Ninja has disclosed his diagnosis of skin cancer, expressing that he is "still in a bit of shock" but remains "optimistic that we caught it in the early stages."

 

Ninja, the world's most-followed Twitch streamer and professional video game player, has announced that he has been diagnosed with skin cancer.

In a message shared on X (formerly Twitter), Ninja, whose real name is Tyler Blevins, revealed, "Alright I’m still in a bit of shock but want to keep you all updated. A few weeks ago I went in to a dermatologist for an annual skin/mole check that Jess proactively scheduled for me. There was a mole on the bottom of my foot that they wanted to remove just to be careful. It came back as melanoma, but they are optimistic that we caught it in the early stages."

He continued, "I had another dark spot appear near it, so today they biopsied that and removed a larger area around the melanoma with the hopes that under the microscope they will see clear non-melanoma edges and we will know we got it. I’m grateful to have hope in finding this early, but please take this as a PSA to get skin checkups."

Ninja, aged 32, rose to prominence in 2009 as a competitive "Halo 3" player before becoming a key figure in professional gaming during the emergence of "Fortnite" in 2017. He gained worldwide recognition, playing "Fortnite" with celebrities like Drake, Travis Scott, and JuJu Smith Schuster on Twitch and making appearances on various talk shows including "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," "The Daily Show," and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

With nearly 24 million subscribers on YouTube and 19 million followers on Twitch, Ninja holds the title of the most-followed user on the livestreaming platform.