Gamer Star Ninja Reveals Skin Cancer Diagnosis

Lexy Perez
·2 min read
7

Professional video gamer and Twitch star Tyler Belvins, known as Ninja to fans online, has been diagnosed with skin cancer.

The 32-year-old gamer took to X (formerly known as Twitter) on Wednesday to share the news that he said he was still in shock over.

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“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 wrote as he detailed what happened at the appointment his wife had made for him.

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.”

Belvins has nearly 24 million subscribers on YouTube. He is also recognized as the most followed user on livestreaming platform Twitch, with 19 million followers.

After gaining popularity online in the professional gaming world, Belvins became a star and the first gamer to land the cover of ESPN the Magazine. He published a graphic novel, Ninja: The Most Dangerous Game, and appeared in the NFL’s 100-year anniversary Super Bowl spot. He also became the first gamer to release his own shoe, the Adidas “Time In” Nite Jogger and, in 2019, appeared on the popular reality competition series, The Masked Singer.

In 2019, Blevins left Twitch for Microsoft’s then-streaming platform Mixer but eventually returned to Twitch in 2020 after Mixer shut down.

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