recently, the amount that one guy can get streaming vs. dozens of pro athletes all playing live, which has topped out now at nearly 680,000 views concurrently.

The topic changed over to why the general population looks down on streamers and pro players. They compare players like LeBron James playing for millions of dollars to people streaming a game on Twitch.

“I’ll never, ever react in a negative way to that just because there’s a disconnect,” he stated. “Some people don’t get it. I don’t get mad about it… I’m like ‘Listen, if you wanna be better than the 10s of millions, seven billion people in the world and be better than them at something and, like, you think you should get paid?’ and then hear their response. I never have asked or been rude like that, but I’d love to hear what they say.”

He continues to discuss the fact that people are paid to play games all the time, why not video games? “It’s the exact same thing!”

“Imagine someone being able to… Lebron streaming, you know, Drake… and being able to don’t five dollars, ten dollars and ask a question that will be answered!”

Ninja’s topic was turned on the changes made between physical sports and video games and how games like League of Legends and Fortnite can keep people interested by being free to play, but introduce new characters and skins on a constant basis.

“I think it’s always something that’s definitely going to be a hurdle,” he explained, “but look at a game like League of Legends. In my opinion, the reason they’re so successful is that the game has been the exact same, minus some upgrades to the maps and new champions.”

Some games don’t need to change much to be successful. “Let’s say Fortnite goes into esports - which someone is investing $15 million in Fortnite esports in China - the way it needs to evolve is in a very minimal way with new skins and maybe a new map, but it always needs to be Fortnite.”

During the interview, Ninja discussed esports in the future, how people will jump in as years go on, and he believes it isn’t going to be forty years down the road. It’s coming sooner than we think.

“When [new] generations are growing up, what do they want to be? Do they want to be the next Lebron? Some of them do, but a lot of them want to be professional players, and that’s simply because now it’s accessible where it literally didn’t exist and you didn’t have a computer fifty years ago… I think you’re going to see a massive jump in the next 5 to 10 years.”

For more about Ninja’s recent Vegas event, check out our extensive coverage.