Streamers React To Ninja's Cancer Diagnosis

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins shocked the streaming world and his fans on March 26 with the reveal that he has been diagnosed with melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer. The streamer revealed the news in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), taking to the social media platform to explain that he's known about his diagnosis for a little while at this point. During a routine checkup with his dermatologist, Ninja had a mole removed from his foot, which was then tested.

"It came back as melanoma," Ninja explained, "but they are optimistic that they caught it in the early stages." Though Melanoma is a serious condition, it is still curable if treated before the growth has progressed too far. Ninja explained that he's not entirely out of the woods just yet, but he remains optimistic: "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," the streamer posted. 

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...

— Ninja (@Ninja) March 26, 2024

The streaming world is a lot more connected than many people might realize, and the general reaction to the reveal of Ninja's health issues definitely proved that. Given Ninja's fanbase and impact on the streaming community, it's perhaps not surprising to see that his announcement was met with an incredible outpouring of support.

In the wake of Ninja's surprising post, a number of his fellow content creators let him know just how much he means to him. Nick Eh 30, SypherPK, and BrookeAB sent good energy and well wishes to Ninja and his wife Jessica, while CouRage, Wipz, and Ninja's brother Jonathan (a.k.a. BeardedBlevins) told Ninja that they loved him. A number of commenters, including Pluto V2 and Jordan Payton, also gave Jessica Blevins a special shoutout for booking Ninja's appointment with the dermatologist in the first place. If she hadn't arranged the checkup, there's no telling how much worse the melanoma might have gotten before being noticed. Jessica may not be his manager any longer, but she's clearly still taking care of important business.

Ninja's own post encouraged people to make sure to get checkups for their skin on a regular basis. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer, but it's definitely dangerous and can be present on a patient's body for years before it's noticed. This sentiment was echoed by IRL streamer Jake'N'Bake, who revealed he thankfully caught a similar medical issue thanks to a regular dermatological checkup.

Thanks for keeping people aware! And hopes everything was able to be removed without further issues.

I recently had some basal cell carcinoma removed from my scalp and am now trying to stay on top of routine skin checkups.

Wear your sunscreen everyone!

— Jake'n'Bake (@jakenbakeLIVE) March 27, 2024

Judging from some of the quote tweets on Ninja's post (which has been viewed over 2 million times in just a matter of hours), a great number of the streamer's younger fans have just learned about melanoma from his announcement. Some of his followers mentioned Googling the term to learn more, while others promised to go get themselves checked out as soon as possible, just to be on the safe side. Hopefully this means that he's really managing to get the word out about how serious melanoma really is. As for Ninja himself, the streamer will no doubt keep fans up to date regarding his health (after all, he told fans all about his eye surgery a few years ago), and it's clear that he's got a whole lot of friends cheering him on.