Ryan Letourneau

Ryan Gary Letourneau (born November 28, 1988), better known as Northernlion, is a Canadian streamer and YouTuber. He is a full-time gaming streamer on Twitch and uploads parts of his streams to YouTube, while also creating content exclusively for YouTube.

Career

YouTube

Letourneau created his YouTube channel "Northernlion" on May 30, 2006. In 2011, he began regularly posting content to YouTube full-time, mainly consisting of Let's Play videos of various indie games. That same year, Letourneau began uploading gaming videos of '' The Binding of Isaac'', which became one of his most popular Let's Play series and helped garner him an online following. Alongside other Let's Play videos, Letourneau's videos of ''The Binding of Isaac'' were credited with bringing the game popularity; game creator Edmund McMillen stated that Let's Play videos boosted sales of the game. In 2013, Letourneau interviewed McMillen about ''The Binding of Isaac'', where he stated that the popularity of the game convinced him to make ''Rebirth.'' One year later, he attended the Game Developers Conference to discuss the impact of Let's Play videos on the sales of various video games, also referencing how the popularity of his ''Binding of Isaac'' videos led to increased exposure of the game.

Letourneau has also been credited for popularizing other video games with his gaming videos, such as ''Enter the Gungeon'', ''Slay the Spire'' and ''Monster Train''. Bob McCann of ''TechRadar'' described Letourneau as " anagingto be both informative and talk through his tactical choices during games, which many viewers find useful." Jonathan Lee of ''Yahoo! News'' has also noted Letourneau for his "quick wit."

Twitch

Letourneau created his Twitch channel "Northernlion" on August 5, 2010. On February 25, 2013, Letourneau uploaded the first "Northernlion Live Super Show" (NLSS), a three-hour stream in which he and his co-hosts would play a variety of videogames, usually divided into three one-hour-long segments. He alongside other members of the show were included in the indie game ''Spelunky 2'' as an easter egg. The final episode of the NLSS aired on January 21, 2021.

In 2016, Letourneau participated in an esports tournament sponsored by Amazon, where he competed and won against Twitch streamer Adam "B0aty" Lyne in ''Pac-Man 256''. In 2020, Letourneau was invited to stream the video game ''Among Us'' with United States congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Canadian member of Parliament Jagmeet Singh; the stream also featured internet personalities Hasan Piker, ContraPoints, Corpse Husband, Sykkuno and xQc. Letourneau received a nomination in the 2022 Streamer Awards for the category of "Best Strategy Game Streamer." A 2023 livestream where Letourneau played ''Luck Be a Landlord'' was the initial inspiration for developer LocalThunk to create ''Balatro'', which would go on to win multiple awards including ''Best Independent Game'' at The Game Awards 2024.

Personal life

Letourneau was born on November 28, 1988 and grew up in Greater Napanee, Ontario, Canada, forty-five kilometres outside of Kingston, Ontario. He often says he is from Kingston because "none of you . . . know where Greater Napanee is."

Letourneau married Kate Letourneau in May 2014. On September 28, 2020 their daughter was born. The Letourneaus use the alias “Luna” to refer to her online, in order to protect her privacy.

Awards and nominations

References

{{reflist

1988 births
Canadian Twitch (service) streamers
Canadian gaming YouTubers
Let's Players
Living people
Video game commentators
YouTubers from Ontario