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Ninja reportedly paid $1 million to stream Apex Legends at launch

Apex Legends is catching up with Fortnite.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter
Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.
Marrian Zhou
2 min read
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Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has reportedly made about $1 million playing Apex Legends. 

Ethan Miller via Getty Images

Here's more evidence that the battle royale of battle royale games has begun.

Tyler Blevins, a famous gamer known as " Ninja ," made a million dollars streaming himself playing Apex Legends, according to a Reuters' report on Wednesday.

Apex Legends, made by Respawn Entertainment and EA gained 10 million players in the first 72 hours after it launched on Feb. 4. Ninja reportedly tweeted about Apex Legends on Feb. 5 and streamed himself to his more than 13 million followers on Twitch. He got paid about $1 million for the promotion, Reuters said, citing an anonymous source.

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This isn't Ninja's first time making millions streaming games online. He raked in nearly $10 million last year playing Fortnite . Ninja has become one of the most famous e-sport professionals. In September, Ninja became the first professional gamer to be featured on ESPN's magazine cover

Ninja didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The free-to-play battle royale game is similar to Fortnite and PUBG, which means the last one standing wins. But in Apex Legends, users can only play in squads and have to pick a character class that suits their style. The fighting styles and weapon choices are also fancier in Apex Legends than in the other two.

Apex Legends has gained a lot of attention in a very short time. Earlier this month, the game had already reached 50 million players since launch. Epic's Fortnite: Battle Royale counted 200 million players in a year. But Apex Legends may catch up soon. 

First published on March 13, 3:36 p.m. PT.

Updates on March 14, 1:06 p.m. PT: Adds Ninja was featured on ESPN's magazine cover. 

Watch this: How is Apex Legends different from Fortnite and PUBG?