Northernlion

Ryan Gary Letourneau (born November 28, 1988), better known as Northernlion (NL), 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. 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. 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.

Letourneau has been credited for popularizing other video games with his gaming videos, such as Enter the Gungeon, Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and Umamusume: Pretty Derby. 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."

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 video games, usually divided into three one-hour-long segments. He and 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 the "Champions of Fire" 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.

On April 13, 2026, Letourneau and fellow streamer Dan Gheesling announced the "Northernlion Supercruise", a six-day event on a cruise that was set to take place in March 2027 with ticket prices starting at $1,800. On April 16, Letourneau announced that the event had been canceled, citing fears around safety, and began issuing refunds.

Personal life Letourneau was born on November 28, 1988 and grew up in a rural area outside of Kingston, Ontario. He resides in Vancouver.

Letourneau married Kate Letourneau in May 2014. On September 28, 2020, their daughter was born.

Awards and nominations