As it became surprisingly known, Microsoft is shutting down its streaming service Mixer in a month. Streamers and viewers will be moved to Facebook Gaming, the new partner. This marks the failure of the Twitch competitor, despite superstars like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Michael “shroud” Grzesiek. They are now free to return to Twitch.
When does it end? Mixer will be discontinued on July 22nd. All pages and apps will automatically redirect to Facebook Gaming.
This is what happens with Mixer and what is connected: All partners that Mixer has will become partners on Facebook Gaming. The transition starts today.
All those on Mixer who earn money through the monetization system will be unlocked for the corresponding program from Facebook.
Those who still have money or subscriptions running on Mixer will receive “Xbox Gift Card Credit”.
That’s why Mixer is giving up: They simply reached too few viewers. Xbox chief, Phil Spencer said in an interview with The Verge:
We started off with quite a significant gap when comparing monthly viewers to some of the other big players.
Phil Spencer to The Verge
With “the other big players” Twitch, YouTube and Facebook Gaming are apparently referred to.
However, Spencer believes that the Mixer community will significantly benefit from reaching a broader audience with Facebook now. According to Spencer, the focus was to find a strong partner in Facebook to push the streaming project “xCloud” and Microsoft’s overall gaming intentions.
Facebook – a super partner for the gaming service xCloud
This is what Microsoft is about: Microsoft had 3 options for dealing with Mixer:
- They could have just shut it down
- they could have sold it
- or they could have pumped more money into it to reach a size that was competitive
As Spencer explains, the decision now to partner with Facebook is mainly about showing the service “xCloud” to as many users as possible.
xCloud is Microsoft’s streaming service. They will now work with Facebook Gaming to bring and scale xCloud on Facebook. The idea is that players can see a game on Facebook Gaming and then jump in directly with one click.
Ninja and shroud are free, can return to Twitch
What about the Mixer stars? As reported by The Verge, the streamers who had exclusive contracts with Mixer are indeed free and can return to Twitch or continue on Facebook Gaming.
This is confirmed by the head of Facebook Gaming: “It’s up to the streamers themselves.”
It has been reported that the streamers received double-digit millions for switching from Twitch to Mixer.
This was the situation with Mixer: In the second half of 2019, Microsoft attracted some high-profile Twitch stars exclusively for Mixer, including Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Michael “shroud” Grzesiek.
It was reported that this was a lot of money. However, the Twitch stars couldn’t reach as many viewers on Mixer as they did on Twitch before.
But while YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook Gaming grew and were able to increase their viewer hours, those from Mixer remained at a low level:
Twitch grows by 98% – Mixer stagnates despite stars shroud and Ninja
