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Northernlion
Canadian internet personality (born 1988) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ryan Gary Letourneau (born November 28, 1988),[2][3][4] better known as Northernlion, is a Canadian streamer and YouTuber.[5] He is a part-time gaming streamer on Twitch and uploads parts of his streams to YouTube, while also creating content exclusively for YouTube.
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Career
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YouTube
Letourneau created his YouTube channel "Northernlion" on May 30, 2006.[6] In 2011, he began regularly posting content to YouTube full-time, mainly consisting of Let's Play videos of various indie games.[5] 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.[5][7] Let's Play videos of The Binding of Isaac, including Letourneau's, were credited by game developer Edmund McMillen in bringing popularity to the game and boosting its sales.[5] In 2013, Letourneau interviewed McMillen about The Binding of Isaac, where he stated that the popularity of the game convinced him to make Rebirth.[8] One year later, Letourneau 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.[5][9][10]
Letourneau has also been credited for popularizing other video games with his gaming videos, such as Enter the Gungeon,[11] Slay the Spire,[12] Monster Train,[13] and Umamusume: Pretty Derby.[14] Bob McCann of TechRadar described Letourneau as "[managing] to be both informative and talk through his tactical choices during games, which many viewers find useful."[7] Jonathan Lee of Yahoo! News has also noted Letourneau for his "quick wit."[15]
Twitch
Letourneau created his Twitch channel, "Northernlion," on August 5, 2010.[16] On February 25, 2013,[17] 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 video games, usually divided into three one-hour-long segments.[18] He and other members of the show were included in the indie game Spelunky 2 as an easter egg.[19] The final episode of the NLSS aired on January 21, 2021.[20][non-primary source needed]
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.[21] 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.[22] Letourneau received a nomination in the 2022 Streamer Awards for the category of "Best Strategy Game Streamer."[23] 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.[24][25]
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Reception and influence
 | This article may incorporate text from a large language model. (August 2025) |
Coverage in the games press has credited Letourneau with helping surface and popularize independent titles through his daily variety uploads and long‑running Let's Play series.[26][27] Following his talk at the 2014 Game Developers Conference, GameDeveloper.com summarized his advice to independent developers on contacting creators and framed it as evidence of YouTubers’ growing role in game discovery.[28] Individual releases have seen measurable attention after his coverage: VentureBeat reported that streamers such as Northernlion helped Slay the Spire surge up Steam’s charts during Early Access;[29] PC Games noted streamer‑driven visibility around Monster Train at launch;[30] and in 2025 Vice linked his and other creators’ streams to Umamusume: Pretty Derby breaking its all‑time concurrent player record on Steam.[31]
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Personal life
Letourneau was born on November 28, 1988[32][33] 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."[34][35]
Letourneau married Kate Letourneau in May 2014.[36] On September 28, 2020 their daughter was born.[15] The Letourneaus use the alias “Luna” to refer to her online, in order to protect her privacy.[37]
Awards and nominations
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References
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