Mixer's Death - Ninja and Shroud Free to Go

A while ago, roughly this time last year, the streaming platform of Mixer owned by Microsoft began to gain traction in terms of viewership. Later on in the year, the platform signed exclusive contracts with multiple top streamers including the likes of 'Shroud' and 'Ninja' - this all spelled discussion within the community as to whether Twitch would remain on top within the market. With the announced death of Mixer, this is all null and void.

Indeed, just recently, Microsoft officially announced the shutting down of Mixer as they've chosen to move forward instead with Facebook Gaming. Dedicated viewers of Mixer have until July 22nd to enjoy the platform, though one may expect streamers to begin making their own transitions immediately such as 'Ninja' who's already updated the description of his untouched Twitch channel. 

Does the death of Mixer come as a surprise? 

In short, no. It never really served itself up as a contender to Twitch. Yes, exclusive signings of the aforementioned personalities was a great move, but not enough to support an entire platform. Twitch never really broke a sweat, and neither did YouTube for that matter. Multiple Twitch personalities who didn't make the move, such as DrDisrespect predicted its downfall multiple times due to the lack of content available. 

Officially, the names of 'Ninja' and 'Shroud' are free to go wherever they please - it's likely that both will go back to their roots and return to the land of Twitch. 

Microsoft is looking for greener pastures, and this seems to be in the form of Facebook Gaming. Many have speculated as to why, but an interview with The Verge has shed some light on the situation: 

“We started pretty far behind, in terms of where Mixer’s monthly active viewers were compared to some of the big players out there.

I think the Mixer community is really going to benefit from the broad audience that Facebook has through their properties, and the abilities to reach gamers in a very seamless way through the social platform Facebook has.”

With the intention to push out their 'xCloud' service with the Xbox Series X and Facebook Gaming seems to be the right place for content to them. 

In conclusion, Mixer tried and tried, but it couldn't topple the giant that is Twitch. 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section - where you a fan of Mixer? Did you see this coming?