Ninja wants to be more than just 'the Fortnite Guy,' but the world's most popular gamer is headed into uncharted territory

Ninja has been competing in gaming tournaments for more than a decade, starting with the "Halo" series. While he gradually built a small following through the years, his popularity skyrocketed with the release of "Fortnite," a free to play game released for PC, smartphones, and every major video game console.

After launching in July 2017, "Fortnite" quickly became a cultural phenomenon. The game boasts more than 250 million subscribers and reportedly generated $2.4 billion in sales in 2018. Ninja's reputation as one of the best "Fortnite" players earned him play sessions with massive celebrities like Drake, Travis Scott, and Pittsburgh Steelers wideout JuJu Schuster-Smith.

More than 635,000 viewers watched Ninja's play session with Drake on Twitch, setting a new record for the streaming platform. The moment proved to be a major catalyst in Ninja's rise to the top of the professional gaming world, and laid the foundation for Ninja to become a crossover pop culture star.

In the time since, Ninja has become a poster child for the world of video games and online streaming, with major media outlets like CNN, ESPN, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times publishing features on Ninja's rise to stardom. At the height of his popularity Ninja was reportedly earning $500,000 a month from a mix of viewer subscriptions, donations, and sponsorships.

Maintaining his audience comes with a massive time investment; Ninja spends about 12 hours a day streaming, and days where he's absent can amount to thousands of dollars in lost subscriptions. Ninja told the LA Times that he lost 100,000 subscribers, the equivalent of $500,000, during a trip to E3, the year's biggest video game conference.

Ninja's growing celebrity status and the constant demands on his time led his wife Jessica Blevins to become his full-time manager. The pair have sacrificed much of their private time together to make the most of Ninja's once-in-a-lifetime stardom, and they believe Ninja's career can extend beyond the world of gaming alone.

"We want him known in Hollywood. We want him known in the world of sports," Jessica told Business Insider in an interview last year. "We want him as a household name, so we're trying to move him from just gaming to everywhere."

While the advertising industry has slowly embraced the rise of social media influencers in lieu of traditional marketing, few internet celebrities have been able to escape the orbit of what originally made them famous. Despite his celebrity status, Ninja's core audience still expects him to spend half of his day playing "Fortnite."

Ninja has been able to secure partnerships to help promote new game releases, including a reported million dollar deal to stream Electronic Art's "Fortnite" competitor "Apex Legends." Promotion from Ninja and other pro gamers helped Apex gain more than 50 million players in its first month, but the game still has just a fraction of the "Fortnite's" audience.

With Ninja earning most of his income from subscriptions and donations, his career still depends on reaching as many viewers possible, ultimately leading him back to "Fortnite."

Having moved on from games like "Halo" and "H1Z1" in the past, Ninja's personal brand could eventually outlast "Fortnite's" massive popularity, but sustaining this level of fame and fortune for years is unprecedented for a professional gamer.

Of course, the landscape of video games and online entertainment is rapidly changing as well, so Ninja could very well be charting a brand new path for other professional gamers to follow, even if we don't have a clear idea of where that path is headed in the future.