- Mostly kept my composure.
I hate this map.
I hate this map so (beep) much.
Lost it a couple times.
I don't know if I'm cut out for this anymore.
(gentle music)
Let's talk about Ninja.
The Internet's streaming sweetheart.
The Pharaoh of Fortnite, if you will.
He's an incredibly popular man,
making an incredible amount of money.
According to Business Insider, as of August 2019,
he was making upwards of $500,000
a month, streaming full time.
He began streaming in 2011, playing the then popular H1Z1,
but blew up as a streamer in 2017
when Fortnite was released.
His numbers exploded on Twitch and in 2018,
he surpassed over two million followers on Twitch alone.
All this came to a head in 2019,
when he announced that he would be streaming exclusively
for Microsoft's new streaming service, Mixer.
A fellow streamer of his did go on
to conservatively estimate he could be making anywhere
between $6 and $8 million
a year, for 3 years in the contract with Microsoft.
How does one go from being a nobody to The Somebody?
I'm here to find out.
I can't go back in time and become a super famous,
very talented Halo player,
what I can do is follow his streaming schedule,
to a T for the next seven days.
As of tomorrow, I am no longer working at BuzzFeed,
I am sitting on my butt, at my house, for an entire week.
I really want to know how will my numbers be affected
if I am doing nothing but streaming full time.
And what better way to find out by just doing it.
Good morning everybody, it is day one
of streaming like Ninja.
It is
6:30 in the morning.
'Cause he streams 9:30 to six Central Time,
which for me is 7:30 to four.
And I haven't decided if it makes more sense
for me to follow him precisely
or him from what my time zone would be.
So, we're starting early today because I'm crazy
and I need coffee.
Let me show you guys my favorite part of setting up stream.
Ta-da!
The magic green screen.
So it's 30 minutes to stream, I'm very tired.
I don't think I will be streaming this early tomorrow.
Fortnite, I tried.
Fortnite, I can not do.
So, we are playing today, Dead By Daylight,
an equally competitive online game.
I feel like now my hands aren't even going to work.
I'm so tired.
Good morning my beautiful spuds
and welcome to the first official day of streaming
like Ninja for a week.
(screaming)
Oh my god.
- That wasn't that scary, okay.
- Love you.
I think, I think Ninja talks less to his chat.
So I'm wondering, do I focus more on the game
and then talk to you in-between matches?
I think my game is literally frozen.
So, I think I gotta task manager outta this bitch.
I don't know dude, I love playing with Colin
but Ninja doesn't play with girls
because he's afraid rumors will start that they are dating.
So, I don't know if I can stream with any cute gay men.
Yo, so check in,
we've been streaming for six and a half hours.
Finally, taking a break to eat, I've found out,
thanks to my chat, that Ninja does eat on stream
so, that's what we're doing.
Say "Hi," everybody in chat.
♪ I'm so happy ♪
♪ with my french fries in my life ♪
It was great hanging out with you guys, thank you so much
for spending my first ever full-time stream day with me.
It's been quite a blast.
I'm very excited to get up and walk around, though.
So, we just finished our first stream and I'm exhausted.
(laughs) That was so long.
It simultaneously felt like it took forever
to get through the day and also that the day
went by really fast, it's kind of hard to explain.
But it was pretty fun to have, some people were
in chat like the whole eight and a half hours
that I was streaming, which was pretty fricking incredible
and crazy and weird and it's like,
"What are you people doing with your lives?"
But also thank you for being, you know, around
and hanging out with me.
So, mostly kept my composure.
I hate this map.
I hate this map so (beep) much.
Lost it a couple times, so I look forward to it tomorrow.
(upbeat music)
Kimmy and I are setting up for streaming day two.
We're starting at 9:30 instead of 7:30 today, which feels
so much nicer.
Things that we learned from yesterday.
Drink lots of water, we gotta stretch.
My shoulders are really starting to hurt
and I just sat down in this chair
so I'm definitely going to have to prioritize stretching
and taking, like, short-quick breaks.
We're also playing Pokemon today, which I'm excited about
'cause I like Pokemon but I'm honestly worried
about being able to play Pokemon for eight and a half hours.
We'll see if I can do it.
That's the League Chairman for you!
Even booked us a hotel room, what a nice guy.
(trilling)
Oh, what is that Pokemon?
Oh.
I want it!
As much as I love Meowth, he's not really bringing
a lot to the table, in terms of typing, you know.
I will name Pokemon after you guys, I'm sorry.
I wanna be fun, I want you to like me.
I'll do whatever you want. (laughs)
Just, let us have you.
I'm really nice.
I'm a great trainer, I promise to treat you well.
You'll stay, oh (beep).
Now you're gonna die.
So I'm just taking a really quick break,
to take Ellie for a little walk.
Mid-stream, it's been about six and a half hours.
So we're nearing the end but, holy crap does it feel
so (laughs) nice to just get up
and walk around for a little bit.
Sir!
(evil laugh) Yeah!
Oh my God, we finally got it.
Welcome to the party Drifloon.
Okay, we're gonna heal up then we're gonna save
and then we're gonna switch over. (mumbles)
Thank you guys so much for coming to hang out with me today.
It's been a pleasure.
This full-time streaming life is pretty (beep) dope.
So, we're at the end of day two.
I feel less in pain than yesterday.
I'm kinda confused, I thought that it would get harder
as the week went on, but maybe it's getting easier?
Also, my favorite thing about streaming full-time is
that I don't have to put on real people clothes.
Like, I'm a slob at heart and this job let's, like,
it's one of those jobs where you only need
to get dressed up from the waist up, it's pretty nice.
I'm game, I'm down, this is what I wanna do
for the rest of my life.
Official, it's done, I wanna be Ninja, period.
So, it's the morning of day three,
it also happens to be Thanksgiving.
I went shopping before work, that's like,
not a thing that happens, so that's pretty (beep) dope.
And this "job" that I'm trying for this week is
just getting better and better and better.
Let's see, who's here?
Sorry, I got totally distracted.
GlennRose is here, TicTac is here.
You're shaving your legs in the bath?
Well, look at you getting (beep) done.
Struggle busing this morning, who's playing Ed Sheeran?
What have you done?
Why are you doing this to me?
Seems like it's really good, then it'll dip for a second
and then be okay.
So, I'm just not gonna, I'm gonna try not to worry about it.
I'm gonna try one thing, it's gonna end the stream
then restart it really fast, no one go anywhere.
(beep)
(screams)
I'm frustrated.
Just desperately wanna make some Sims today.
(sighs)
I didn't think that I would run into, like, stream issues.
It's so difficult when things just don't work
and you just don't know why.
And then when you're streaming you have to, like,
figure it out while people are watching you
and you have to try to figure out what the problem is
fast enough that people, like, don't leave.
The stream was chugging,
people were complaining about in chat.
I was trying to fix it and nothing was really working.
Ugh, this was going so well and now I'm like,
"Is this what I wanna do?
"Why does this have to be,
"why can't everything just be perfect all the time?"
Maybe tomorrow will be better.
(gentle music)
It's day four, the day after Thanksgiving and I am
not ready.
Yesterday's stream was a mild disaster.
I'm finally starting to lose my steam, lose my mind.
It's already seven minutes after
when I was supposed to start streaming
and it's just not happening yet.
I mean, I getting ready, we're gonna do it
but holy crap, I'm not in the mood today.
(gentle music)
Oh, hello, good morning, I forgot I muted myself.
(sighs)
♪ Hello, hello, hello ♪
♪ Hello hello hello hello hello ♪
♪ Hello ♪
So, we do have Planet Zoo coming up.
If I get, like, super tilted,
which I feel like today is gonna be a super tilt-y day,
we'll play Planet Zoo probably.
"I'm sad now, I hope I make it home
"before you stop streaming so I can survive with you."
Are you gonna make it home in the next eight hours?
'Cause that's what streaming is now for me.
I don't know if I'm cut out for this anymore.
How do people do this everyday for their lives?
It's so fun and so hard.
My body is slowly shutting down but what,
we're gonna fight it because, this is a blast.
Just finished day four. (sighs)
Today was the first day that was actually difficult
for me to want to stay to whole time for my stream.
It's Black Friday, everyone's on break, except for me
because I had to sit in front of my computer all day.
Today was the first day that I was, like,
I really don't wanna be doing this
and I really feel bad for not wanting to do it,
but since it's, like, this is my full-time "job"
for the week, I have to, you know, chug through it.
I would just like one day off.
I think Ninja streaming all day everyday,
everyday of the week, is insane
and I hope that guy, like, gets a vacation soon.
Like, Ninja are you okay?
Do you need a break?
(gentle music)
So, it's day five, it's Saturday.
Everyone around me is asleep except for me
because it's 9:30 on a Saturday and here I am,
being a full-time streamer, not sleeping in.
Oh, she's right behind me! (screams)
(laughs) That scared the (beep) outta me.
(screams) Zero tear radius.
Also, why was he healing me, if he was right there?
(screams)
I got one safe hook rescue though.
Jesus Christ, that was horrifying.
Why two horrifying, jump-scare games in a row, what is this?
"When is your last day of streaming as Ninja,
"today or tomorrow?"
♪ Tomorrow ♪
Tomorrow marks the last day of streaming like Ninja.
The day where my life finally goes back
to being totally normal.
And where my butt doesn't hurt every moment of every day.
(laughs) 'Cause, yeah, I'm exhausted.
I haven't had a weekend all week, feels kinda crazy.
I really don't know how Ninja does it,
if he really does stream, like,
every single day of the week.
I have to, like, take my car in to the shop
and I have to clean my living room.
Like, I don't have time to do that after stream.
"What has been your favorite game to play
"during these long streams?"
Probably Dead by Daylight.
Dead by Daylight's one of the games
that I can play the longest.
So basically today's been my favorite. (laughs)
Today's stream was sort of interesting,
in that, it started really horribly...
bad.
And then it got really fantastically good.
I woke up this morning and I did not want to stream,
it's been too many days in a row
and it's officially Saturday so it's officially like,
weekend time, I've never worked over a weekend.
And, yeah, by the end of the stream, time flew by.
It didn't even feel like I was even streaming
for eight hours, so maybe...
this is like a marathon and I finally hit the runner's high.
Holy (beep) okay, I got a message from one of my followers
saying that Ninja is streaming Dead by Daylight
with his wife right now.
Which is hilarious, because he never plays Dead by Daylight
and the one week that I decide that I'm taking over his job,
he's taking over my job, he's coming for my brand.
And I'm coming for his.
(upbeat music)
So we're finally here, it's the final day.
Today, I think, is gonna be a pretty chill day.
Everyone come get your food, it's Thanksgiving time.
Kelsey, come have your grand Thanksgiving meal
with the family.
Aw, Kelsey get outta the wall, you goob.
While I was gone, I did get a head band.
So I could more appropriately "Ninja" it up.
Actually, like, don't hate how it looks.
I think we're gonna have to work, like,
a little bit of Fortnite in to the day, like,
you can't stream like Ninja for a whole week
and just neglect to play Fortnite the whole time.
(gun fires)
You're not real.
Come back computer lady.
(gun fires)
How're you still alive?
There we go.
Where are you?
(gun fires)
(yells)
(gun fires)
One hit.
(gun fires)
Two hits.
Bye!
(gentle music)
I mean (yells)
who's the Ninja now? (laughs)
Slowly but steadily coming for your game, dude.
I'm coming for your game and you better stay away from mine.
Well, that was quite, quite a day.
Quite a day.
Quite a week and I wanna thank you guys all so so much
for coming along the ride with me.
It has been a wild week.
I wanna say big props to Ninja,
that guys works so (beep) hard
and people would love to say that it's a really easy job
to just sit at home and play video games all day
but, streaming is not just sitting at home
playing videos games all day, it's definitely
a lot harder than I thought it would be.
So, yeah, mad respect to Ninja
and any other full-time streamer.
(gentle music)
So, officially back at BuzzFeed.
It feels very odd to be back, but I'm really happy
because my friends are here.
And I've missed them. (laughs)
Just the one friend, I only have one, it's just Megan.
At the end of this week, I'm kinda confused, honestly,
about whether I want to make streaming full-time
an actual goal or if I wanna just let that be a pipe dream.
I had a blast this week, it's been a lot of fun.
The full-time streaming thing is pretty appealing, I mean,
I've often said that I would just stay home
and play video games and do nothing else,
if that was an option, so, I respect what Ninja does,
how he's made his money, how he uses his money so much more
after having gotten just a little taste.
But in the meantime, I think I'm just gonna stick to it
as a hobby of mine, it's fun
but I don't know if I cut out for the big leagues.
I would definitely take a stay-cation week
and just play video games and stream all the time
maybe like, once a year, maybe two times.
(upbeat music)