Turner “Tfue” Tenney, popular Fornite streamer with over 11 million Twitch subscribers and ex-Faze Clan member, announced he would be taking a serious break from “gaming and streaming”. On a tearful youtube videothe controversial streamer shared his exhaustion over the grind of content creation.
In the 40-minute video, Tenney shares footage from his first Twitch live streams and YouTube videos, and digs deeper into his first impressions of Fortnite — a game he thought was for children. He also explains his reason for the hiatus, being that he has had no time outside of gaming for much of his life due to working six to eight hours a day, noting that he is 25 years old. “I used gaming to kind of escape reality,” he said in the YouTube video. “Now I use reality to escape the damn work. I just feel a little trapped sometimes, you know.
Tenney also mentions that he’s been a Twitch affiliate for eight years and thanks his fans before acknowledging that he needs a break. “I just need to take time off, you know,” he said. He thanks his family for their support throughout his “early career,” along with a number of live streamers who he says helped his career. At the end of the video, he remarks, “I’ll be back someday.”
Tenney has been a content creator since at least 2014 and rose to fame through live streaming Fortnite – making a name for itself as one of the best streamers of the battle royale game. He previously joined the Faze Clan content collective in 2018 file a lawsuit in 2019, claiming that the organization withheld a portion of brand deal revenue. In 2019, Tenney also made headlines because he used the n-word on a live stream while playing Minecraft. At the time, Twitch did not respond to The Verge’s request for comment, nor did it appear to comment on the situation. This wasn’t Tenney’s first time using a racial slur – he used a different slur on a livestream in 2018.
It is extremely difficult to earn a living wage as a Twitch streamer, and incredibly difficult to become an affiliate creator. Even the streamers with the most followers have an intensive schedule, streaming a full-time schedule (and often more) to stay relevant and benefit from ad revenue. Tenney is also leaving at a time when high-profile content creators are making expensive deals to stream on other platforms, most notably Kick – highlighting just how demanding live streaming on Twitch can be.