According to a Reuters source, EA paid Ninja (aka Tyler Bevins) $1 million to play the game on February 15th. That is a pretty penny that Ninja made and EA paid to the famous Twitch streamer. In addition, it appears that Ninja was not obligated to play long either because an EA spokesperson told Kotaku that any streamed gameplay after “midday” on February 5th was “completely organic,” meaning he wanted to keep playing.
Ninja made quite the amount from EA. In December, he acknowledged to CNN that he was making $500,000 per month (and more than that “on a good month”), but the income was split between Twitch, YouTube and sponsorships. The $1 million he earned from EA was twice the amount he normally makes.
At this time, it’s not certain if other streamers, such as Shroud (Michael Grzesiek) and Myth (Ali Kabbani), were paid by EA to play Apex Legends. Respawn’s Drew McCoy previously said that the team wanted a “day where you couldn’t escape Apex if you cared about games.” That is quite the bold goal, for sure, but not unrealistic. Just take a look at how successful Fornite is.
