As if we needed any more evidence of the power of Twitch, gaming, and the personalities that fuel it, popular streamer Ninja has set yet another record for the Twitch platform. But he didn’t do it in any normal fashion, instead bringing tons of viewers to Twitch by way of popular recording artists and athletes.

Those that follow Ninja know that his growth has been exponential, to the point that some wondered if subscriber bots might be at play. Even those that might doubt his subscriber numbers can’t deny this: Ninja has set the new record for concurrent viewers of a solo streamer at 650,000. That’s more than many high profile tournaments, and plenty of full directories.

Of course, this stream wasn’t just an ordinary Ninja stream, which are capable of pulling 100,000+ viewers on their own. Tonight Ninja was joined in Fortnite by popular recording artists Drake and Travis Scott, as well as Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Juju Smith Schuster, among others. Check out the stream below (Drake joins around the 3-hour mark).

Just recently Tyler1 broke the solo streamer record after he returned to League of Legends following a lengthy ban, but there was a lot of fanfare behind that event. This stream was more of a spur of the moment thing - Drake and Ninja had discussed playing together but it was unclear if it would really happen.

If there was any question about the popularity of Fortnite and its mainstream appeal, the fact that a major celebrity like Drake and a monster Twitch personality like Ninja can connect through it is all the evidence needed. Not only that, but this single stream was trending worldwide on Twitter (for several different words) and many other celebrities and online personalities tried to get in on the action. Even Roseanna Barr is apparently a fan of Fortnite, and has actually won a few games too.

While it will be some time until we see if this single stream has any impact on gaming, Twitch, or some combination therein, for many gamers out there this was significant. Seeing a mainstream celebrity play alongside a Twitch streamer helped bring a lot of new viewers to the platform and it didn’t treat Fortnite or gaming as a gimmick. This wasn’t a stunt pulled by a marketing team (Ninja didn’t link up with Drake until around 9pm PT); it was a couple fans of the hottest game right now getting together to play.

Image via Juju Smith Schuster