Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins will soon be featured in a Super Bowl ad.
Ninja revealed the news on Twitter, telling fans to watch out for his appearance before the halftime break.
The Twitter update also included a short clip of the ad. In the sneak peak, Ninja appears to be a waiter at an NFL event, where he says “what’s up” to wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster. The Steelers player is a fellow Fortnite fan and has actually streamed with Ninja in the past. The celebrities filling the room begin to whisper about Ninja’s surprise appearance as waiter, with Peyton Manning even calling him a “video game master.”
Fortnite continues to spread into mainstream media, and Ninja is at the forefront. Last year, the successful streamer was featured as the first esports player on the cover of ESPN. Ninja also partnered with the NFL to stream a Thursday Night Football game on his Twitch channel in December, and has appeared on popular daytime talk show Ellen.
Ninja was at the heart of a recent controversy (link to our other thing) after Twitch advertised his New Year’s Eve event on other streamers’ channels.
Despite announcing that his New Year’s Eve stream would have “a few surprises that the community can have a lot of fun with” at a TwitchCon Q&A, the live show appeared to fall flat. An image of Ninja begging the crowd to perform a floss dance with him to no avail is burned into most viewers’ minds.
While Ninja has become something of a polarizing figure within the gaming community, his rising fame and mainstream partnerships have contributed to putting competitive games at the fore in the media and entertainment.
Relatedly, Super Bowl skins and other related activities are now available in Fortnite for a limited time.