--- title: Ninja Is on the 2019 TIME 100 List description: Ninja is one of the most influential people of 2019. Juju Smith-Schuster writes about the joy of playing Fortnite with the Twitch streamer. canonical: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567713/ninja/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-16T20:22:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:30:19.064Z og:title: Ninja Is on the 2019 TIME 100 List og:description: Ninja is one of the most influential people of 2019. Juju Smith-Schuster writes about the joy of playing Fortnite with the Twitch streamer. og:url: https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567713/ninja/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ce507428484cbb7/69894830457a52cbb6d60da1/tyler-blevins-ninja-time-100-2019-002-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ninja Is on the 2019 TIME 100 List og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ninja Is on the 2019 TIME 100 List twitter:description: Ninja is one of the most influential people of 2019. Juju Smith-Schuster writes about the joy of playing Fortnite with the Twitch streamer. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ce507428484cbb7/69894830457a52cbb6d60da1/tyler-blevins-ninja-time-100-2019-002-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 16, 2019 # Ninja by JuJu Smith-Schuster  Benedict Evans—AUGUST I play in the NFL, so you’d think I wouldn’t be star-struck much. But last March, when I—along with Drake and Travis Scott—got in a _Fortnite_ game with Ninja for the first time, I was at a complete loss for words! I was among the millions of people all across the world who had been watching Ninja (real name: Tyler Blevins) play _Fortnite,_ the popular video game, every day for months. He was the unquestioned best in the world at his craft, something I had so much respect for both as an athlete and as a fan. Now, he was single-handedly blending gaming and pop culture. I’ve been a huge video-game fanatic my whole life. But people have seen it as childish and a waste of time. Ninja was huge in building up the credibility of e-sports. At the end of the day, Ninja is an absolute legend, and someone to whom we owe a lot for making gaming what it is today. _Smith-Schuster is a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567713/ninja/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567713/ninja/"},"headline":"Ninja","datePublished":"2019-04-16T20:22:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:30:19.064Z","description":"Ninja is one of the most influential people of 2019. Juju Smith-Schuster writes about the joy of playing Fortnite with the Twitch streamer.","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567713/ninja/","keywords":["T100 2019 Pioneers","2019 TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ce507428484cbb7/69894830457a52cbb6d60da1/tyler-blevins-ninja-time-100-2019-002-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ce507428484cbb7/69894830457a52cbb6d60da1/tyler-blevins-ninja-time-100-2019-002-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567713/ninja/","name":"Ninja"}}]}] ```